Bombing Iran Won’t Help the Protesters
Annelle Sheline on Trump’s embrace of chaos in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press upon returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on January 13, 2026. Trump is returning from speaking to The Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, and a visit to a Ford production plant. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)
(Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)Iran is facing upheavals at home and abroad. For more than two decades, the Islamic Republic has faced waves of protests from citizens demanding a more democratic society. Over the past two weeks, these protests have erupted with a new ferocity and are being met with violent repression. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is pushing the United States to resume bombing Iran, a military objective now being given the guise of a humanitarian mission. To discuss the turmoil in Iran and place it in the larger context of regional instability and competing visions of the future of the Middle East, I spoke with Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at The Quincy Institute who studies the region.
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The Living Legacy of Norman Podhoretz w/ David Klion and Ronnie Grinberg | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
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