A car explodes, bullets riddle their target. It’s unclear which happens first, but the end result is the death of the godfather of Iran’s nuclear weapons program in a convoy east of Tehran in late November. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, was a wanted man. So was Abu Muhammad al Masri, al Qaeda’s No. 2. Two weeks before Fakhrizadeh’s death, Masri’s rumored killing in Tehran in August, on the anniversary of deadly U.S. Embassy attacks in Africa that he masterminded, was confirmed. A consensus has formed around Israeli involvement in both events, and American involvement at least in Masri’s death. The Trump administration earlier this year also ordered the successful strike against famed Revolutionary Guard commander and floor leader of Iran’s regional war-making Gen. Qassem Suleimani. These events punctuated the...