Gerald Horne joins Paul Jay to break down how the U.S. war on Iran has isolated Washington on the world stage, fractured the political right at home, and handed Tehran leverage it never had before. From anti-Trump summits in Barcelona to Jamie Dimon urging the elites to "finish the job," they examine whether the American establishment has any real exit strategy, or whether it's heading toward another Iraq War.

Next week, Paul Jay talks with historian Gerald Horne about what may be a genuine rupture in U.S. political life.

Unlike Iraq in 2003, the elite consensus has fractured. The right is divided, corporate America is nervous, mainstream media is using the words “war crimes,” and polls show most Americans want no part of this war. The Israeli genocide in Gaza already cracked a consensus that held for decades— has the Iran war shattered it? Can the progressive left seize the opening?

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Daniel Ellsberg was the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing U.S. lies about the Vietnam War and helping trigger the crisis that brought down President Richard Nixon. He went on to spend the rest of his life as an antiwar activist, focused above all on the dangers of nuclear weapons. In this conversation, Barry Stevens speaks with his son, Michael Ellsberg, about Truth and Consequence, a collection of Daniel’s writings that blends personal memoir with decades of political and ethical reflection. Together they explore his evolution from nuclear war planner to whistleblower and activist, and his uncompromising view that the deliberate targeting of civilians—including through nuclear threats—is terrorism, a standard that casts a harsh light on todays' U.S. leadership and its contempt for international law.

In this conversation with Barry Stevens, Col. Larry Wilkerson argues that the United States has utterly destroyed the international legal order it once led in creating, eroding its legitimacy, and turning it into a global pariah. He says the war with Iran is strategically self-defeating: to win, Iran only has to survive, while the U.S. and Israel require a decisive victory that remains elusive. One consequence could be a global recession. Meanwhile, China benefits from American overreach without direct confrontation. In the long run, Wilkerson warns, the real danger is not just war itself but the collapse of cooperation on the defining challenges of climate change and nuclear weapons—problems no country can solve alone.

This interview was originally published on May 19, 2023. We are republishing it as the war in Iran continues to escalate.

Historian, Assal Rad, explores identity formation in modern Iran, both under the Pahlavi dynasty as well as after the 1979 Revolution under the Islamic Republic. Her book “State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran” examines top-down and bottom-up manifestations of national identity as narrated by state structures and popular culture, respectively. Her fascinating analysis is based on a historical assessment of how modern state-building in Iran inculcated a sense of national belonging in the population, as well as on interviews with people in Tehran and examples taken from popular music and film. Can national identity play a positive role in liberation struggles?

Miloud Chennoufi, professor of International Relations at the Royal Military College of Canada, tells host Barry Stevens that the rapidly escalating war on Iran is not about democracy or self-defense, but a dangerous and illegal conflict driven by Israel, which has long sought to reshape the Middle East while avoiding a resolution of the Palestinian question. He claims the United States has been drawn into a war it did not need to fight, launched despite ongoing diplomacy and in the absence of any imminent threat. Far from bringing freedom, Chennoufi warns, such violence is more likely to produce shattered states and prolonged chaos. He insists that non-violent political solutions are not just morally preferable but strategically smarter—offering the only real path away from endless violence and toward an elusive peace.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), joins Barry Stevens to discuss the alarming wave of complaints from U.S. military personnel. Over 200 service members from 50 installations have reported that commanders in their chain of command are framing the war in Iran as part of God\'s divine plan to bring about the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming. Weinstein describes how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth holds monthly Christian Nationalist prayer services in the Pentagon\'s largest auditorium during the duty day, and how this top-down signaling is emboldening commanders to push religious ideology on their subordinates. Weinstein also confirms that some of the Christian Nationalists within the military are in positions involving nuclear weapons.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson — former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell at the State Department and Joint Chiefs — joins Paul Jay and gives his unfiltered assessment of the U.S. war on Iran. Wilkerson argues the conflict is unconstitutional, unwinnable, and strategically catastrophic. Topics include: Iran\'s military resilience and long-term strategy, Israel\'s nuclear threats, the depletion of U.S. and Israeli air defense munitions, China\'s push to replace the dollar with the renminbi, the collapse of American alliances worldwide, the threat to the 2026 midterm elections, and whether impeachment proceedings against Trump are inevitable.