America Begins War With Iran, with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rich Lowry, Charles Cooke & Sohrab Ahmari

Megyn Kelly asserts that the US military action in Iran is primarily driven by Israel's security concerns, not a direct, imminent threat to the American homeland. She cites a Washington Post report indicating that Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed lawmakers that the mission's timing and goals were shaped by Israel's intent to attack with or without US involvement. This contradicts President Trump's public statements about eliminating "imminent threats" from the Iranian regime, a claim later refuted by US intelligence assessments.

"I don't think those four service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or for Israel." (01:29) "Israel was going to attack with or without the United States, according to a person familiar with the outreach to lawmakers." (02:40) "There was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack US forces first or to strike our bases in the Middle East." (05:39)

Marjorie Taylor Greene argues that the US intervention in Iran betrays the "America First" promise of the Trump administration, prioritizing foreign interests over the welfare of American citizens. She highlights pressing domestic issues—such as unaffordable healthcare, car insurance, widespread credit card debt, and the impending bankruptcy of Social Security—as areas where American resources should be focused instead of a costly, unprovoked war.

"Make America Great Again was supposed to be America first, not Israel first, not any foreign country first... but the American people first in our problems." (14:59) "We are nearly $40 trillion dollar in debt. How much is this war going to cost us?" (16:15) "America and Israel definitely started this war. And it, you can't lie that away to the American people." (16:02)

Sohrab Ahmari, an Iranian-American journalist, expresses skepticism about the feasibility of achieving regime change in Iran through air strikes alone. He emphasizes that Iran is a "resilient systemic civilizational state," not an artificial one like Iraq, with a deeply entrenched leadership structure. He warns that a collapse of the state without a clear successor could lead to "Balcanization," creating a fragmented, unstable region susceptible to ISIS-style Islamists gaining control of weapons and triggering a massive refugee crisis.

"How are we going to achieve that? What's the metric? Um how is that going to be possible without boots on the ground?" (09:08) "Iran is not Iraq. It's much bigger... It's a resilient systemic civilizational state." (41:50) "The state collapse scenario is is very real and very dangerous. Um, you could have a scenario where the map of Iran looks like something like Syria did." (49:06)

Rich Lowry and Charles CW Cook from National Review, while generally supportive of confronting the Iranian regime due to its long history of hostility and pursuit of nuclear weapons, criticize the Trump administration's execution and justification of the military action. They point out the lack of a sustained public case, the absence of congressional authorization, and the "preposterous" claim of an "imminent threat." They acknowledge the difficulty of regime change from the air and the uncertainty of what might follow, but view the regime as so terrible that action is warranted.

"This regime has been at war with the United States for nearly 50 years. Has blood on their hands up to their elbows." (01:11:46) "It's kind of crazy that there was basically no public sustained public case for this in advance of this major military operation." (01:12:26) "The notion that this was a defensive act is ridiculous. Again, that doesn't mean I'm against it, but this was not defensive. It was not timely." (01:16:19)