Update 6/22: President Donald Trump answered the questions posed in this article with a mission to take out three Iranian nuclear facilities, including Fordow with the MOP.

It’s called the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, or MOP. It’s the world’s largest non-nuclear bunker-busting bomb, weighing a whopping 30,000 pounds. Due to its weight, few bombers are capable of delivering the MOP, and the U.S. Air Force utilizes the B-2 stealth bomber for such an operation. The U.S. can’t just give the MOP to Israel, as our ally does not have aircraft capable of delivering the bunker-buster. An Israeli B-2 purchase isn’t happening.

The question before President Donald Trump is whether to send the U.S. Air Force over the skies of Iran to drop the MOP on its most secure nuclear development facility, Fordow.

While the Israel Defense Forces have successfully taken out several of Iran’s nuke sites, Fordow remains difficult — the facility is located 200-300 feet under a mountain. Indeed, it is believed that the MOP is the only bunker-buster capable of penetrating deep enough to destroy the facility.

Thus far, the Trump administration has said that U.S. forces have helped Israel only in defensive measures and have not participated in any attack against Iran. That, of course, would change should Trump green-light dropping a MOP.

Trump has made clear that his goal in this conflict is to prevent Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon. This stance was reiterated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who claimed, “Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that. And it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon, which would, of course, pose an existential threat not just to Israel, but to the United States and to the entire world.” She added, “Iran has never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Trump announced early yesterday that he would make a decision on using the MOP within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, political commentators and pundits on both sides of the aisle have raised objections to the U.S. becoming further involved in the war. The refrain that has often been repeated is that Americans don’t want to get dragged into another “never-ending war” in the Middle East.

While this talking point seems to sell well in the isolationist camp, the truth is that no two wars are the same. Furthermore, it’s not as if the U.S. military had any real trouble defeating opposing militaries; rather, it was the nation-building, political wrangling, and lack of clear objectives that ultimately proved to derail the war efforts.

If the U.S. were to target and drop the MOP on Fordow and one or two other nuclear facilities in Iran and end any further involvement there, meeting Trump’s objective of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, then mission accomplished.

Others have suggested that Trump doesn’t have the authority to launch any military action without authorization from Congress.

This, too, is not true. Ever since Congress passed the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) in the wake of 9/11, the president has the authority to order military action against terrorist-related targets.

The AUMF reads in part:

The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Iran has a long history of not only aiding and abetting terrorists who have attacked the U.S. and our interests, but Iran itself and its proxies, such as Hezbollah and the Houthis, have directly attacked the U.S., killing thousands of Americans in recent decades.

Trump is well within his rights to order military action against Iran. The primary concern is the political impact. What damage could Trump face, politically speaking, if he is seen to be acting against the will of the majority of Americans? Trump is pausing any decision on the MOP; maybe he’s buying time to build public consensus.

The final — and likely most controversial — issue is that of seeking regime change in Iran. This seems to be what has most folks uneasy, as they recall that such efforts are seemingly what directly led to the “never-ending” wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Maybe the two-week window is intended to give an opportunity for the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the Islamic Republic. If such a scenario were to unfold, it could significantly alter Trump’s decision.