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Hello and welcome back to the Americana Show. My name is Freddie Gray. I am the deputy editor of the

spectator and the US editor. And I'm pleased to tell you that this is the 10th year of the

Americano podcast. And I think it's fair to say it's been a fairly fascinating time in American politics, life and culture.

And that's what we talk about every episode on this podcast. So please keep listening and provide as

much feedback as you like.

I am delighted to be joined today by two cherished spectator contributors.

Owen Matthews, who is our Russia correspondent or editor, and Paul Wood, who was formerly BBC World Affairs correspondent and is also a frequent contributor to our pages.

And we're going to be talking more about Donald Trump's Venezuela strike, but not about Venezuela,

because while there's been a lot of talk about the Dunrow Doctrine,

which is an update with the Trump corollary to the Munro Doctrine, which is an update with all the Trump corollary to the Munro doctrine of the 19th century and is all about asserting American power in Latin America. A lot of

people are wondering what the Venezuela strike might mean for Iran, which of course Donald Trump

has already attacked last year.

Paul, I'll start with you.

A lot of people think this might be because of what's going on in Iran at the moment,

there are protests and so on.

And Donald Trump, in between Christmas and New Year, did say, in fact, I think it was on Christmas Day, did say we are locked and loaded to intervene if the Iranian protests get squashed.

...