Current Affairs

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Annelle Sheline is a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a former U.S. State Department official who resigned in protest over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

In this conversation with Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson, she discusses why she chose to resign while other senior officials—including former USAID administrator Samantha Power—remained in their positions. Sheline also examines how U.S. policy and unconditional support for Israel helped lead to the current war with Iran, the devastating human toll of the conflict, and why the erosion of international law could have dangerous consequences for the future of global order.

🌹 Annelle Sheline's New Republic Article: https://newrepublic.com/article/207300/trump-israel-madness-war-iran

🌹 Follow Annelle Sheline: https://x.com/AnnelleSheline

🌹 The Quincy Institute: https://quincyinst.org/

0:00-18:25 Samantha Power's moral bankruptcy

18:25-28:21 How Biden policy led to this

28:21-33:48 Intentionally targeting civilians

33:48-43:41 Why we still need international law

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Trita Parsi is the co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and one of the leading analysts of U.S.–Iran relations.

In this conversation with Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson, he explains how the escalating U.S.–Israel war on Iran is affecting civilians, how sanctions and propaganda shaped the political climate leading up to the conflict, and why Israel and the United States may see the war very differently in strategic terms. Parsi also discusses why he believes the war is a mistake for Washington, how Trump ended up launching it, how the conflict might end, and how a very different path might have been possible if diplomacy had prevailed.

🌹 Trita Parsi's latest in Responsible Statecraft: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-war-trump-press/

🌹 Follow Trita Parsi: https://x.com/tparsi

🌹 The Quincy Institute: https://quincyinst.org/

0:00-7:08 The human toll of the war

7:08-9:49 Justifying the unjustifiable

9:49-12:45 What is Israel’s strategy?

12:45-14:51 America will pay the price for Israel

14:51-20:13 Why did Trump get the U.S. into this war?

20:13-23:02 How does this war end?

23:02-24:16 What is Europe doing?

24:16-29:23 How things could have been different

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Trump's fake-anti-imperialism only works because Democrats refuse to embrace the real thing.

🌹 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/remember-when-people-thought-trump-was-anti-war

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Our media’s sanitized coverage obscures the human toll. Are we able to confront the full sickening evil of what the U.S. is doing? 

🌹 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-iran-war-is-unfathomably-depraved 

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According to our elected leaders, we should be very scared of the possibility that Iran could get a nuclear bomb. But Israel already has them, and its government is increasingly unstable and belligerent. 

🔥 Read the article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/wait-why-is-israel-allowed-to-have-nukes 

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