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President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have launched the first massive wave of a full-scale war on Iran—yet the reason for attacking now and the vision of what happens the day after are murky, to say the least.

An eight-minute video that Trump posted on social media early Saturday morning, announcing that he had begun “major combat operations,” raised more questions than it answered. He made very clear that the intent of the attack—called “Operation Epic Fury”—was not only to wipe out Iran’s nuclear infrastructure (which Trump already claimed to have “obliterated” in last June’s attack) but also to raze its ballistic missile force and, above all, to topple the Islamic regime.

“To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump proclaimed. He warned the people to stay inside while bombs fall, but implored them, afterward, to “take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

This is a bit of fantasy. There is no civic or protest group with the arms or organization to grab the reins of power in Tehran, nor are U.S. or Israeli troops going to occupy Iranian territory to help them to do so. Even if they did, the results wouldn’t be certain. It is worth recalling that, in 2003, President George W. Bush sent 150,000 troops to depose Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, yet even they were unable to impose order but instead incited an insurgency and a civil war that lasted nearly a decade and destabilized the........

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