Is This War Justified? Eli Lake Debates Iran with Robert Wright

Breaking History

The Free Press

History

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 113 minutes

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Summary

Eli Lake joins Robert Wright over at his podcast NonZero, which offers “conversations with a series of people who have nothing in common except that program host Robert Wright is curious about what they’re thinking” . Robert views the U.S-Israel military campaign against Iran as a serious mistake and a clear violation of international law. Eli sees it as a necessary—if legally awkward—response to decades of Iranian aggression and destabilization. Who wins? You’ll have to listen to decide for yourself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Eli.
0:01.4	Hey, Bob.
0:02.4	How are you?
0:03.0	I'm good.
0:03.6	How are you doing?
0:04.6	I'm good.
0:06.1	Let me introduce us.
0:07.7	I'm Robert Wright, publisher of the Non-Zero newsletter, which I encourage people to check out.
0:12.0	This is the Non-Zero podcast.
0:13.9	You are Eli Lake, a longtime sparring partner of mine, and also writer for the free press, host of the Breaking History,
0:24.3	podcast, contributing editor, commentary. You and I have had conversations in the past,
0:31.0	often about the Middle East, sometimes about Iran. We've tended to disagree about Iran,
0:34.6	but possibly never as clearly as we're going to disagree now.
0:39.8	At least that's my guess.
0:41.5	Because we're in the middle of this war with Iran that was started by the U.S. and Israel.
0:46.8	I think it was a really bad idea.
0:48.4	You think it was a good idea.
0:51.0	I think you can start out by correcting me if I'm wrong.
0:53.7	I'd love to be wrong about that. I think that You can start out by correcting me if I'm wrong. I'd love to be wrong about that, but.
0:56.1	I think that Iran has been at, I think the United States and Iran have been at war since
1:01.6	1979. And I think that the current kind of battle, the hostilities, certainly began on February
1:10.7	28th with the decapitation strikes of the regime
	...

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