{"id":58221,"date":"2026-03-17T17:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=58221"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:40:16","slug":"the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-matt-hoh-the-iraq-war-playbook-is-back-this-time-for-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/17\/the-kyle-anzalone-show-guest-matt-hoh-the-iraq-war-playbook-is-back-this-time-for-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kyle Anzalone Show [GUEST] Matt Hoh: The Iraq War Playbook Is Back \u2014 This Time for Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re dragging a disproved Iraq War storyline out of storage to sell a new war with Iran, and it matters because it\u2019s the kind of myth that can get people killed. We sit down with Captain Matt Ho to dissect the EFP hoax: what explosively formed penetrators were, how they were used in Iraq, and how the claim of Iranian direction or supply turned into a convenient political talking point. We also name the bigger pattern: when leaders need a clean villain, they rewrite messy history into a simple slogan.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Iraq War Playbook Is Back \u2014 This Time for Iran | w\/ CPT Matt Hoh\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JxuwPZ2WvqI\" width=\"1015\" height=\"571\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>From there, we get into the competence problem driving today\u2019s Iran war narrative. Trump points to advice from Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and we explore what happens when personal loyalty replaces subject-matter expertise, especially around Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Mixed messages about goals like regime change, \u201cunconditional surrender,\u201d or vague \u201cimminent threats\u201d aren\u2019t just sloppy, they\u2019re dangerous, because they blur the line between deterrence and escalation.<\/p>\n<p>We also zoom out to the strategic fallout: US military readiness, munitions constraints, and the real-world risk of energy shock tied to the Strait of Hormuz. Add in Lindsey Graham pressuring allies and the growing influence of religious nationalism, including Christian nationalism inside parts of the US military, and you get a conflict that can expand fast while staying politically incoherent. If you care about foreign policy, the Iraq War legacy, Iran war analysis, and the future of the US empire, this conversation is for you.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe, share this with someone who still remembers the Iraq War messaging, and leave a review telling us what claim you want fact-checked next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re dragging a disproved Iraq War storyline out of storage to sell a new war with Iran, and it matters because it\u2019s the kind of myth that can get people killed. We sit down with Captain Matt Ho to dissect the EFP hoax: what explosively formed penetrators were, how they were used in Iraq, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":436,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[746],"class_list":["post-58221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"0","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/436"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58224,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58221\/revisions\/58224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58221"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=58221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}