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The Gist

The Myth of the Iranian Moderate & The "Undecided" War

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

Daily News, News

4.53.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2026

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week's Saturday show, Mike delivers a double-dose of Iran-focused analysis, starting with a sharp critique of the Western media's bizarre framing of assassinated Iranian leader Ali Larijani as a "pragmatic" peacemaker rather than an active enemy combatant. Then, we open the vault to revisit June 2019, unpacking the chaotic fallout after President Trump abruptly called off a retaliatory strike on Iran, and demonstrating how bluster and impatience can easily drag the U.S. into the dangerous territory of an "undecided war." Produced by Corey Wara Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig Do you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at https://www.mikepesca.com/⁠ For ad-free content or to become a Pesca Plus subscriber, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List https://mikepesca.substack.com/ Follow us on Social Media:⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pescagist/ X https://x.com/pescami TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@pescagist To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, it's Saturday. It's the Saturday show, and I often bring you one from the vault and one from the week.

0:08.8

So our spiel of the week, it technically wasn't even a spiel because it led the show.

0:13.0

It's like if it's whiskey that's not bottled in Kentucky, it can't be bourbon.

0:17.1

So our spiel of the week was about the guardians asking the question, truly honestly,

0:23.5

earnestly, why would Israel want to kill the head of Iran? So we get into that for a little while.

0:28.2

And then I was looking back at some of my past Iran coverage. My past Donald Trump possibly

0:34.2

attacking or waging war on Iran. And do you remember this?

0:38.8

In June of 2019, Iran shot down an American surveillance drone in the Gulf of Oman.

0:47.0

And then President Trump got very upset to the point where he scrambled the jets.

0:52.7

There was a scrambling.

0:53.9

He then pulled back. He called off a

0:55.9

strike. We were cocked and loaded to retaliate last night on three different sites when I asked

1:02.0

how many will die. And he framed his decision not to attack as a love of life. So I talk about what was

1:09.3

going on then. It's very interesting, two things. One,

1:12.5

whoever was acting Secretary of Defense, I say it in the spiel, I have no idea of who that guy

1:17.4

was. What a time, right? But then I look back at where Trump was then. And what I don't say,

1:23.3

because I couldn't cast my head into the future, I think one difference between 2019 and

1:27.3

2026 wasn't even Iran's actions,

1:30.9

although Iran's weakness demonstrated weakness certainly played into the fact

1:35.5

that the Trump administration chose to attack now.

1:39.0

I think it might have something to do with Trump's lack of patience.

1:43.5

Remember, these attacks happened as negotiations

...

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