The U.S. Continues to Resort to Force at Growing Cost in a Region of Diminishing Importance
We begin with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran raging while Trump issues megalomaniacal orders to the Iranians that he will choose their next leader and that the recently killed Supreme Leader’s son, Mojtaba Khomenei, is unacceptable. Joining us to discuss how the U.S. is continuing to resort to force, at growing cost, in a region of diminishing importance is Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy and he has an article with Rob Malley at The New York Times we discuss, “Of Course Trump Bombed Iran.”
How Do Iranians Feel About Being Bombed to Become Free as Their Government Increasingly Oppresses Them?
Then we look into how Iranians feel about being bombed in order to become free from a government that is increasingly oppressing them and speak with Matthew Petti, an assistant editor at Reason Magazine who has previously reported for the BBC (in Persian and English). He now covers U.S. national security policy and its interactions with American society and domestic politics and we discuss his latest article at Reason, “The Goalposts of the Iran War Keep Shifting.”
A Highly Decorated Former CIA Officer Who Operated Against Iran in Iraq and Lebanon Explains What a Disaster Trump Has Blundered Into
Then finally we speak with Robert Baer, one of the most accomplished agents in CIA history, and a winner of the Career Intelligence Medal. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower. He is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East and is an intelligence and national security affairs analyst for CNN. His latest book is The Fourth Man: The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin’s Russia and he has operated in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon against the Iranian regime.