Radio War Nerd EP #588 — Iran War Update, Day 11
Recorded: March 10, 2026
The War Nerd & Ames update the US-Israeli war on Iran, now in its 11th day.
Total time: 1:14:07
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Sound production by Telescope Audio
Comments (49)
Great episode, really looking to hearing Cyrus again
one funny side effect for me is that I've been watching a lot of F1 lately and the Saudi and the Bahrain and Saudi GPs in April are as good as cancelled and the Azerbaijan GP in September, the Quatar GP in late November and the Adu Dhabi GP in December are just like ... it's tough to see those seriously go on 100 000s of people, in the Gulf states, an almost completely foreign western audience flying in ... you can't seriously be having that Trump wanted to tend an invitation to host this in the US, and it seems pretty clear that it's too late for the March ones in terms of logistics. Besides the two temporary street circuits in Miami and Vegas the only permanent track that has the facilities to host F1 is Circuit of the Americas outside Austin, and it appears to be free to replace all of those 3 latter GPs, but it seems more likely that a trio of historical tracks in Europe are going to be tapped rather than a triple header at COTA It's kind of inconsequential in the grand scheme of things but it's definitely my pet side-plot
cancelling 20% of the season would be great cosmic retribution for F1 being one of the earliest big players to get in bed with the Gulf states
Mark's Hezbollah/mammal analogy was crazy
Thanks for the show guys. Really informative. What I still find very hard to grasp is why did the USA/Trump go ahead with this attack when just about everyone knew that this was very likely going to happen. Isn't it a huge assumption to ascribe this to hubris and delusions of a few a the top? Surely there will have many generals/admirals who would have told DJT that this is madness. Is there really nobody that T listens to?!?
Not to defend trump, but how often do our leaders listen to the generals? They were almost all against Iraq II, AFAIK. Trump is definitely heightening this trope, but in recent history, American military elite are relatively cautious and benign. It’s the chicken hawk soldiers who want blood and gore lol
Thanks for another informative show. Am most people here probably know, you can trace a lot of the anomosity that lead to this war between US and Iran back to the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis. There's an essay about the ill-fated hostage rescue attempt, Operation Eagle Claw in the 2008 War-Nerd book (can't find it online) with a description that's been on my mind a lot recently, because it seems almost eerily relevant to Trump's current shit-show "With some plans, you can find the flaw and say 'Aha! There's the problem!' But this plan was so hopeless, so complicated, with so many impossible stages open to so many obvious disasters, that you can't even isolate a single flaw. It was all flaws and no logic"
Oil price, speculation, traders, treasury intervention. It’s all meaningless. Only actual physical supply matters. Oil is the blood of the global economic body. If your body suffers blood loss your organs start shutting down. The 2008 financial collapse was a result of the tightening of oil supply in the mid 2000’s. The 2019 repo market spike was a result of the Houthi drone strike on Saudi refining capability. The only thing that saved the world from an oil shock in 2020 was covid killing oil demand. Supply. Oil supply. This is going to wreak absolute havoc on the global economy.
Is it? People say things like this, but the global economy keeps chugging along. If anything, it gets more and more capitalistic with every economic downturn, because capital is able to accumulate upwards and more and more people can be immiserated and then amputated from the system. There are political shockwaves, but it's always safely absorbed and redirected towards immigrants and Jews or whatever. I'll believe the global economy has suffered some serious damage when people start eating the rich and building an alternative. Otherwise, it's just crisis capitalism doing its thing.
In retrospect, this war being so obvious that it would end badly is exactly why Trump was inevitably going to try it. He truly believes that he can everything others can't, he believes he is unstoppable, he thinks he is him.
These episodes are so necessary.
Great episode
That picture of drunk petey is giving me psychic damage every time I see it.
That’s every picture of him!
What was that spartan quote?
