Trump Chooses War
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a little over a week, tensions in the Middle East have gone from high to fever pitch. What started with one American civilian contractor in Iraq being killed escalated to airstrikes on militia-controlled sites in Iraq and Syria, killing 24 people and wounding dozens more. Then, a siege at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad by pro-Iranian militia and a response by the Trump administration that killed Iran’s top military commander.
What went into the decision to assassinate Gen. Qassem Soleimani? And is the United States prepared for what comes next?
Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s War Stories correspondent and author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, out later this month.
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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt, and Mara Silvers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone, it's Mary. |
| 0:02.0 | Today's show is about what's unfolding between the U.S. and Iran. |
| 0:05.7 | What's happening there, it is moving fast. |
| 0:08.6 | So I just wanted to flag that we recorded this conversation on Sunday, late afternoon. |
| 0:13.9 | Okay, here's the show. |
| 0:19.9 | When was the first time you heard about Qasem Soleimani? |
| 0:24.5 | Oh. |
| 0:27.4 | Well, it would have been during the Iraq War. |
| 0:30.9 | I forget exactly when. |
| 0:32.8 | Fred Kaplan is Slate's war stories correspondent. |
| 0:36.3 | You know, Generals Petraeus and Mattis, they talked about Soleimani quite a bit. |
| 0:41.2 | He was sort of the big bugaboo. |
| 0:42.7 | I think Mattis was once reported to, you know, they've been kind of picturing Soleimani in his dreams |
| 0:49.4 | and imagining that Soleimani pictured him in his dreams. |
| 0:53.2 | I mean, he was the bad guy. |
| 0:56.8 | The bad guy, the leader of Iran's coup d' force. |
| 1:01.3 | He's dead now. |
| 1:02.6 | President Trump decided to kill Soleimani outside of the Baghdad airport with a drone strike, |
| 1:07.8 | after a week in which tension between the U.S. and Iran suddenly ratcheted up. |
| 1:13.7 | We begin with the high alert at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after protesters launched a dramatic |
| 1:18.7 | attempt to storm the compound. |
| 1:21.0 | The president holding Iran directly responsible for the embassy attack, threatening payback. |
... |
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