Some old truths about warfare have been knocking on the door of the Oval Office in the month since US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent US and Israeli warplanes to bomb Iran. The failure to learn from the past means that Donald Trump now faces a stark choice. If he can not get a deal with Iran, he can either try to declare a victory that will fool no-one, or escalate the war. The oldest of the old truths comes from the Prussian military strategist Helmuth von Moltke the Elder: "no plan survives first contact with the enemy." He was writing in 1871, the year Germany was unified as an empire, a moment that was as consequential for the security of Europe as this war might be for the security of the Middle East. Maybe Trump prefers the boxer Mike Tyson's modern version: "everyone has a plan until they get hit." Even more relevant for Trump are the words of one of his predecessors, Dwight D.…