For decades, many Americans believed conflict with the Islamic Republic would be a new war.

But as Bill and Behnam explain, the truth is simpler: this war began in 1979 — with hostage-taking, terrorism, and a regime built on hostility toward the United States and its allies.

Now, after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader and a campaign to dismantle Tehran’s missile arsenal — and as Iran widens the war by firing at its neighbors and daring them to join — the question isn’t how the war started. It’s how it ends.

Is this a limited war to degrade the regime — or the beginning of the end for the Islamic Republic?