From WNYC Studios.

I'm Brian Lerer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Thursday, March 12th.

Did the U.S. underestimate Iran when President Trump decided to go to war?

Articles in the Atlantic and the New York Times today suggest that's the case. 20% of the world's oil now can't get out of the region because

Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. hasn't figured out how to open it.

That means higher gas prices. You know this part. Here by about 50 cents a gallon so far,

but so much more elsewhere around the world where they're more dependent on Persian Gulf oil.

The war is spreading, not ending, at least in that respect. But was this a consequence that the war

planners even foresaw? Do they have a solution?

Or did the U.S. underestimate Iran when President Trump decided to go to war?

What about the drones Iran is using to launch or fend off attacks,

even as its more conventional missile capability is being destroyed?

Reporting indicates these are similar or the same kinds of drones

that Ukraine has used successfully to stop the much bigger Russian army

from overwhelming their country.

Is that what the U.S. and Israel are in for for some time to come?

Did the U.S. underestimate that? We'll also discuss in this segment

what now looks like President Trump's lies and evasions, I think that's not too strong, about the U.S.

being the party that struck that girls elementary school, killing about 175 people, mostly children,

apparently because of faulty intelligence about what that building was.

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