CONFLICTED

The absolute best description ever.

The first season was great for understanding the Mideast in broad strokes. Later seasons got even better. I like that they look at the entire Mideast, including Africa and Turkey, not just an excessive focus on Israel. I see reviews here criticizing Thomas or Aimen and their views, but the reality is that this is the only podcast where you have a devout orthodox Christian and Sunni who are 1) friends 2) deeply knowledgeable about the region.

It’s painful watching the Saudi lobbyist squirm as the war he so eagerly championed begins to unravel. His mandate seems obvious: expand Gulf/Saudi/ Sunni hierarchal hegemony. Yet after a month of conflict, these states look less like regional powers and more like fragile facades—duty-free malls propped up by imported labor and increasingly strained air defenses. Of course, the reality is simpler. Ayman is bought and paid for. His knowledge base is immense, undeniably valuable, but it’s striking how little that matters. No amount of deliberation with business leaders in glossy Emirati hotels can obscure what’s become clear: the war is lost, and the regional balance has already shifted. All one has to do is look back a month, to a time that now feels like relative stability. Or maybe there’s a darker irony at play. Maybe he never really left Al Qaeda, and this has all been a long con to steer the U.S. and Israel into strategic disaster all while butchering some Shia. Win Win! In that case, bravo. Take a bow. Five stars. A twist worthy of the script. Who will play Ayman?

From 1:12:05-19 of the “Can Lebanon Ever Be Free from Hamas?” episode co-host Thomas says, “But Aimen, these people see America as the Russia in the situation. They see America as “invading,” attacking Iran unprovoked in the same way that Russia invaded and attacked Ukraine. That’s how they see the world.” This is meant to be a comment on those of us who oppose the US-Israel war with Iran. The “in the same way” is doing a lot of work here to straw man opponents of the war. Of course, it’s a seemingly unscripted piece of commentary and who can be too upset about what a podcast host says these days? However, he continues at 1:12:54-13:54 “I know; we don’t need to litigate it again. It’s just like there are people in the world who don’t see that [Iran’s recruiting over three decades of 700,000 men into non-state terror organizations; taking over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen; causing two civil wars in Syria and Yemen; 2 million dead; 25 million displaced]; they just don’t see it. They can’t see it somehow. What seems so obvious to you and me, especially to you Aimen, I mean you know it, you lived it. But they just cannot see it. Partly, it’s because, I guess, they’ve absorbed a certain worldview, anti-American whatever you want to call it. Pro-resistance. I don’t know; I mean these people often are quite wealthy; they’re often members of the beautiful people. They have properties in…they’ll have a flat in Istanbul and a flat here and they, they kind of go to galleries and they’re the smart set and they’re jet-setting around, and they just seem to think that Iran maybe because maybe in certain neighborhoods in Tehran there are some pretty swanky galleries and some nice cafes that therefore, you know, it’s perfectly fine. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. They’re just living in a different universe from me.” This is well-dressed (Thomas’ voice sounds nice) ad hominem. Many opponents of the war do not defend the IRGC or Iran’s support of terror organizations, nor are all opponents rich. But the real problem is that even if they were, this podcast episode morally condemns opposition without providing the case for why the war is just. One can cobble together an argument along the lines of: evil regimes should be opposed (pre-emptively?), and Iran is evil, but not even Thomas Aquinas would buy the justice of this war without further premises. Again, this is only about one podcast episode, but it is so subtly misleading about the human stakes that it contributes to the fog of war. The episode is better than AI slop and better than some other foreign policy punditry. Please note that my three-star rating is based on the March 24, 2026 episode alone; other episodes may be better.