Trita Parsi

How were they so successful in June and apparently achieved nothing in this war in terms of penetrating Iran?

Well, the Iranians rounded up a bunch of- They certainly did.

Yeah.

And I'm sure they also rounded up a large number of innocent people that were executed.

But again, I don't know if that's the full answer.

Well, attitudes change immediately during war.

Yes, absolutely.

But those people were not, it takes much more than six months to be able to recruit them and train them.

So they would have to be recruited and trained for a much longer period of time.

They have to change.

I agree with that.

Absolutely.

And I want to point out one thing.

This whole idea that Iran is or was an existential threat was a talking point.

I'm aware of that.

Yeah.

It is a talking point that they always use in the United States because it was necessary to try to get the United States to make Iran its top national security threat, which in and of itself is absurd.

Not to say that Iran is not a challenge, but to be the top national security threat.

Look at the debates in 2012.

I think it was between Obama and Romney, or was it the vice president?