Summary
What's distressing about the Iran question is that nobody in this administration seems to have a good answer.
Whatever Trump may fantasize, intelligence professionals say this is not a prerevolutionary moment in Iran.
Good policy toward Iran should begin with a realistic assessment of the country.
A sane Iran policy would bet on the people and not the regime; it would avoid a risky war that would make Iraq look like a cakewalk.
Trump has almost guaranteed that normalcy won't come anytime soon for Iran.
Trump may hope to bend Iranian behavior without war.
He thinks his bullying of North Korea has worked, as has his trade-war rhetoric with China and his hectoring of Germany and other key European allies.
So, of course, he overturned the Iran nuclear agreement, too.
The strangest aspect of Trump's gamble on Iran is that it's so reminiscent of President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 .
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