By their efforts and threats, the Iranian power structure has effectively stripped themselves of the most effective guarantees that their children will live to see tomorrow. During any conflict, while opposing forces are prepped and equipped, the final trigger for conflict is tripped according to the graveness of the forces assembled in opposition. A mature and restrained father might turn the other cheek when a drunken or otherwise mentally incapacitated antagonist throws a glancing blow, because the father knows that the only damage done, and likely to recur, is insufficient to justify beating the drunk into submission or worse. And...