India, April 19 -- History will record this as one of the most avoidable catastrophes in modern geopolitics. When American and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iranian territory on February 28, they did so with a conviction that Tehran would fold quickly - that a regime under maximum economic pressure, facing internal discontent, and outgunned militarily, would either capitulate or collapse within weeks following a swift leadership decapitation. That calculation was wrong in almost every conceivable way.

The Oman back-channel prior to the war had been quietly effective. Oman's foreign minister has said talks had made progress and Iran agreed to "zero stockpiling" of enriched uranium. A deal was not merely possible - it was close. What ...