Alan Zendell, May 4, 2026

About seventy percent of Americans are asking why we are at war with Iran. The issue is not whether anyone disagrees with prohibiting Iran from developing nuclear weapons as long as they are the world’s greatest supporter and dispenser of terrorism and they chant, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” We want to see clear evidence that Iran was, as Donald Trump claims, only months away from having a nuclear weapon.

We’ve been hoodwinked twice before with faked or simply incorrect intelligence, resulting in thirty years of war in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin and the “weapons of mass destruction?” Both were sold to the American public as imminent threats to justify going to war, and both were false.

I understand Benjamin Netanyahu’s motives. Israel has lived throughout its existence as a nation under declarations of war from the countries that surround it. With all the angry rhetoric and threats Trump and the Iranians fling at each other, it’s hard for us average people to know who and what to take seriously, although Bill Clinton’s failure to take Osama bin Laden’s threat seriously brought us nine-eleven.

Netanyahu has a point, that if Iran were allowed to use its enriched uranium to make ten nuclear warheads, their history since 1979 suggests that they might launch them at Israel preemptively out of hatred. When he had a chance to manipulate Donald Trump with visions of being a hero to the world, he took it, and our president who suffers from delusions of grandeur was hooked.

Trump 1.0 had similar concerns about North Korea, but the situations are different. North Korea was never going to use nuclear weapons preemptively, but Kim Jong Un believed having them would prevent his country from being attacked. Iran’s position is quite different. We don’t like their regime, but if they stopped funding terrorism and spreading hatred of Jews and Americans, we’d have no incentive to bother them. They don’t need nuclear weapons as a deterrent.

Netanyahu knew Trump wasn’t a strategist, but it didn’t matter to him if Trump’s poor planning allowed Iran to take over the Strait of Hormuz. That’s the rest of the world’s problem, not Israel’s, and given the way most of the world has treated Israel, I understand that attitude, too. In any case, he probably assumed, like most of us, that our professional military wouldn’t let Trump do anything stupid.

Unfortunately, everyone underestimated Trump’s belief that no one can negotiate a deal or manage a war as well as he can, and his ability to intimidate smarter people to bend to his will. Trump ignored all the warnings that his fantasy for a Venezuela-like in-and-out mission was untenable, and he wrongly believed he could terrify Iran into capitulating, which any Israeli diplomat could have told him was absurd.

Trump is playing a dangerous game, alternating between outrageous threats and claiming that all he wants is peace and prosperity for the Iranian people, which is really rich, since up to twenty-five million Americans will lose their health care this year because of his policies, and he couldn’t care less about them. Because threats, bluster, and expensive lawyers usually got Trump what he wanted in business, he has tried in both  terms to govern by intimidation and threat. He  doesn’t understand that neither the fedeal government nor international diplomacy works that way. He thinks he can ignore all that, and he’s very wrong.

Trump doesn’t understand the Iranian mindset, and that’s a serious issue. The Iranians don’t trust him, and why should they when he tore up a deal they spent five years working out with the Obama administration. And since it’s clear that Trump’s not-so-hidden motive for behaving that way is manipulating markets so his insider friends can profit from the war, the Iranians as well as most Americans understand that they can’t believe a word he says.

Trump is committing another inexcusable error in this war. Because of his personal issues, he cannot separate the concept of victory from humiliating and punishing his adversaries. Trump bellicosely demands total, unconditional surrender to his demands, but the Iranian leaders are proud people who are deeply offended but such tactics. With Trump running things tensions can’t help but escalate. It’s difficult to imagine reaching any agreement with his out-of-control behavior and his need for everyone to kneel to him submissively, which are the antipathy of sound diplomacy.

Diplomacy requires adherence to standards of behavior, courtesies, and above all, clear unambiguous communication, but those are the things Trump is worst at. If he stayed away from his social media platform, if he kept his mouth closed and hired skilled negotiators, there’s a chance they could reach a deal, but Trump only knows how to maximally beat down an opponent. No one ever explained to the Master of the Deal, that a good deal is from which both sides walk away feeling they  got something of value.