Season 5 Trailer: The Road to the Iraq War

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2021

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without provocation. Most Americans supported the war—as did most politicians and intellectuals, both liberal and conservative. Today, it’s universally considered a disaster. Hosted by award-winning reporter Noreen Malone, the fifth season of Slow Burn explores the people and ideas that propelled the country into the Iraq war, and the institutions that failed to stop it. How did the Iraq catastrophe happen? And what was it like to watch America make one of its most consequential mistakes? Slow Burn Season 5 is hosted by Noreen Malone. Formerly, she was the editorial director of New York Magazine, and a host of Slate’s “The Waves.” Her magazine reporting has earned a George Polk Award. The season begins on Wednesday, April 21st. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a disaster and a tragedy.
0:04.0	It's a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
0:07.0	Most people agree it never should have happened.
0:10.0	It was a mistake and I acknowledge that.
0:12.0	It was a mistake.
0:13.0	You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were?
0:16.0	You were wrong.
0:18.0	I express more sorrow, regret, and apology that you may ever know.
0:24.0	But the Iraq war wasn't the kind of cartoon debacle
0:27.0	where the cliff suddenly appears out of nowhere.
0:30.0	So what went wrong?
0:34.0	I'm Noreen Malone and on the fifth season of Slate's Slow Burn,
0:38.0	I'm going to spend eight episodes re-examining the run-up to the Iraq war.
0:42.0	There's an Arabic expression,
0:44.0	Hodgesil Khuf and Kisar, the barrier of fear was broken.
0:49.0	The Iraq invasion was the most ambitious government act of the last 30 years.
0:54.0	Some of the people who supported it thought they were going to remake the Middle East.
0:58.0	They thought they were going to save the world.
1:01.0	You'll hear from some of those true believers.
1:03.0	When did it become clear to you that he would be advocating for an invasion in Iraq?
1:08.0	Oh, you mean liberation?
1:10.0	I stick the word liberation at least in my own mind.
	...

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