David Frum

So the United States government at the time, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, persuaded themselves they could do it with 100,000 troops for a short time.

And that was not true.

And chaos broke out, as I said.

Too few people for too short a time for the excellent reason that they wouldn't have sent the proper number.

It wouldn't have been worth it.

So that's the question we're facing with Iran.

What is it going to take to keep order in Iran if you collapse the regime?

It's a country of 90 million.

It's bigger than Ukraine.

It's mountainous.

The population may be well disposed to, at least the beginning, but they'll get grouchy too if there isn't electricity, if there isn't water.

I think what you're doing is you're pushing together into one question, what are two separate questions?

So, question one is, would you have pressed the go button at the beginning?

Of course not.

Or would you have approved the pressing of the go button at the beginning?

So...

President W. Bush, President Obama, President Biden, they all had the opportunity, President Trump won, to press the go button, and they all said no.

So that's a pretty wide range of presidents that said, you know what, no, no go.

And if you'd asked me the day before the strike, would you approve a Trump-led war on Iran, it's absolutely not.

Even if it has the militaries ready, the political leadership, they're not to be trusted, they're not ready.