“America should know,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said to a groups of diplomats on Sunday, “that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.” The remark, which perhaps sounded better in Farsi, doesn’t quite make sense in English: The U.S. tried peace with Iran, and the nation’s rulers only redoubled their efforts to abet terrorism across the Middle East and aid rogue regimes around the world.

President Donald Trump’s hectoring response to Rouhani was thus not totally unreasonable: “To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”