One of the principles Trump outlined in The Art of the Deal was the willingness to walk away from the negotiations when appropriate. And recently, when it became crystal clear that Iran was not negotiating in good faith and there was no hope of their meeting his terms or anything resembling them, the talks ended and the attacks began.

You can’t say he didn’t warn them.

The Iranian leaders were accustomed to deal-making, too – with Obama, for example. If they thought Trump would ultimately be like Obama, they read the room wrong. But you almost can’t blame them for making that error; after all, Trump had said many times he didn’t want to start wars. What they forgot was that it was their predecessor Khomeini who had started this war nearly 50 years ago, and they themselves had followed in his footsteps.

I don’t usually pay much attention to the names given to military operations. But when I heard that this one was called “Epic Fury,” it struck me as especially apt. Maybe it takes having been old enough in 1979 and 1980 to remember how this war began. For example, the fact that the left seems to be allied with the mullahs would be no surprise to anyone who remembers how the Iranian Revolution went down. It seemed improbable to me back then, but the left thought they could use the mullahs to overthrow the Shah and then be the ones to emerge victorious and run the country. It didn’t quite work out that way, did it?

We who are old enough remember. But even more vividly, we remember when Nightline began, with its count of the days of “America Held Hostage.” Many of us felt angry then; why weren’t we doing enough to free our people? And a baby-faced man named Donald Trump – already famous for other things – was furious about it.

That’s certainly not the only reason we attacked Iran. Iran has done a great many bad things since, to us and to our allies. And Iran had no intention of stopping – in fact, it was upping the ante. So Trump’s motive was not solely this sort of thing, but it was part of it:

An epic is a long saga. This one is not over. But according to Trump, the deal-making is over for the duration of the conflict:

President Trump told Axios Friday that his demand for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” could mean the complete destruction of the regime’s military capabilities — not necessarily a formal surrender.

“Unconditional surrender could be that [the Iranians] announce it. But it could also be when they can’t fight any longer because they don’t have anyone or anything to fight with,” he said in a phone interview.

Leaving anything resembling the current power structure in place would almost certainly be a recipe for disaster. However, it may be that there have been moles in the Iranian government right along, feeding the US and/or Israel intelligence that has helped us. So it may be that a person like that – if such a person exists – could continue on in a new government. But first, we have to win militarily.

[NOTE: Israel doesn’t call its operation “Epic Fury.” It calls it “Lion’s Roar.” But Iran was involved in the preparation for 10/7, although Iran wanted a more coordinated attack that included Hezbollah forces, and instead Sinwar went ahead alone. And Iran has made it clear for decades that its goal is to destroy Israel. So Israel’s fury is epic, too. In fact, Netanyahu has said that this operation, “allows us to do what I have been hoping to do for 40 years — to deliver a crushing blow to the terror regime.”]