The deal that ends the Iran war will likely follow the logic of 1991: Tehran dismantles its nuclear program, limits weapons development, ends proxy support, and reopens the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief. The question is whether Washington will honor its side - something it failed to do with Iraq for 12 years.

Daniel Chardell and Samuel Helfont argue in Foreign Affairs that Donald Trump holds one unusual advantage over the presidents who managed Iraq after Desert Storm, "Hvylya" reports: his propensity to take unpopular positions when he deems them necessary.

Bush and Clinton had painted themselves into a political corner on Iraq. Clinton candidly admitted the constraint to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998: "If I weren't constrained by the press, I would pick up the phone and call the son of a bitch. But that is such a heavy-laden decision in America. I can't do that."

Trump will face the same pressure from allies and domestic critics who demand nothing less than regime change. "To avoid repeating the disasters that followed the misguided policy toward Iraq, Trump must be prepared to do what leaders could not in the 1990s: take yes for an answer from even the most dislikable foe," the scholars write.

The stakes are high. If the Trump administration abandons negotiations in hopes that continued air strikes and economic pressure will topple the Islamic Republic, the authors warn it risks the same consequences Bush confronted in 1991: popular upheaval, the prospect of territorial fracture, violent crackdowns, and a flood of refugees.

Instead, Washington should offer Tehran a genuine path to diplomatic and economic normalization - provided Iran dismantles its nuclear program, limits its missile development, and ceases support for terrorist proxies. Perhaps the most important difference between 1991 and today, the authors note, is that the United States no longer enjoys sole-superpower status - making the cost of repeating the Iraq containment experiment far higher than anything Bush or Clinton faced.

Also read: "Hvylya" examined how Iran's missile launches handed Israel a strategic advantage it did not expect.