This whole exchange is a perfect snapshot of how U.S. officials justify wars they already decided to fight: retroactively invent the threat, wrap it in emotional anecdotes, and hope nobody notices the timeline doesn’t make sense.
Afshin Rattansi:
“Americans pay $2 billion a day for the Iran war.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“Why did the US launch this war when there wasn’t an Iranian threat to the US before February 28th?”
Robert Harward:
“Your premise was there is no threat from Iran. Sure. If they bomb us and we all leave, I guess there’s no threat.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“You can’t say ‘They were a threat because we bombed them and they retaliated.’ That’s not the way war works, Vice Admiral.
Robert Harward:
“The Trump administration has done an incredible job. They took on this Iranian threat when it had to be addressed…”
Afshin Rattansi:
“What threat?”
Robert Harward:
“Are you kidding me? I watched friends die because of Iranians. I had the intelligence. We had the proof. We knew they were killing our people.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon. Marco Rubio said clearly that the US only got involved because Israel was about to attack and Iran would retaliate… There was no clear and present danger from Iran before February 28th.”
Robert Harward:
“I’ve watched Iran my entire life. I’ve watched them accelerate their capabilities in every lane, be it terrorism, be it nuclear weapons, be it missiles and drones.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“They don’t have nuclear weapons.”
Robert Harward:
“All Iran has done is threaten to go after our people. Sometimes kinetically, and sometimes more asymmetrically.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“The Lancet study says 38 million people have been killed by American sanctions between 1971 and 2021. You don’t believe that all the de facto killing that economic sanctions mean, deserves retaliation?
If the United States were to be sanctioned by another country, would the United States not retaliate?”
Robert Harward:
“You’re talking about the current state of affairs that goes on everywhere in the world. None of it becomes kinetic.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“The US supported Saddam Hussein. They gave them chemical weapons to target Iran. So obviously, Iran may look to the sponsor of Saddam Hussein, which was the US. That’s the history.”
Robert Harward:
“I’ll challenge some of that history, especially the chemical, biological. But again, you’re talking three, four decades ago.”
Afshin Rattansi:
“We have declassified CIA documents. We have Donald Rumsfeld photographed with Saddam Hussein…”
📽️ Credit: Going Underground/Twitter
