“Jaw-jaw is better than war-war,” Harold Macmillan once said, sharpening a phrase coined by Winston Churchill. President Trump begs to differ; when it comes to Iran, he has decided to give war a chance.
The attack is the biggest gamble of Mr. Trump’s political career. A success that ends nearly half a century of brutal, bigoted and utterly unscrupulous rule by a clique of fanatical clerics would serve both the American national interest and the welfare of humanity. Failure could irreparably dent Mr. Trump’s prestige abroad, shatter his political coalition, and destroy his authority at home.