Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org, I'm me and Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the CENTCOM Commander Admiral Cooper briefing Trump and his national security team in the White House today on what options the US has to extract Trump from his maniacal misadventure in the Middle East.

Joining us to discuss a way out as oil prices spike at $126 a barrel,

and the new Supreme Leader vows to protect Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities

is Karen Greenberg, a future security fellow at the New America Foundation, and co-host of the Spy Talk podcast.

She's the author of Suttled Tools, The Dismantling of American Democracy, from the War on Terror to Donald Trump.

Then we go to Kyiv Ukraine to speak with Tamar Jacoby, the director of the Progressive Policy Institute's New Ukraine Project. She was a senior writer and Justice Editor at Newsweek,

and before that, the Deputy Editor of the New York Times' op-ed page.

She's the author of Displaced, The Ukrainian Refugee Experience,

and we'll discuss how yesterday Trump checked in with the boss

in an hour and a half phone call

with Putin and to Marr's article at the Washington Monthly, the US Europe Rift, how Trump's

Iran war is making it worse.

Then finally we'll assess the second day of Secretary Hedithersest testimony this time

before the Senate Armed Services Committee and speak with Tom McIntyrethus, a professor of history at DePaul University, where he teaches courses in British, modern European and military history.

His research and writing covers international security, terrorism, unconventional conflict, and military history. A regular contributor to the Hill, he has taught counterterrorism courses at venues around the world as part of the United States Department of Defense's

Counterterrorism Fellowship Program and is the author of many books including new terrorism, myths and reality and violent extremists,

understanding the domestic and international

terrorist threat.

And he has a recent article at the Hill.

A history of US meddling in Iran brought us here.

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