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Today, Explained

Mission accomplished?

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.310.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The US war in Iran is reminding people, uncomfortably, of the US war in Iraq — a conflict that raged on for years after leaders declared victory. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. President George W. Bush addressing troops at MacDill Air Force Base in 2003. Photo by Chris Livingston/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

There are things we know we know.

0:03.0

We also know there are known unknowns.

0:05.0

That is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

0:08.0

But there are also unknown unknowns.

0:11.0

The ones we don't know, we don't know.

0:13.0

During the war in Iraq, America's leaders sometimes sounded uniquely stupid.

0:19.0

I'm confident that our troops will be successful,

0:22.0

and I think it'll go relatively quickly. But you can't. Months. Weeks rather than months.

0:29.5

It was eight years. It's tempting when he talks about Iran to see that kind of stupidity and

0:35.3

short-sightedness in President Trump. But what he threatened today is something else.

0:40.4

A whole civilization will die tonight.

0:43.2

Never to be brought back again, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

0:46.9

People have been comparing Trump's war in Iran to the war in Iraq.

0:50.6

Is that legit?

0:52.4

Today, on Today explained,

0:53.7

fool me once. Shame on, shame on you. It fooled me. We can't get fooled again.

0:59.0

Support for the show comes from Dell. Remember Dell? Dell PCs with Intel Inside are built for the moments you plan. Still, and the ones you don't still.

1:08.0

They're there for those late night study sessions when you get to the cafe and there's no outlets, all that stuff.

1:13.0

Dell is built to adapt to you.

1:15.5

It's built with long-lasting batteries.

1:17.1

You're not scrambling for an outlet and built-in intelligence that makes updates around your schedule, not in the middle of it.

1:23.7

Find technology built for the way you work at Dell.co.uk-U-Fourdes-Del PCs built for you.

...

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