Generals always prepare to fight the last war. So do armchair generals. Most commentators on the American-Israeli war with Iran see the conflict through the prism of the War on Terror. We are told that the war is “neoconservative,” but also that it is the end of neoconservatism. We are told that this is Israel’s war, with Israel and American Jews leading President Donald Trump by the nose, but also that it is President Donald Trump’s war, a grudge match born from vanity and animus. We are told that the war means the end of Trumpism, but also that it confirms Trumpism as America’s default foreign policy. Even the administration speculates aloud, as though it too is a passive spectator.