If President Trump is to be believed, the United States just came within 10 minutes of launching war against Iran. Make no mistake, these would not have been pinprick strikes that Iran simply swallowed. They would have marked the beginning of a costly war that put tens of thousands of American service members in the Gulf, our regional partners and Israel directly at risk, while shocking the global economy by choking off shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Never mind. Mr. Trump claims to have thought better of it. At the last minute, he decided that killing an estimated 150 Iranians was a disproportionate response to the downing of an unmanned American drone, which just might have strayed briefly into Iranian airspace. Let’s stipulate that this 11th-hour decision was correct and far better than the alternative.

But the risk of war remains real.

How on earth did we find ourselves 10 minutes from an idiotic war without the president having weighed the consequences? As a former national security adviser who has participated in many decisions about whether and when to use force, I am more certain than ever that our national security decision-making process is dangerously dysfunctional.

If President Trump is being truthful, he did not delve sufficiently into the risks and consequences of the military action before ordering military strikes. The question of potential civilian casualties is hardly trivial and should have been fully factored into his original decision. Did the national security adviser, John Bolton, who has advocated striking Iran for over a decade, fail to provide a balanced presentation of the arguments on both sides?