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

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

We'll begin with Trump's long press conference today

ostensibly to congratulate himself for the daring and successful mission to rescue two down pilots over Iran

involving over 100 aircraft with the loss of an F-15E to 2 C-130, MC-130 transports,

2 AH6 Little Bird Helicopters, 2 Black Hawk helicopter shot up,

and an MQ9 Reaper drone and a Hermes 900 drone lost in combat.

Joining us to discuss how Iran's anti-aircraft capacity is not obliterated, as Trump has claimed,

is Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute

for Responsible Staircraft.

A former Marine deployed to Afghanistan, he previously worked as a senior law and policy analyst at the National Iranian American Council.

We will discuss his article at Responsible Daycraft, Plains and Pilots Down.

Is the US prepared for real conventional war?

Then we'll examine Trump's deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern Tuesday when he will begin his power plant and bridge destruction day to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, leaving its people to live in hell, following his vulgar and bloodthirsty threats against the Iranian nation he is supposedly freeing from its brutal and repressive government.

Joining us is Dr. Mosin Sazagara, an Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist

who was a founder of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and held several high-ranking

positions during the early years of the Iranian Revolution.

He served as Deputy Prime Minister in Political Affairs,

Deputy Minister for Heavy Industry, Deputy Chairman of the Budget and Planning Departments

before becoming disillusioned with the government in 1989 after pushing for reforms.

He applied to become a candidate for president in Iran in the 2001 election

and was refused. His reformist policies clashed with the supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini,

...