Interpol is such a cool idea: Cosmopolitan cops chasing criminals around the world.

That's the image that's been projected in movies like "Interpol" (1957), "The Medallion" (2003), "The International" (2009), "Now You See Me," (2013), "Darc" (2018), and "Red Notice" (2021).

The reality, I'm sorry to tell you, is rather different.

The roots of the International Criminal Police Organization, as it's officially known, go back nearly 102 years. It currently has 196 member countries. But it's not an international FBI. It doesn't have agents who carry weapons, investigate crimes, or make arrests. It doesn't enforce international laws.

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President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were hopping mad last week over attempts to minimize what they'd achieved through the deployment of B-2 stealth bombers and Massive Ordnance Penetrators against the nuclear weapons facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a nation-state committed to jihad against America and its allies.

In case you missed this skirmish: Someone leaked to a CNN reporter a classified, preliminary, and "low-confidence" assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (one of 18 federal intelligence agencies) assessing that Tehran's nuclear weapons program had not been seriously set back.

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The uranium enrichment plant at Fordow was known as the jewel in the crown of Ali Khamenei, Iran's "supreme leader." It would have been more accurate to call it the dagger in the ayatollah's cloak, or maybe the bomb in the terrorist's backpack.

It was one ingredient in a decades-long strategic cocktail: Cook up terrorist proxies to kill and die for you and your goals; place them in a "ring of fire" around Israel; obtain a nuclear weapons capability; stir or shake vigorously.

All this and more grew out of the revolution that erupted in Iran in 1979. Its objective was not to make Iran great again but to restore Islamic power and preeminence in the Middle East and far beyond.

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In 1979, I spent several months in Iran covering what was then called the Iranian Revolution. My attempts to learn Farsi were unsuccessful. But all these years later, two phrases stick in my mind: "Marg bar Esrāʾil!" and "Marg bar Āmrikā!"

Many of my fellow reporters insisted that "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" should not be taken literally or even seriously.

And many Iranians didn't believe that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the religious leader who led the revolution, intended to become a dictator and mass murderer.

They failed to understand that Mr. Khomeini's antipathy toward the "Little Satan" and the "Great Satan" was implacable – subject to neither negotiation nor compromise.

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A statue of Josef Stalin was recently unveiled in Moscow's Taganskaya subway station. It's no anomaly. Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, more than 100 monuments to the Soviet dictator have been erected across Russia.

This tells you all you need to know about Mr. Putin. More importantly, this should tell President Trump all he needs to know about Mr. Putin.

But Mr. Trump is juggling multiple crises, as are his advisors. So, in case they've missed this development, I will endeavor to explain its significance.

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