President Donald Trump is saying he wants to end the Iran war within the next few weeks, according to White House insiders. This fits his frequent comparisons of the action against Iran with the swift operation against Venezuela in January. He has compared the two expeditions many times, such as when, a week into Operation Epic Fury, he told CNN, “It’s going to work very easily. It’s going to work like it did in Venezuela.” 

This has drawn scorn, for it is easy to misrepresent the comparison as suggesting a vain belief that the challenges of tackling Venezuela and Iran are similar in scope and scale when they are not. But Trump invokes Venezuela, not to suggest Iran will be a pushover. He knew it wouldn’t be, at least since his briefings from Gen. Dan “Razin’” Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump has been told it would be no quickie to be measured prematurely in hours or days. That was a given.