Englund

If the goal was to see whether Iran’s regime is ready to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons, by now Mr. Trump has his answer: It isn’t.  The Iranians confirm this with each counteroffer that refuses to dismantle underground enrichment sites or hand over their stockpiles of enriched uranium. “There’s no question in my mind that they’d use [a nuclear bomb],” Mr. Trump said Tuesday, “and I deal with these people. They’re extremely radicalized.”  Given Iran’s past refusals, Mr. Trump added, “I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit.” Such threats have been repeated so often that they now face diminishing returns. Iran doesn’t seem to believe them, and in any case the regime seems prepared to ride out further conflict and fight back by targeting the Gulf allies and commercial shipping. If a good deal isn’t possible, then Mr. Trump will have little choice other than to resume using military force. As Mr. Trump famously said in criticizing ...