Eric welcomes The Bulwark's own Mona Charen back to the show to discuss the week's developments. They cover the President's meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the Vice President's trip to Hungary before pivoting to Vance's new diplomatic assignment to negotiate an end to the war with Iran. They assess the potential impact on Vance's political aspirations and the splits in MAGA world over the war. They also discuss the role Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu played in persuading Trump to go to war and the catastrophic damage that Bibi has done to Israel's support in the U.S. Finally, they examine the Trump administration's hostility to Catholicism and rebuke recent comparisons between presidents Trump & Reagan.

Eric's Latest in The Dispatch:
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-threats-abandon-nato/

Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Eric welcomes retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer, and Penn Washington's Chief of Staff and Director of Communications, Mike Nelson to the show. They discuss the President's White House speech to sell the Iran war to the American people, and its failure to address a number of important questions. They discuss Mike's recent Dispatch article on the risks and benefits of different proposed courses of action for U.S. military forces on the ground in Iran, including the difficulties surrounding any mission to extricate the regime's remaining Highly Enriched Uranium, the potential risks to forces of seizing Kharg Island, the prospect for seizing the smaller islands like Abu Musa, the Tunbs, or Larak, and whether or not the juice would be worth the squeeze in providing an off-ramp to end the war. Finally, they address both the legality and advisability of attacks on Iranian infrastructure and how the Iranians might react to such a campaign.

What a Ground Operation Might Look Like in Iran (Gift Link):
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-iran-ground-invasion-kharg-uranium-hormuz/?gift_key=38f86079ed7f33cb&gift_ref=3886671&utm_source=giftlink&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=membergift

Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Eric welcomes Michael O'Hanlon, the Philip Knight chair in defense and strategy at the Brookings Institution, and author of To Dare Mighty Things, and a recent op-ed in the Financial Times on the Trump administration's $200 billion supplemental budget request to fund the Iran War. They discuss whether there is a unique American "way of war" or "way of strategy," and the accomplishments of U.S. grand and defense strategies in the post-World War II era and whether Trump is undoing those achievements. They also examine why limited force operations are sometimes hard to avoid, and the role of American pragmatism and innovation in allowing the U.S. to successfully adapt under fire on the battlefield. They close with a conversation about Congress's role in setting defense strategy and the role it could play in setting limits to "boots on the ground" in Iran and investing in the defense industrial base to increase its productive capacity to replenish the enormous stocks of precision munitions and missiles that have been expended in the war.

Congress must not give Trump a blank cheque for the Iran war (Gift Link):
https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/ce6a9f97-9f47-414b-856b-ab82972c6c20

To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution:
https://www.amazon.com/Dare-Mighty-Things-Strategy-Revolution/dp/0300279930