Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news. We begin with the U.S.-Israeli war underway against Iran, whose president has apologized to the Gulf Arab countries Iran is bombing,

indicating he's not in charge, while Trump is claiming only he gets to choose Iran's next leader.

Joining us to discuss the assessment from the National Intelligence Council that the Trump-Netjahoo

war is unlikely to remove the Iranian regime and the dangers of regime decapitation backfiring

is Ken Klippenstein, an American journalist reporting on the US National Security State and

politics.

He previously was an investigative reporter at The Intercept, and prior to that, the DC correspondent

at the nation, and a senior reporter for the Young Turks.

Ken now runs the popular substack, Ken Clippenstein.com.

Where his latest articles we will discuss include why we struck Iran and Congress to America. What war? Then in the face of

mounting evidence that the war in Iran is an unmitigated disaster, we'll assess the possibility of some

kind of, quote, success and speak with Paul Pillar, the Director of Graduate Studies at the Center for Peace

and Security Studies at Georgetown Center for Peace and Security

Studies at Georgetown University.

He retired after a 28-year career in the US intelligence community in which his last position

was National Intelligence Officer for the Near Eastern South Asia.

He's the author of Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy, negotiating peace, war termination as a bargaining

process and why America misunderstands the world. We will discuss his article

at responsible statecraft. With focus on Iran and Gaza, Israel is quietly

annexing the West Bank. Then finally our Gen Z Sasha Lyndon Cohen, discusses the first major primary results

in this year's midterm elections with the young Democratic State Representative James Tallerico

...