There's no way to tell what he actually wants, of course

I have a different view. I don’t think there’s an “actual want” because I believe he has no idea what he’s doing, how it might go, how it might end, or what the outcome should be or even could be. He has thought this through as well as my cat has, or perhaps less.

This latest: “unconditional surrender” is proof of that. He is just mouthing things he’s heard on TV, maybe from “Victory At Sea” 40 years ago, and thinks “that’ll show them”. The chance of Iran acceding to “unconditional surrender” is as likely as me winning a movie role over Brad Pitt.

It does, I admit, demonstrate how shallow his reasoning is, and what a clusterfuck we are in. There is the saving grace that at some point he will have to accept less than that, and will, and that his core supporters and Fox News will tell themselves that somehow it’s a win.