War is deadly. Why is Trump turning it into a meme?
Here & Now Anytime
NPR
4.1 • 953 Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
Then, artificial intelligence is playing an important role in the war in Iran. We look at how it's being used and how it is changing warfare with Paul Scharre of the Center for a New American Security.
And, the internet is full of memes around the ongoing war, many made and posted by the White House account on X. Nottingham Trent University's Tine Munk weighs in on the objective of these memes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:06.3 | Anyone that's interacted with AI knows that AI can make mistakes. |
| 0:09.5 | How do we use this technology? |
| 0:11.1 | And are we making sure that it's making the U.S. military more precise in its operations? |
| 0:16.8 | Artificial intelligence, memes, and the Art of War in 2026. |
| 0:35.1 | It's Tuesday, March 17th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR. |
| 0:40.6 | I'm Chris Bentley. |
| 0:44.7 | Today on the show, how the U.S. and Israel are using AI in their attacks on Iran. |
| 0:51.8 | Also, chat, is it cringe to post pro-war memes? |
| 0:57.2 | It looks like internet humor, but it basically function like political communication or propaganda. |
| 1:04.0 | Internet trolling as a White House comms strategy. Coming up in about 15 minutes. |
| 1:18.4 | But first, an update on the war. Israel says it killed two of Iran's highest-ranking leaders in an airstrike overnight. They are the country's top national security |
| 1:23.8 | advisor and the head of the besiege militia. Meanwhile, President Trump is bashing |
| 1:29.5 | allies for declining to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by Iran, |
| 1:35.7 | and a top aide to the director of national intelligence in the U.S. has resigned in protest of the war. |
| 1:43.4 | Those are some of the things we wanted to ask John Feiner about. |
| 1:46.8 | He was a national security advisor to former President Joe Biden, and he spoke to Scott Tong. |
| 1:52.6 | Before we get to the Strait of Hormuz, these Iranian leaders, Israel, says it killed. If true, |
| 1:57.9 | what would the significance be? Well, if true, it continues a pattern in which the |
| 2:03.9 | United States and Israel have been able to penetrate Iran's intelligence apparatus to the extent that |
| 2:11.6 | they're able to locate Iranian leaders and conduct strikes that take them out. That suggests |
| 2:16.8 | significant operational success, significant |
... |
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