Our leader, fearless in his secret concrete shelter, gave us a “Dayenu” speech. We killed a bunch of the top Iranian leadership. Dayenu. And if that were not enough, we bombed the crap out of their missile launchers. Dayenu. And if that were not enough, we took out many of their weapons factories. Dayenu. And if that were not enough, we bombed their petrochemical facilities…

We are strong, we are strong, we are strong!

They are weak, they are weak, they are weak!

Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, gave a similar speech, citing numbers of missions, numbers of bombs dropped, numbers of ships sunk, numbers of top people eliminated, obliterated, annihilated. Trump added that the US military had accomplished its aims.

The problem, however, is that the war had a lot of aims, but the US professed shifting goals that became ever vaguer and more conciliatory as the 39 days of trading in bombs and rockets progressed. By the end, the main American goal appeared to be reopening the Straits of Hormuz, a goal they could have achieved by not going to war in the first place. Israel had some goals too, but at present, they consist of continuing to bomb parts of Lebanon for as long as we can get away with it.

By all accounts, Iran has agreed in principle to reopen the Straits, but has not done so. By all accounts, they will now impose a punitive tax on........

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