Remember when America’s political class would just keep war going? For decades? With no plan, no objective, and no end date? Folks would die. Trillions would vanish. And the same recycled generals would go on cable news insisting we just needed more time and more money.

That era is officially over.

VP JD Vance showed up on Fox News with Jesse Watters and put a stake through the heart of the forever-war narrative once and for all. And he did it while the bodies were still warm from Saturday’s joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran – strikes so effective they left Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei checking out of the mortal coil.

Vance was crystal clear about one thing: Donald Trump does not do vague.

“There’s just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight, and no clear objective.”

That is not complicated. That is not diplomatic hedging. That is a man who has watched what happens when you send Americans to fight for abstractions, and he has said never again.

He pointed straight at the elephant in the room: Afghanistan. Twenty years. Think about that number. Two entire decades of American soldiers fighting an enemy we could not name, for a mission that morphed like a blob, trying to impose liberal democracy on people who wanted us gone. Thousands dead. Hundreds of billions burned. And what did we have to show for it? A Taliban government, minus a couple decades of hope.

Then there is Iraq. Shorter, sure – but the mission was just as muddled. Weapons that were not there. Regime change without a plan for what came next.

Trump watched all of this. Remembered all of this. And decided his administration would work differently.

“What is different about President Trump, and it’s frankly different about both Republicans and Democrats of the past, is that he’s not going to let his country go to war unless there’s a clearly defined objective.”

With Iran, it is not ambiguous. It is not “stabilize the region” or “degrade capabilities” or whatever vague corporate-speak usually gets Americans killed. The mission is this: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and must commit long-term to never rebuilding nuclear capability. You hit the objective, you are done. You do not stay for 20 years trying to convince mullahs to like democracy.

Saturday happened. Joint U.S.-Israel strikes. The operation came in ahead of schedule, which tells you everything you need to know about planning versus improvising. We knew what we were doing. We did it. It worked.

That is leadership. That is what happens when a president does not outsource his brain to think tanks and focus groups. When he does not let the permanent Washington blob drag the nation into endless commitments. When he actually learns from history instead of repeating it with slightly different slogans.

The age of forever wars is not dead because Congress suddenly grew a spine. It is dead because Trump proved there is another way: clear objectives, decisive action, and then get out. No occupation. No nation-building fantasy. Just American interests, clearly defined and expertly executed.

That is the contrast right there. And Tehran has a front-row seat to how it plays out.