On Iran, US Needs a Little More Data and a Lot Less Hubris

How much does Donald Trump know about about Iran, the country he is threatening to strike for the second time in a year? I don't ask this to take a cheap shot at the president, but because a lack of basic understanding about complex societies in the Middle East has bedeviled US decision makers right back to the 1979 fall of the Shah, if not before.

Asking what the White House knows is natural, too, given the scattershot comments from Trump about his reasons for sending a carrier fleet to the Gulf, and his demands not to deploy those forces. So far these have included: Stop killing protesters, surrender the nation's nuclear program, shrink your ballistic missile program and end support for Tehran's network of proxies across the region.