@jolyonMost debates are built so neither side ever has to meet the best version of the opposing argument. Alan Dershowitz and Dave Smith spent 90 minutes making sure that wasn't the case here, and it got properly heated. Dershowitz says the Iran war was justified even before any strike, leaning on 1935, when Europe could have stopped Hitler at a low cost and didn't. Smith, drawing on his own service from Iraq to Libya, calls this the most reckless move of them all. They get into whether the stated goals were ever realistic, what reopening the Strait of Hormuz actually involves, whether sanctions squeeze regimes or just the people living under them, a Netanyahu quote that's getting traction, and Gaza. It's a rare format where both sides get pushed hard. Worth clearing time for the full discussion.

@jolyonMost debates are built so neither side ever has to meet the best version of the opposing argument. Alan Dershowitz and Dave Smith spent 90 minutes making sure that wasn't the case here, and it got properly heated. Dershowitz says the Iran war was justified even before any strike, leaning on 1935, when Europe could have stopped Hitler at a low cost and didn't. Smith, drawing on his own service from Iraq to Libya, calls this the most reckless move of them all. They get into whether the stated goals were ever realistic, what reopening the Strait of Hormuz actually involves, whether sanctions squeeze regimes or just the people living under them, a Netanyahu quote that's getting traction, and Gaza. It's a rare format where both sides get pushed hard. Worth clearing time for the full discussion.