Mike Pompeo and Michael Doran on the Iran War

Mike Pompeo and Michael Doran on the Iran War

From The Tikvah Podcast by Tikvah

March 6, 2026 · 48 min · Episode 449

About this episode

Mike Pompeo and Michael Doran discuss the recent military actions in Iran and their implications for U.S. power and the Middle East.

At 1:15 in the morning on February 28, more than 200 Israeli Air Force jets took off from bases across the region, bound for Iran. They were soon joined by American B-2 and B-1 bombers and the full weight of U.S. air and naval power in the Middle East. Not long after in Tehran, the Iranian supreme leader was dead, along with dozens of the seniormost figures in his government. Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion had begun. Five days later, the Iranian missile arsenal is measurably degraded, the regime is in a succession crisis, Hizballah has entered the war from Lebanon, Kurdish forces have crossed the border from Iraq, a U.S. submarine has sunk an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean, and the Strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed to tanker traffic. The Middle East is in a different place than it was a week ago. On March 4, Mosaic 's editor Jonathan Silver convened two trusted experts to discuss the context and strategic underpinning of these events: the theory of the campaign, what comes next inside Iran, and what this moment means for American power and the American right. Those experts were Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and the former CIA…

People in this episode

Host: Tikvah

Guests: Mike Pompeo, Michael Doran

Topics covered

  • Iran War
  • Middle East
  • U.S. foreign policy
  • military strategy
  • political analysis

Keywords

  • Iran
  • military
  • U.S. power
  • Middle East
  • Hizballah
  • Kurdish forces
  • air strikes
  • politics
  • strategy

Sponsors

Julie Goldberg-Botvin

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Iran, Tehran, Lebanon, Iraq, Indian Ocean

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