In the Trump era, the zone of action was supposed to be the administrative state, immigration policy and higher education, rather than the Middle East. But it’s not surprising that the same spirit could be extended to a new round of warmaking, a friend/enemy battle with the mullahs rather than the liberal elite as the existential threat. The arguments for democracy promotion that were stapled onto the Iraq war have been torn away, Bill Kristol is basically a Democrat now and Dick Cheney died a committed foe of Trump. But the spirit of Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld broods over the Trump administration nonetheless.