WTH Extra! Israel Strikes Iran! Frederick W. Kagan Explains
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
On this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc speak to Fred Kagan about Israel’s strike against Iran over the weekend, retaliating against Iran’s unprovoked October 1 missile barrage against the Jewish state. Israel’s strike, involving over 100 aircraft, effectively took out Iranian air defense systems and decimated Iran’s missile production capabilities. However, either because of Israel’s strategic calculation or pressure from President Biden, Israel chose not to target Iran’s nuclear or oil production. Did Israel effectively put a halt to the tit-for-tat escalation with Iran? Or did it miss an opportunity to prevent a much more dangerous Iran down the road?
Frederick W. Kagan is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project and a former professor of military history at the US Military Academy at West Point. He is the author of the 2007 report Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, which is one of the intellectual architects of the successful “surge” strategy in Iraq, and the book Lessons for a Long War (AEI Press, 2010). His Critical Threats Project, alongside the Institute for the Study of War, releases regular updates on Iranian activity in the Middle East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and transnational terrorism on the African continent.
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.0 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on? |
| 0:01.1 | Who in God's name |
| 0:21.7 | knows what it's all about. Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. And I'm Mark Teeson. Welcome to our podcast. What |
| 0:33.7 | The Hell is going on. Mark, what the hell is extra this week? |
| 0:38.3 | What the hell is extra is Israel struck Iran over the weekend. |
| 0:42.2 | Finally, after much waiting, the headline in the Washington Post is Israel says it pulled punches in Iran's strike. |
| 0:49.2 | President Biden publicly said, don't hit the nuclear sites, don't hit the oil. And Israel didn't hit the nuclear |
| 0:55.6 | sites and didn't hit the oil. Although they did take out their ballistic missile capability. |
| 0:59.2 | They took out their air defenses. So they could hit the nuclear sites if they wanted to. They could |
| 1:03.3 | hit the oil if Iran isn't smart and doesn't stand down. They pulled their punches. I'm interested |
| 1:09.0 | in what you think of that, Danny. Was that under pressure from the Biden administration? Was that a Israeli calculation that was the best |
| 1:16.7 | strategic move to make? I'm not sure. You tell me. Well, I mean, you know, look, we're sitting here |
| 1:21.4 | in our comfy studio slash living rooms talking about what the best choice for the Israeli government is. |
| 1:29.5 | And I guess second guessing them is a little bit presumptuous. |
| 1:33.1 | I would have liked, I'm just going to say what I would have liked to see. |
| 1:37.8 | I would have liked to see them hit the nuclear sites because I don't think there are actually a lot of opportunities. |
| 1:47.1 | We have our recidivist colleague Fred Kagan on talking about this, and he rightly says, |
| 1:52.9 | you don't want to do that in bites. You want to do that. If you're going to do it to, |
| 1:57.5 | you know, toward, what did Shakespeare say, tour done, twere well done quickly. I'm sure I screwed that quote up. But, you know, toward, what did Shakespeare say, tour done, tour well done quickly. |
| 2:02.1 | I'm sure I screwed that quote up. But, you know, I guess, you know, Israel cannot treat |
| 2:08.6 | Iran like it treats Hamas, like it treats Hezbollah, like it treats the Houthis, which is keep |
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