Last week, Donald Trump took the most courageous step of any president in our nation’s history. After years of analysis, debate and efforts to negotiate a different outcome, he decided that the regime in Iran that had brought ruinous hardship to its own people and relentlessly threatened ours must be destroyed. 

He bet his presidency by launching in concert with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu devastating and ongoing military operations to that end. The result was the immediate decapitation of the so-called Supreme Leader and most of his senior subordinates. 

Iran has retaliated against Israel and U.S. bases and other targets in Sunni Arab nations. Thank God, the resulting casualties have been minimal to date. But unless and until the regime’s dead-enders are decisively defeated or overwhelmed and removed by the Iranian people, there will doubtless be more losses. 

Therefore, President Trump must resist the temptation to end the campaign to liberate the Iranian people before that goal is accomplished. Not only will that ensure the sharia-supremacists of the Shiite stripe remain dangerous enemies, but those of the Sunni one will redouble their efforts to bring “Death to America,” including here at home. 

This is Frank Gaffney.