Folks, one thing I have learned over my 67 years of life is this:

people who hold no firm beliefs can never fully understand people who do—and people who hold deep beliefs know how difficult it is to make believers abandon them. - Michael Smith

• That reality is why I believe President Trump must make any conflict with Iran a fall-of-the-Ottoman-Empire moment.

Before explaining why, consider the words of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1942:

“Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males… to prepare themselves for the conquest of countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world… Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all… Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword… The sword is the key to Paradise.”

Whether one agrees with him or not, Khomeini was articulating something that many modern Western observers struggle to grasp: belief that is absolute and backed by a willingness to sacrifice...