Slow Burn - Season 5 Trailer: The Road to the Iraq War
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2021
⏱️ 2 minutes
🧾️ 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.
Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:14.0 | You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were? |
| 0:17.0 | You were wrong. |
| 0:18.0 | I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know. |
| 0:24.7 | But the Iraq War wasn't the kind of cartoon debacle where the cliff suddenly appears out of nowhere. |
| 0:30.1 | So what went wrong? |
| 0:34.4 | I'm Noreen Malone, and on the fifth season of Slate Slowburn, I'm going to spend eight episodes re-examining the run-up to the Iraq war. |
| 0:42.2 | There's an Arabic expression, Hajis Il Chauph in Kisar. |
| 0:47.0 | The barrier of fear was broken. |
| 0:49.8 | The Iraq invasion was the most ambitious government act of the last 30 years. |
| 0:54.6 | Some of the people who supported it thought they were going to remake the Middle East. |
| 0:58.4 | They thought they were going to save the world. |
| 1:00.9 | You'll hear from some of those true believers. |
| 1:03.7 | When did it become clear to you that he would be advocating for an invasion in Iraq? |
| 1:09.0 | Oh, you mean liberation. I stick the word liberation, at least in my own mind. |
| 1:14.0 | You'll also meet the CIA officer who tried to raise the alarm. |
| 1:17.5 | I wrote a cable, and I sent it to every single, I think pretty much every agency in the United |
| 1:24.0 | States government, everywhere. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.