In a lifetime lived mostly in Europe, I have never heard veiled sarcasm mixed with disdain quite like this morning’s radio commentary regarding this president’s apparent decision to gradually back away from the Iran war in part, he says, because he failed to receive support from his NATO allies, whom he has spent more than a year berating and insulting and whom he did not openly consult before his Epic Fury. Now, after a month of bombing by both the United States and Israel, he appears ready to step away and let the non–“America First” world go fetch its own oil, a task that will be difficult indeed now that Iran will apparently again call the shots. All his bluster about creating the conditions for democracy in Iran are suddenly gone with the same wind that saw an about-face on Greenland. From Europe’s perspective, the American president is again turning nasty for two reasons. The first is that his war is causing unexpected commercial turmoil and enraging regional friends. The second is that his vaunted military has informed him that any effort to seize Iran would cost many American lives, a political price he will not pay, especially ahead of crucial November midterm elections. That in essence means the Islamic government will survive, even if stuck for now amid Stone Age rubble. It also means Tehran will still control the Strait of Hormuz and force American allies to fork over gobs of cash before fully reopening it. If some call this president irrational, erratic, and dangerously subject to whims, they cannot be blamed. Most say what all have come to know: His truth is the stuff of lies.