Hit-and-Run Belligerence

Daniel Immerwahr on Trump and Iran.

This week: a conversation with Daniel Immerwahr about the war in Iran. Find it at our site or wherever you go for podcasts.

Recently in The New Yorker, the historian Daniel Immerwahr considered the war in Iran and the broader context of Trump’s militarism around the globe. In Operation Epic Fury, Immerwahr sees something different from various precedents, and writes, “This isn’t hegemony; it’s a hit-and-run.” He joins us this week and says:

What I’m seeing is a thing that the United States, or at least its leaders, have contemplated for a long time. There’s been decades of fantasizing about doing this, about bombing Iran. We know that various presidents have considered it, and it seems like some of them really wanted it. But it hasn’t happened. So one question that people are asking is: “Why is Trump doing this?” Another question to ask is: “Why haven’t other presidents done this?”

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