Tom Nichols

I didn't think it was impossible, but I think it would have provoked a constitutional crisis, which means that it was much less likely than not to happen, because I think he would have had to order the military to do things that the military this time would have balked at.

There are reports that the military is already giving the president lists of things that only had military applicability, which is not the same thing as erasing a civilization.

So I didn't think it was likely to happen.

But as I said in the piece I wrote that afternoon...

When the president of the United States talks, you have to take it seriously, no matter how... I mean, we're used to Trump saying kind of loopy things and talking about sharks and his uncle and electricity and whatnot.

But nonetheless, he is the president, and the president's statements are policy.

And so I said, well, it's not likely to happen, but we have to treat his statements as if it could happen and go from there.

No.

No.

I mean, now we have a very clear reason, which is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which wouldn't have been closed if we hadn't gone to war in the first place.

In that sense, yes, we created a clear war aim by starting a war.

I think the important thing is to go back to the first day of this war and to realize, regardless of how many times Trump denies it, this was a regime change war.

It was meant to be a regime change war.

We're seeing that now.

There was this piece from the New York Times that was very detailed and was kind of a minute-by-minute explanation of how the administration went to war.

It was clear Trump said, we're going to hit them really hard, and then the regime's going to fall.

And to their credit—and boy, how rarely do I say this about people in Trump's orbit—

But to their credit, people like the CIA director said, I believe the word he used to describe that scenario was farcical.

But Trump didn't want to hear it.

Because remember, Trump wishcasts.