When Trump said he had 3 guys in mind who could take over Iran but they got killed in the strike that took out Khamenei, was that A) bullshit B) not bullshit, and an accident C) not bullshit, and the Israelis intentionally took them out too because they want Iran to be a failed state Not that it really matters anyway since the US has no ability to pick and choose who runs Iran, but I'm just curious what others think.
I’m leaning towards A. Only because, the idea that they’d do what they did in Venezuela, take our #1 and let a lackey take command, seems dubious. If only because of the 47 years of institutional and cultural momentum of “get the Mullahs out!” In US culture. This is including the elites, the military institutions, and even the general public (at least conservatives). I don’t think trump has a plan for Iran, but I really don’t think he just wanted to pick another “mullah” to take over. It would be kinda demoralizing
What if our leaders truly thought we all (as a nation) owned stocks in defense. It’s amazing how confidently people assume things. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Seems like Iranian government have been planning for this since the end of JCPOA. Maybe even earlier.
Good point about media not caring to report israeli war crimes. Its likely they know Mossad thugs operate in the US and will kill them.
I hope you guys have Richard Medhurst on soon: https://x.com/richimedhurst/status/2031197957354131861
Who tf is he
great update
Iran is not starting to play its card it is all out of cards
Lol, no
It is a small thing but I find it comforting to hear Mark say "the date today", there is a sing songyness to it, a rhythm. Hope everyone is managing as best they can and doing what they can to resist this cruel society. As John Prine wrote "your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore, they're already overcrowded from your dirty little war" and this dirty war is lead by a man who has seemingly accepted his soul is hellbound.
"There is a difference here: If Israel commits war crimes, the US press won't go near it. If the US commits a war crime, some elements of the US press might bring it up." Something about frogs and how much they like hot tubs.
Death penalty for posting videos in Bahrain is wild
Yeah man the dudes who cheered the drone hitting the radar sounded so happy. I hear Bahrain is in Saudi Arabia, another Emirati is in Egypt, and Dubai pissed off both Saudi Arabia and Egypt so they’re fucked if the people take up arms against the rulers.
Man, it would be great to hear from Cyrus about the roles of Lebanon and Iraq in particular
Terrible circumstances but a really great ep guys, thank you for the info
Netanyahu’s got all of Graham’s “ladybugs” photographed and cataloged like a pro entomo-proctologist
Really grim and terrible stuff. I threw together $1,000 to buy a short term oil spot ETF yesterday, seeing oil close down for the day with the Strait closed and no sign of opening was too easy of a bet. Not positive on the trade yet but I'll be shocked if it doesn't work out in my favor.
“Awful. Simply horrific. Anyways I made a bet on oil going up, we’ll see if I profit from the downstream effects of these war crimes”
Dang I’ve been following this constantly and this still has so much good info. The era that started in the 70s (1973? 1979?) is ending now I think. Short of starting a nuclear wwiii over Taiwan this is the most insane thing trump could have possibly done. To quote another expert on the subject: we are in deep kimchi
Enjoyed this
Iran should name their next generation of missiles after Abrams because they have totally embodied the "They have us surrounded again, the poor bastards" quote.
All the radars are being taken out? THAAD doesn’t bode well for the missile defense
Look up MIT professor Ted Postol. I mean the economics don’t work even if it did but all this shit is basically useless with the most basic countermeasures. The most generous reason we are paying for this stuff is there’s no plan B: end of wars whereb byou can hit the other guy but he can’t hit you. The only reason it was doing anything is Iran is still using mostly old missiles.
That clip of Trump sounds awful; how much has he aged??
Why doesn’t Brendon ever say goodbye to me :((((((((((((
The amount of blue check BREAKING slop going around on Twitter (thanks to the Boer's engagement farming ofc) is gonna have me start relying on MSM again
Man it’s even worse imo. Even Bloomberg is shockingly dogshit.
Yeah even supergums Kirk knew this was a dumb move. I still can’t believe.
Never forget Charlie's gums. Taken from us too soon.
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fair point
https://youtu.be/o0cIOMVBSbU?si=DH3RysfqMvets8Xa
Cool