Speaking in Brussels the other day, Defense Secretary James Mattis sounded either determined or frustrated when he commented on Iranian activities in the Middle East: “[E]very time there's a problem in the Middle East, whether it be in Lebanon, South Lebanon, and Lebanese Hezbollah, it's in Syria, where Iran has propped up Assad; it's in Yemen where they're using it for a launching platform, the civil war, for missiles into Saudi Arabia; whether it's in Bahrain, where the Bahrain police have captured explosive material provided, I cannot explain why Iran insists on many of the things it does.”