Alternate Shots.
Haass on Iran.
This episode of ‘Alternate Shots’ was entirely given over to the war in Iran and the first day(s) of a fragile “ceasefire.”
When I get up to start the construction of News Items, I have a grid for war coverage. The eight “boxes” of the grid are: (1) Nukes, (2) The Strait, (3) Regime change, (4) Missiles and drones, (5) Proxies, (6) President Trump, (7) Israel and (8) Commentary.
With the help of Tom Smith, our lead researcher, I go through news stories and commentary about the war, put them in their boxes, choose which ones are most interesting or important (or both) and include them in the morning note.
Ordinarily, ‘Alternate Shots’ is a conversation between Richard Haass and me about matters foreign and domestic. This one is really an interview; Richard being the one being interviewed.
The construct of the interview was borrowed from the morning note: I took the first five “boxes” of the grid and asked Richard about the status of each one. We then talked about a New York Times story about how the decision to go to war was made.
The advantage of doing a podcast with Richard is obvious: he knows a lot about the world; how it works, what works, what doesn’t work, what can work, what cannot.
His comments and analysis of where things stand in the third Gulf War are astute, clarifying and concise. Click on the forward arrow below to listen.
(‘Alternate Shots’, Episode #23. Recorded 8 April 2026. Produced by Dale Eisinger. It’s ~22 minutes long)
If you prefer, you can listen to this episode (and all the previous episodes) by clicking on these hyperlinks: Apple, Amazon, and Spotify. We’re on a number of other podcast platforms as well.