What followed Trumps Iran strikes was almost as stunning as the attack itself

It is hard even to digest the incredible train of events of the last few days in the Middle East.Iran was reduced to an anemic, performance-art missile attack on our base in Qatar — the last Parthian shot from a terrified regime, desperate for an out — and a cease-fire.Iran would have been better off not launching such a ceremonial but ultimately humiliating proof of impotence.Even worse for the theocracy, Iran’s temporary reprieve came from the now magnanimous but still hated US President Donald Trump.So ends the creepy mystique of the supposedly indomitable terror state of Iran, the bane of the last seven American presidents over half a century.For Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, it was hard to swallow that US bombers got their permission to fly into Iranian airspace from the Israeli air force.A good simile is that Trump put a pot of water on the stove, told Iran to jump in, put the lid over them, then smiled, turned up the heat — and will now let them stew.As post-bellum realities now simmer in Iran, the theocracy is left explaining the inexplicable to its humiliated military and shocked but soon-to-be-furious populace.All the regime’s blood-curdling rhetoric, apocalyptic threats against Israel, goose-stepping thugs and shiny new missiles ended in less than nothing.A trillion dollars and five decades’ worth of missiles and centrifuges are up in smoke.That money might have otherwise saved Iranians from the impoverishment of the last 50 years.How about the little Satan Israel, to which Iran for nearly 50 years promised extinction?Israel had destroyed Iran’s expeditionary terrorists, Iran’s defenses, its nuclear viability and the absurd mythology of Iranian military competence.And worse, Israel showed it could repeat all that destruction when and if necessary.So, the most hated regime in the world crawled into the boiling pot because it looked around in vain for someone to void Trump’s ultimatum for a cease and desist.But there were no last-minute sa...