Anyone else shocked at how little negotiatation it took to get the US back into the negotiatation table with Iran after DC sent a drone into Iran airspace and then killed a high ranking official?

Is it really that easy to sit down at the negotiatation table? Why didn't we do it sooner? It is a bit depressing that after 2 years of escalation it only takes sending a missile to Iraq and killing a high ranking Iranian official and threatening war to get both parties to talk. It seems like the US *wanted* war, and were goading Iran to fire at US troops in Iraq so the US could take it as casus belli for war, and Iran was probably right to do it because if tensions escalated anymore the US would have probably invaded.