Background Briefing: May 11, 2026

On By asher

Trump Rejects Iran’s Offer While Netanyahu Warns of “Reengaging Them Militarily”

We begin with Trump rejecting Iran’s peace offer as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” with PM Netanyahu telling “60 Minutes” that if negotiations fail “we can reengage them militarily”, adding Iran’s government’s “days are numbered – but it could take a lot of days.” Joining us is Mark Fitzpatrick, a Fellow for Strategy, Technology and Arms Control and former Executive Director of the Washington-based Americas office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, as well as former head of the Institute’s work on non-proliferation. He served as US Foreign Service Officer, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation at the State Department, and his books include Spies, Bombs, and Beyond and The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: Avoiding worst-case outcomes.

 

 In Turning Against Trump’s War, a Prominent Neocon Wants a Bigger War

Then with uber neocon Robert Kagan writing in The Atlantic that “Washington can’t reverse or control the consequences of losing this war” but then recommending the U.S. “engage in a full-scale ground and naval war to remove the current Iranian regime, then occupy Iran,” we speak with Jacob Heilbrunn, the Editor at the National Interest and a non-resident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, and a columnist for The Spectator. His books include They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons and America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators. He is also editor-at-large of The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune and he has an article at The Spectator, “Trump is clinging to a mirage in the Middle East”

Andrew Cockburn on Corruption and Lies in the Age of Trump 

Then finally we speak with Andrew Cockburn, the Washington Editor of Harper’s magazine and the author of many books on national security, including, Spoils of War, Kill Chain, and Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy. He has written for, among others, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, National Geographic and the London Review of Books. We discuss his latest book, Washington Is Burning: Corruption and Lies in the Age of Trump and the two recent articles he has at The Spectator, “Little Crappy Ships make NACHO a safe bet” and “What today’s Iran headlines don’t reveal about ‘Project Freedom.’”