Operation(al) Epic Fury with Matt Van Hook

Operation(al) Epic Fury with Matt Van Hook

From Tim Talks Politics by Tim Milosch

April 8, 2026 · 53 min · Season 7 · Episode 91

About this episode

Tim Milosch interviews former Deputy Chief of Staff for US Air Force Central Command, Matt Van Hook, about the war in Iran and military strategy.

It’s not every day that you get the former Deputy Chief of Staff for US Air Force Central Command lined up to talk about the war in Iran, but that’s what you folks have today! You’ve heard Matt Van Hook on the podcast before to talk about everything from Abraham Lincoln to Operation Midnight Hammer, and if you’ve listened to those shows you know Matt’s a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. That alone would give him some credibility to discuss the operational and strategic aspects of what has been dominantly an air war with Iran. But even more than that, Matt has spent significant chunks of his career in this particular theater of operations (Middle East) and area of responsibility (CENTCOM). Today on the show, Matt and I work on sorting information from dis/misinformation when it comes to assessing the war, reframe the conversation on alliances away from the American media’s Euro-centric view and towards one that takes America’s regional allies into consideration, and Matt leverages the grandaddy of Western military thought, Carl von Clausewitz to give us a crash course on how to assess a military operation that’s unfolding in real time. Subscribe to Tim Talks Politics…

People in this episode

Guest: Matt Van Hook

Topics covered

  • war in Iran
  • military strategy
  • disinformation
  • alliances
  • Middle East

Keywords

  • US Air Force
  • CENTCOM
  • Carl von Clausewitz
  • Operation Midnight Hammer

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Iran, Middle East, America

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