President Trump has placed himself in a precarious position. He will decide within two weeks whether to bomb Fordow, Iran’s fortified nuclear plant. Trump could have obliterated that plant today, then taken no further offensive action as Israel continued to strike. Iran’s decimated leadership is reeling from Israel’s pummeling. Iran would remain Israel’s war, with the U.S.one-time strike overshadowed within a few days.

Instead, President Trump has turned the spotlight upon himself. The best case is that within two weeks Israel will declare it has satisfactorily degraded Fordow. But Israel may not give that assurance, both because it may prove factually incorrect and because Israel is stronger if America enters the war. The worst case would be for the Israelis to fail to destroy Fordow and for Trump then decide not to bomb.

Instead of bombing, Trump’s goal is a negotiation — he called it “unconditional surrender” — resulting in the removal of all nuclear materials, while Iran’s theocrats remain in power. Negotiations won’t end in two weeks; they will drag on. This adds to the president’s diplomatic traffic jam. His ongoing discussions with Putin have led nowhere. Negotiations about tariffs with China and a hundred other nations look like a ping-pong game. The negotiations path with Iran will meet delay after delay, as has the Ukraine “deal.” This will exasperate the president and divert his attention.

If Trump does bomb Fordow, that won’t be the end of it. Iran’s leaders now have had time to recover from their shock. Those theocrats are simmering with hate, craving revenge. They are certain to communicate through intermediaries that they have credible means to inflict American casualties. Clearly the White House team is thinking through striking Fordow, then being hit and hitting back harder. That leads to the same loop as the negotiations: It won’t be short.

America has a habit of winning battles and losing wars. Attrition isn’t a strategy. Iran is already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of our soldiers. If bombing Fordow is followed by U.S. casualties, then Trump must address changing his goal to maximum economic and political pressure — to include a naval blockade of shipping and especially of Iran’s oil shipments.

In sum, this won’t end within two weeks with the president’s decision to bomb or not to bomb. That’s only the beginning.