Radio War Nerd EP #424 — Iran Inside Washington's Head, feat. Trita Parsi
Guest: Trita Parsi
Recorded: February 5, 2024
We talk to Trita Parsi about Washington's unhealthy obsession with Iran, what it means to be an Iran-backed Iraqi militia group & the absurdity of Late American Empire.
Read Trita's articles at Responsible Statecraft. Follow Trita on Twitter (formerly known as Twitter).
Total time: 1:05:38
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (28)
Great episode I do think that at this point in 2024, it doesn’t seem like there is such a thing as “responsible” statecraft unfortunately
Great ep, great guest. Would love to hear Trita on again to talk about post-revolution operations against Iran supported by the US and Israel, e.g. MEK
Trita is definitely right that there was anger in DC over China brokering the Iran-KSA-Yemen peace deal, but I think he missed a key point of diagnosis: they were furious that a deal was struck without their imperial majesty and oversight (and without the expected humiliating capitulation or regime change expected of Iran)
what a great guest. clear, concise and sharp. please have him back regularly.
I agree. He was a lot like Moss when he was on discussing NAFO. No fluff, no tangents or side stories. So much easier to follow as a listener
I really wonder how Gaza will play out in the US presidential debate (if we even have one this year). Biden has behaved exactly as a Republican would though Republicans don’t give a shit and still hate him. I assume Trump will bring up the mere existence of Rashida Tlaib and make it Biden’s great shame that she exists. Or something like that.
I pray that there’s a extremely small chance that Trump flanks him from the peace side and recites the Shahada
Great guest. I’m perplexed by the Quincy institute because it does not make sense how a relatively reasonable think tank can survive in DC
According to their funding page, they get money from Soros, Melinda Gates, the Koch brothers, an Iranian-American Silicon valley tycoon, Barbara Streissand, the Ford Foundation and a few other mostly liberal philanthropy funds.
Talk about a subject matter expert. Dude knows his stuff. Hope he’s on again
Thank you so much for an excellent episode. Could not have asked for a better discussion.
Unrelated to the episode, but I would be really interested in a future episode/series on Turkey's crazy internal politics during the cold war. Ideally a really in-depth one with a good guest that could equal the Years of Lead series, though that's a tall order. Even just an episode focused on Bulent Ecevit, who's a very interesting figure in that he seems to some extent like a sincere social democrat who tried to fight the Turkish deep state and create something better, but also a man responsible for the invasion of Cyprus and the rest of the negative parts of Kemalist nationalism. Sort of a Turkish Kennedy.
It's a great topic idea, been scrounging around for the right guest for awhile. Any suggestions?
Parsi describes Obama as an ‘aberration’ as it pertains to Iran and the JCPOA. As someone who has studied and advocated for the JCPOA is he not aware of the 2009 Brookings Institution paper: “Which Path to Persia?” Its outlined in this document that the US should provoke Iran in order to establish a rational for US intervention. They specifically outline offering up a JCPOA like deal, having it fail and then blaming the failure on Iran. Also, Parsi follows Insane Clown Posse on Twitter. A life long juggalo like myself would like to know why. lol https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_iran_strategy.pdf
Morbid curiosity? E.g. juggalo baby funeral.
Guys I've been a fan for years but please tone down the antisemitism (sensible analysis)
If Biden et al. were actual “adults in the room” they would be inflicting harm on Israel and Saudi Arabia for being historically and openly pro-Republican and being very transparent about how much they will rat fuck Biden and the U.S. to get Trump and the Republicans back in this election year. But Biden is a zombie and his staffers are even dumber and infinitely more arrogant that the dumbest true believers from when Trump took office (Gotka, et al). I hate everyone involved.
There's a lot of money tied up in this for every side, the Democrats aren't going to risk the bag for a little thing like getting elected. They probably want to go into "opposition" as soon as possible because they know they'll make more cash against Trump than against JD Vance or whoever's coming next. Anyway either way we're getting that defense pact with Saudi Arabia, because that's the real goal here... 30,000 dead in Palestine to stop it but it doesn't matter, we CAN and WILL defeat China and then immediately get dragged into face to face war with Iran
This was an excellent interview!
Wait, the US taking out solemani ended up creating blowback that fucked the US over? Now I’ve heard everything
Thanks for the fun times.
My five yr old son looked at the Gary Brecher drawing and said "That man has a fat head and looks funny." I responded that he is funny.
He predates Rainn Wilson’s Dwight but nailed the aesthetics
Trita’s point about Obama’s second term being the actual aberration is very well observed. Biden and co had no real interest in going back to an Iran Deal or normalized relations with Cuba, and it seems doubtful any Dem moving forward will.
The Biden guys sound like the Romanovs in the last days before the February Revolution. American liberal love of the Ukrainians mimics the Russian liberal love of the Serbs.
The Russian support for Serbia has been a myth going back decades. Russia only uses it verbally when it's convenient, but historically has always abandoned the Serbs.
Everyone involved in this is just waiting for Trump to return, it's almost like he's president now and he went out for a bathroom break. If and when the Republicans get back in, then we'll see what we see, but sadly until then the best case scenario is that many more people die as proxies.
Israel and Saudi Arabia are doing everything they can to hurry that up along and they’re doing it openly and proudly.