Donald Trump’s interminably verbose State of the Union address delivered all the typical Trumpian tropes in an extended version, from his mendacious slurs against immigrants to his cosplay as super-patriotic commander in chief. He even riffed on his yearning to give himself a Congressional Medal of Honor, an award normally unavailable to draft-dodgers.

What the president did not do, even as a ballooning U.S. air and naval force surrounds Iran, was to justify such ostentatious preparations for war against an adversary he claimed to have disarmed only months ago. It is all well and good to hang medals on courageous service members; it is imperative to tell the American people – especially those in uniform and their loved ones – why they must again go in harm’s way.

Dwelling at length on stories of valor and pathos, Trump uttered only a few sentences about the military buildup that indicates preparation for an extended and bloody conflict. Unlike Venezuela or any of the other adversaries that his administration has targeted, the Islamic Republic maintains a formidable arsenal of weapons and nearly a million men under arms. Any attempt to overthrow that regime beyond the bombing campaigns already undertaken is liable to inflict mass casualties on our troops -- and even more damage on our reputation abroad.

Trump might at least have mentioned why he believes those risks are worthwhile. The rationale he offered last night made little sense. He claimed again to have “obliterated” the Iranian nuclear weapons program during last year’s bombing campaign – an assertion rejected by the International Atomic Energy Agency – which ought to mean that the regime is years away from making a bomb. He said that the Iranians have refused to foreswear any nuclear weapons ambitions, a falsehood contradicted eight hours before his address by Iran’s foreign minister, who posted on X that his country would "under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon."

Trump also mentioned the Iranian regime’s killing of thousands of protesters, a horrible crime that he had vowed to prevent in one of his many hollow promises. While he is no doubt furious over that embarrassing dereliction, that would hardly vindicate a war killing thousands more innocent Iranians.

Led into a cul-de-sac by his own bellicose pronouncements, Trump finally is facing the consequences of the rash decision in his first term to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated by President Obama, which was backed by an international alliance that included France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China. Personal animosity toward Obama was his only real reason for wrecking that painstakingly negotiated agreement. Among the many valuable aspects of that deal was its safeguards against Iran enriching uranium to weapons grade before 2030 – precisely the issue that has stalled the current negotiations. (It doesn’t help that Trump again dispatched Steve Witkoff, his befuddled real estate pal and crypto investment partner, to deal with the Iranians in this hour of crisis.)

If we brush aside all the flag-waving and jaw-thrusting in his State of the Union, it should be clear that Trump now faces a pair of bad choices – one worse for him, perhaps, and the other far worse for his country and the world. If he backs away from war without any major concessions from the Iranians, then “Trump Always Chickens Out” will echo louder than ever. If he plunges us into a forever war he always pledged to avoid, the costs could be incalculable and even catatrosphic.

Let us hope that the clueless Witkoff – or maybe Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is smarter -- can somehow retrieve a deal from the ruins of the JCPOA before it is too late. But remember that we have only reached this perilous moment because of Trump’s dishonesty and egomania.