Dhaka, March 13 -- Historians distinguish between two kinds of war: wars of necessity and wars of choice. The former are fought because survival demands it; the latter because leaders believe they have the power to wage them.

The war now unfolding in the Gulf-pitting Iran against the United States and Israel-appears increasingly to belong to the second category. Now in its second week, the conflict already seems to have lost its strategic moorings. President Donald Trump, who ordered the strikes, appears uncertain how the war should end-or even why it had to begin now.

That uncertainty helps explain an extraordinary message that surfaced this week from the Persian Gulf.

Late one evening, a post appeared on X that few in Washington expe...