David Frum

Not the president had a mood, and we're going to war with no permission from the society, no vote from Congress, and no ability to accept any degree of economic pain.

And it's not just a matter of communications.

I mean, politicians like to blame communications advisors as if communications were magic.

But communications can't be better than the thing communicated.

So if the United States is embarking on a major war with Iran, there better be a reason.

And you can't just message the reason.

You actually have to have the reason.

And not just a reason for going to war with Iran in general, but going to war with Iran in the last week of February of 2026.

Why was that the time?

What was different?

And if there was a belief, for example, that Iran was making a lot of progress in its missile program at that point, or had re-energized the nuclear program that seemed to have been so damaged last summer, that's something you have to say, and say it not just on TV, but to Congress.

And none of that was done, raising the suspicion the reason it's not done is maybe it wasn't true.

When I think about what Trump may be trying to do, giving him the highest level of credit, and this is not credit in the sense of moral credit, just intellectual credit.

He may have been convinced or he may believe that lots and lots of people in the upper reaches of the Iranian regime are crooks rather than fanatics.

And if you can identify the fanatics and kill enough of them, eventually your shovel will clink on the treasure chest that is the level of crooks.

You will open the treasure chest, find your crooks, and then you can do business with them, not in a way that will bring satisfaction to the people of Iran, whom we're ostensibly trying to help.

although Trump has never been very empathic on that subject.

But you bring together a degree of crooked leaders, as has happened in Venezuela, as I think is the plan in Cuba.

You empower the crooks.

You can do business with them.