Is the U.S. fighting a war without rules?
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Military rules of engagement exist to specify 'who' and 'what' can be attacked. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. is fighting Iran without "stupid" rules of engagement. So, what rules are American forces following?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. A recent episode asks, are boardrooms ready for the new geopolitical reality? Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview the episode. |
| 0:18.1 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. This is On Point. I'm Magna Chakrabardi. On February 15th, India hosted the |
| 0:32.6 | 2026 International Fleet Review. It's a nearly two-week military training event on the water. |
| 0:40.0 | 74 countries took part in the event, a law involving 18 foreign warships. The naval exercises |
| 0:46.7 | were coordinated and peaceful. Participating ships were not armed. That included the Iranian frigate, |
| 0:53.6 | the IRS, Dina, IRIS standing for the Islamic Republic |
| 0:58.7 | of Iran ship Dina. After the training, the Dina headed home to Iran, but never made it. |
| 1:06.5 | An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. |
| 1:14.1 | Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. |
| 1:18.7 | The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. |
| 1:23.1 | That is U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announcing the sinking of the Dina on March 4th, five days after the U.S. and Israel began its war against Iran. |
| 1:35.7 | An American submarine, the USS Charlotte, fired an MK48 torpedo at the Dina. |
| 1:41.9 | A large explosion and rapid flooding quickly sank the frigate within three |
| 1:47.5 | minutes of the torpedo's impact. Here's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan |
| 1:52.8 | Kane at that same March 4th press briefing. I want to remind everybody that this is an incredible |
| 1:58.5 | demonstration of America's global reach. To hunt, find, and |
| 2:02.4 | kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale. |
| 2:08.2 | The Sri Lankan and Indian Navy's launched search and rescue operations immediately. 32 survivors |
| 2:14.1 | of the Dina were rescued. 87 died. 61 are still missing. |
| 2:19.5 | The United States did not send a single vessel to assist with rescue operations. |
| 2:25.1 | Iran's foreign minister described the attack as, quote, an atrocity at sea, |
| 2:30.2 | stressing that the ship was part of a training session and was unarmed. So is it an atrocity? Is it a war crime? |
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