David Frum

What do you mean they're going to lead a war and such an ambitious war?

And the proof of all of those anxieties being well-founded is what is happening now with the counterterrorism.

The idea you would go to war against Iran with a non-functioning Department of Homeland Security.

And now that you know it's non-functioning and that the queues are snaking around the block at America's airports because global entry isn't working and TSA isn't there and Department of Homeland Security is not doing its job, it says because it doesn't have enough budget.

that you would not hasten to get that budget passed by any compromise necessary, hasten to install the most professional counterterrorism leadership you could find, and not pick the next DHS leader because that person is good at going on TV and defending President Trump no matter what he does.

And by the way, also hasten out of the building the last DHS leader who delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising contracts to her friends and supporters on a no-bid basis, that you would not just bring some professionalism to this,

suggests a kind of negligence in the prosecution of a war of choice that is really hard to wrap your mind around.

I mean, nothing like this has been seen before.

The United States has gotten into military conflicts that didn't go as well as Americans hoped, not because no one did the basic thing of making sure that the agencies of government you need to prosecute the war have a budget and a leadership.

That's like 101.

You would think that would happen automatically, but it didn't happen.

So the United States finds itself unprepared, unready for the most frightening possible Iranian counter-stroke on the US homeland.

There seems to be no progress because for President Trump, protecting the homeland is a lesser priority than stopping voting by mail for whatever reason he wants to stop voting by mail.

And here we are, here we are, as the war continues, as the price of oil surges, as stock markets fall, as Americans face terrible risks in conflict, and as the people of Iran wait for the rescue they were promised that may or may not ever arrive in a way that means any difference to their lives.

And now, my dialogue with Beto O'Rourke.

But first, a quick break.

Beto O'Rourke represented the El Paso district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019.

He challenged incumbent U.S.

Senator Ted Cruz in 2018.

He lost that race despite winning more votes than any Democrat before or since in a statewide Texas contest, winning 100,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton won in Texas in her 2016 presidential race.