David Frum

Now what?

Because the real ground troop question is going to be, suppose you, as the Israelis seem intent on doing, do collapse this hateful regime.

which is doing additional hateful acts by the day, murdering teenage girls or hanging high school athletes.

And it's hateful.

And the Israelis are like the hand of God striking down the judges who hand down those sentences.

So let's say the regime does collapse.

Now what?

Iran is a semi-developed society.

It's got roads.

It's got hospitals.

It's got a huge problem with keeping the water on.

It's got electricity.

Who's in charge of preventing roving gangs of criminals from taking over the streets of Iranian cities?

The Iranian military is going to be broken.

And if the idea is somebody takes power,

Who?

Yeah.

And if the idea is that the Pahlavi dynasty returns, I mean, they are going to need some kind of international structure.

And by the way, they're going to need international aid because by the time this ends, if it ends in anything like the way the United States and Israel hope and that I hope with a transition to some new kind of regime, it's going to be broke.

They're going to need international assistance and they're going to need help reconstructing their oil facilities.