My political views are pretty simplistic: whoever initiates violence is the bad guy. That's problematic here, because neither the US nor Iran are strangers to

My political views are pretty simplistic: whoever initiates violence is the bad guy. That's problematic here, because neither the US nor Iran are strangers to initiating violence. So a further refinement is necessary, based on a principle that I haven't had to fall back on very often: whoever initiates violence during negotiations is the bad guy.