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The Ricochet Superfeed

The Libertarian: The Half-War

The Ricochet Superfeed

Ricochet

News, Politics

4.4 • 652 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Epstein examines the unfolding U.S. confrontation with Iran through both a strategic and constitutional lens, arguing that President Trump’s approach reflects a deeper tension between military necessity and political constraint. Epstein contends that limited or “half-war” measures—such as reliance on air power or pursuit of partial ceasefires—invite instability, while effective strategy demands either decisive […]

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to The Libertarian.

0:09.5

I'm Charles C.W. Cook, and I'm here, as always, with the Libertarian himself, Richard

0:15.1

Epstein. Richard, welcome to your own show.

0:17.5

It's always a pleasure to be with you, Charlie.

0:20.2

Likewise, this is a production

0:22.3

of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. All right, Richard, so I have been

0:28.4

away for three days, and although I kept mostly away from the newspapers, I did see some headlines, one of which suggested,

0:40.6

along with a massive jump in the stock market and slightly decreased gas prices, that the

0:47.1

war in Iran was in a new phase. I've seen the word ceasefire thrown around. I know that you are open to the idea that we

0:59.8

should have taken action in Iran, but that is a different matter from how we did it. So tell me

1:08.3

what you think of President Trump's strategy in executing our policy in Iran and where we are currently.

1:17.5

It seems somewhat confusing to me.

1:19.8

Well, you're not alone about that.

1:21.6

He's certainly not getting an A.

1:23.2

He's probably getting a B-minus if he's lucky at that.

1:26.3

And the way I rate that is, what are the number

1:28.3

of unforced errors that the man makes in trying to solve this problem? And the first of the

1:33.2

unforced errors is how do you set the expectations at the beginning of one of these explanations?

1:38.5

If you take a look at the way things are on the straight of Mbaz, on the Iranian side, it turns out they have a couple

1:45.3

of very powerful purchase. They have some high land on the one side, and beneath it, they have

1:50.0

some caves and coves and nooks underneath, and it turns out that trying to get all that stuff

1:55.9

out by air power is going to be a very difficult thing. And early on, I quoted my uncle Albert,

...

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