The Great Lie of War The Ezra Klein Show

The Great Lie of War | The Ezra Klein Show



The Ezra Klein Show
 
Mar 3, 2026  The Ezra Klein Show
Two sitting heads of state, eight weeks apart.

On Saturday, February 28, the United States and Israel launched a massive military assault on Iran that resulted in the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with much of his senior command. This came less than two months after the United States military captured Nicol;s Maduro, the president of Venezuela, in an overnight raid.

The president seems to believe that he can decapitate these regimes and control their successors without events spinning out of his control. Is he right?

Ben Rhodes is a New York Times Opinion contributing writer and a co-host of “Pod Save the World.” He served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and worked on the Iran nuclear deal.

In this conversation, we discuss the ongoing conflict in Iran, how Democrats should respond, and whether Trump’s “head on a pike” approach to foreign policy underestimates the chaos of war.

00:00 Intro
03:55 Why Obama Avoided War
07:20 Is Trump's Strategy Right?
11:02 Trump's Reckless Call to Rise Up
15:20 Refugee Crisis & Policy Incoherence
19:08 What Does Israel Want?
22:46 Netanyahu's Skillful Trump Maneuver
32:20 Saudi Ambivalence & Anti-Semitism Concerns
37:30 Trump's Foreign Policy Betrayal
46:00 Erosion of Democratic Guardrails
51:50 The Collapse of International Law
01:00:37 Democrats' Muddled War Response
01:07:40 The Great Lie of War
01:11:40 Book Recommendations