Michael Goodwin: The war on Iran was never a choice Trump was left with no option but to defend America and all Western civilization

A major talking point among Democrats and their media handmaidens is that President Trump launched a “war of choice” against Iran.Given American casualties and the earth-rattling impact, the criticism could be a powerful political argument in the midterm elections — if it’s true.But it’s not true.In fact, we now can be certain that the war on Iran is not a war of choice.

It is instead a war of American self-defense and maybe even a war of survival for Western civilization and Israel.We know this because the curtain has been lifted on what happened inside the room during the last-ditch negotiations to head off the war.The picture that emerges is of an Iran hell-bent on becoming a nuclear-armed power and determined to continue exporting its bloody Islamist revolution throughout the region and around the world.That was the leaders’ fatal mistake, for unlike his two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Trump had no interest in bribing the mullahs with pallets of cash and sweet talking them into joining the civilized world.That he is cut from a different cloth became clear early in his first term, when Trump withdrew the US from the toothless nuclear pact Obama crafted.Trump’s more hawkish approach was confirmed when he droned Qasem Soleimani, the key Iranian military leader whose preference for roadside bombs had caused so many injuries and deaths to American soldiers in Iraq.Those experiences led Trump to begin his second term with a vow that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon on his watch.And there certainly would be no deal that depended on trusting the ayatollah or weak-kneed international organizations, such as the United Nations.Despite that posture, Trump still believed that a negotiated settlement was possible and far more preferable than military action.The problem was there was never a sign that Iran would be willing to voluntarily give up its quest for nukes.The ayathollah’s commitment to getting a doomsday weapon was one o...