President Donald Trump stood before the United Nations and presented Iran with a choice: reach an agreement that would allow the country to rebuild, or face the destruction of the Islamic Republic.The following day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected surrender while leaving the door open to negotiations.More than seven months into the war, Washington still has not answered the question that has dogged American policy since 1979: What political outcome is America trying to achieve, and how will military force bring it about?I was an Army officer serving in West Germany when Iranian militants seized our embassy in Tehran on Nov.
4, 1979.Fifty-two Americans endured 444 days of captivity.
That crisis began a hostile relationship that has outlasted eight American presidents.TRUMP KEEPS NEGOTIATING WHILE IRAN PLAYS THE LONG GAME AMERICA KEEPS MISSINGIn April 1988, after the USS Samuel B.Roberts struck an Iranian mine, President Ronald Reagan authorized Operation Praying Mantis.
In a single day, American forces sank two Iranian ships and wrecked two surveillance platforms.Yet the confrontation continued.Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Aug.
27, 2026.(Majid Asgaripour/WANA West Asia News Agency)The 2015 nuclear agreement sought to constrain Tehran through negotiated restrictions and international inspections.
Trump withdrew from that agreement in 2018 and restored economic sanctions.Neither approach settled the wider confrontation.TRUMP’S IRAN WAR NOW COMES DOWN TO ONE BRUTAL QUESTION: WHAT COMES NEXT?Trump went much further.
American strikes in June 2025 hit three key nuclear facilities.Then, on Feb.
28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury, beginning the current war.Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei died on the first day.Seven months later, Iran has sustained extensive military losses, as Trump emphasized in his Sept.
22 UN address.But damaging Iran’s forces is not the same as ach...