We Decide: America At The Crossroad 2026 With Jenna Flanagan
Four days into President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyhu's war on Iran, the Red Crescent Society reported close to 800 deaths including scores of seven to 12-year-old girls at a school for girls in southern Iran.
Iran struck out at Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates. Israel bombed Lebanon it said to counter attacks from Hezbollah. The Jerusalem Post reported the IDF had also moved into southern Lebanon.
In the days since the unprovoked attack, the Trump administration's justifications shifted considerably with CNN describing them as "a jumbled and self-contradictory mess."
Newsweek reported that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a non-profit, had fielded more than 200 complaints from 50 military installations
“Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the nonprofit group had received the complaints involving reports of U.S. commanders linking Christianity to the ‘biblically sanctioned’ war in Iran,” according to Newsweek.
The Pentagon identified four of the six U.S. soldiers killed by the Iranian counter-attack: Capt. Cody Khork, 35, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20. All four were with the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Iowa.
All six Americans were killed by an Iranian drone that attacked a port in Kuwait. Kuwaiti air defense forces accidentally shot down three US F-15s whose pilots parachuted to safety from the jets that cost $31 million each.
In our A Block today will be devoted entirely to breaking down the latest in the US-Israeli military strike on Iran including the catastrophic fallout in the surrounding areas with our political panel, Egberto Willes, host of KPFT's Politics Done Right, Laura Jedeed, a writer at FirewalledMedia.com and an Army veteran of two tours in the War in Afghanistan, and David Levinthal, Washington DC correspondent and Senior Editor at NOTUS.
In the B Block, we pivot from our Iran war coverage and listened to contributing producer Ursula Ruedenberg of the Pacifica Network’s interview with Zinaida Averina, a 23 year old resident of Kyiv. Averina was one of the leaders of Ukraine’s People With Cardboards protests which took place last summer to protest threats to the country's independent prosecutors that go after political corruption. They were the largest demonstrations in that country since 2014. Her story is inspiring.
In hour two, we return to the war in Iran. We spoke with Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, deputy editor for breaking news at The New Republic. Her new article “I Want Iran to Be Free More Than Anything. I Also Don’t Trust Trump” offers her unique perspective as an Iranian-American with close ties to the region.
We finish up with Naval Academy graduate, aviator, and author Brynn Tannehill. She was joined by Sophia A. McClennen, Director of the Center for Global Studies and Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University. Our panelists make sense of the breaking news in the context of the troubled history that exists between the US and Iran.
