While everything involving war and political change is deeply complicated and murky, this is, and by far, the cleanest and clearest situation of this type in recent history and perhaps in all of recorded history.

To repeat what I wrote in yesterday's W&R, the US and Israel, working together, have performed the grandest decapitation maneuver in modern history, and with very few civilian casualties. This was, from a military standpoint, epic.

The standard line from university-level history programs is that "decapitation doesn't work." By "decapitation" we refer to assassinating the top ruler or rulers, of course, and "not work" means that it doesn't change how that system of rulership works; it doesn't actually change things.