After a night of Iran launching ballistic missiles at Israel, and the Israeli Air Force responding with a targeted bombing of Iranian air defense systems, President Donald Trump again demanded that both sides desist. At 8:15 a.m. PST this morning, Netanyahu gave a speech in which he said that, "Iran and Hezbollah tried to impose a new equation on us, and it is intolerable and unacceptable to me. They thought they would fire from Lebanese territory and Iran at Israel, and that we would not act. That did not happen and will not happen, not on my watch." According to him, "Right now this front is contained. If the terror regime makes a mistake and attacks us again, we will respond forcefully." This includes both Iran and its proxies of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, for all are different manifestations of the same evil of the Iranian regime.

For 47 years, the Iranian regime has explicitly committed itself to the destruction of Western civilization, starting with Israel and ending with the United States. It has never been about a Palestinian state, land, oil, money, or any of the typical causes of war in Western civilization. They have always been, and continue to be committed to their theology, and this is the piece that Trump and/or his advisors don't seem to fully understand or appreciate: for the Iranians, this is a war about God and theology... and their Islamic theology demands that they convert, enslave, or kill the infidel; and that they get bonus points if they die in that quest.

Westerners believe that everyone wants peace and prosperity, and so believe that a war can be ended if those two qualities can be brought to the table. Islamic theology demands the exact opposite. Additionally, the concept of mutually assured destruction has always been a deterrent to war in Western cultures. Mutually assured destruction has no meaning to Iran and Islam, and it is even considered a blessing in Islam if it leads to the ultimate goal of a worldwide caliphate.