David Frum

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.

Who's thinking about that?

This is the other really...

important mistake about Iraq.

And this is one I personally was most guilty of, so I'm very conscious of it.

So you looked at a picture of Baghdad in 2003, and you saw these buildings.

It looks sort of like buildings you knew.