Trump, His Generals, and the Iran Crisis: An Interview with Author Peter Bergen
America is on the brink of war with Iran, largely as a result of President Trump’s reckless decision to assassinate Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani. An excellent way to understand how and why this happened is to read Peter Bergen’s new book, Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos (Penguin Press). The book chronicles the first three years of the Trump administration’s national security and foreign policy follies, as well as the sordid, outlandish story of Trump’s romance with the hard-ass experienced generals who initially staffed his administration: retired Marine generals Mattis and John Kelly, and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. After a brief honeymoon period during which Trump swooned over them, all three went down in flames, humiliated in tweets and forced out by an ignorant, impulsive, childish commander-in-chief who didn’t want anyone around would tell him how to play with his tanks and rockets.
Now, after the killing of Soleimani, Bergen’s book reads like an all-too prescient guidebook of how Trump would take America to war in the Middle East.
Bergen, a national security analyst for CNN and vice president at New America, has the chops to tell this story with authority and bravo. He has been reporting on the Middle East for more than two decades. (He produced the first television interview with al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in 1997.) His previous book, United States of Jihad, mapped the spread of domestic terrorism and the rise of home-grown American jihadists.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-iran-generals-peter-bergen-interview-the-cost-of-chaos-934238/