Victor Davis Hanson: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Iran War Outcomes

The Daily Signal

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Critics have hounded the Trump administration for supposedly not clearly stating to the American public their most favorable outcome in the ongoing conflict with Iran. With the midterms less than eight months away, the pressure is on this administration to get the job done. And it can happen in one of three ways, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words:” The Optimal Choice: What’s left of the Iranian military and Revolutionary Guard will capitulate, opening the doors for a Western-supplied transitory government made up of exiles to lead the nation until elections can be held. The Impalpable Solution: The “Venezuela solution,” i.e., appoint a lower-tier, secular, dissident member of the former regime, like a general. The Worst Choice: Allow the mullahs to “stew in their own juices.” Bomb their nuclear and military capabilities off the face of the earth and then leave. 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 ⁠ Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. From startups to scaleups, in-person, and on the go. Shopify is made for
0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:29.7	When we went to World War II, we really didn't know what the ultimate aim was. Was the
0:34.6	purpose in World War II to just fight them to standstill? Was it to destroy the
0:40.3	Nazi government? Was it to reclaim all of Western Europe and then make sure that they were
0:44.6	democratic governments? That happens in war. A lot of things are articulated as you go on.
0:49.1	There's been a lot of criticism of the Trump administration over what will be the endgame in Iran. Some are impalible. One is
0:56.9	impalible. One is favorable. One is favorable. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for The Daily Signal.
1:11.3	There's been a lot of criticism of the Trump administration over what will be the endgame in Iran,
1:17.7	and I'll get that in a second, but they've also said, what is your agenda?
1:22.1	And they've criticized Trump, for example, citing that he wants to demilitarize Iran so it doesn't have ballistic missiles
1:31.4	and our drones and the capability to attack its neighbors, or that it wanted to ensure that it did
1:38.5	not have a nuclear weapon, which the Iranians themselves bragged that they have the ability to make 11
1:45.2	right now, should they wish, or had they, we not bombed. There's also an agenda, his critics say,
1:52.1	well, he wants to overthrow the government or at least help the protesters. Well, he wants to do
1:56.9	all three. They're not mutually incompatible. When we went to World War II, we really didn't
2:02.0	know what the ultimate aim was. Joseph Stalin was a nominal ally, and he was shocked when Roosevelt
2:08.4	and Churchill kind of on the fly in 1940 at the Casablanca conference said, actually, our aim is
2:16.7	unconditional surrender. Nobody thought it was
2:19.3	at the time. Was the purpose in World War II to just fight them to a standstill? That's what Russia
2:27.4	originally thought. Was it to destroy the Nazi government? Was it to reclaim all of Western Europe and then make sure that they were
2:35.8	democratic governments.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Daily Signal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Daily Signal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.