WW3 Threat Assessment: "Trump Bombing Iran Just Increased Nuclear War Threat" The Terrifying Reality

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
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**Andrew Bustamante** (0:30)
What does the United States think it's going to gain from decapitating the Iranian leadership?

**Annie Jacobsen** (0:34)
Well, that's kind of obvious based on what the president has said.

**Andrew Bustamante** (0:37)
On what the president has said?

**Annie Jacobsen** (0:39)
I'm just saying based on what the president says.

**Andrew Bustamante** (0:40)
You can't trust anything that you're hearing right now. You can't trust anything that you're reading right now.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:44)
Too tumultuous. Who'd you trust to trust somebody, right?

**Andrew Bustamante** (0:47)
It's not paranoid.

**Annie Jacobsen** (0:47)
It's healthy. It is absolutely paranoid to suggest that everything is misinformation. Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon, so it's not a nuclear threat.

**Andrew Bustamante** (0:57)
You speak a different nuclear language than I do.

**Benjamin Radd** (0:59)
This regime is at its lowest, lowest point. Why not strike it now?

**Andrew Bustamante** (1:02)
I mean, I can give lots of reasons why you wouldn't strike it. But what I would also say...

**Steven Bartlett** (1:06)
What are you concerned about? And what are the unintended consequences that you're foreseeing?

**Andrew Bustamante** (1:10)
There is a domino effect that happens with every decision that the United States makes. So...

**Steven Bartlett** (1:17)
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Benjamin, Annie, Andrew. First and foremost, thank you for being here today. I have to start with the question that's been on my mind as somebody that doesn't know a huge amount about geopolitics, which is what the hell is going on? And I say that because that's exactly what I mean. What is going on and what context do I need to understand this sort of historical context of the actions we're seeing in Iran with this war right now? Benjamin, I know you've got a personal connection to Iran because your family fled Iran, I believe.

**Benjamin Radd** (2:38)
Yeah, I was two years old when we left in March of 1979, a few months after the Shah had left and just after Khamenei had arrived.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:47)
What is the Shah and what is Khamenei?

**Benjamin Radd** (2:50)
Yeah, sorry. The Shah, the former monarch of Iran, the Pahlavi dynasty which came into power in the 1930s, deposing a previous dynasty that had been around for a couple of hundred years. His father brought in that dynasty and then he was deposed by the British and the Americans who felt he was getting too close to the Nazis during World War II, concerned about supply routes for the Nazis' oil. And his son was installed on the throne at a very young age, I believe 18 or 19 And he ruled Iran from that period, 1941, 1942, or in that time, all the way through 79 A great ally of the United States over time, eventually, and was overthrown in a revolution. And by Khamenei, who was a senior cleric who had been a thorn in the Shah's side since the 60s, was exiled first to Turkey, then Iraq, then ultimately to France, right outside Paris, actually. From there, he basically led the revolution that led to the Shah's removal, Austria in 79

**Steven Bartlett** (3:53)
And how was Iran different when the Shah was in power versus when Khamenei was in power?