Rick Stengel

If Mr. Moran worked for me, I would have had a private conversation with him about crossing a line into too much subjectivity—I would not have suspended him. I suspect if he had said the same exact words on air, nothing would have happened. Journalists have free speech rights too.

We’re seeing one of the hallmarks of authoritarianism: the criminalization of dissent and its suppression by violence.

Autocrats turn ordinary situations into emergencies so they can wield extraordinary power.

The voices saying we are a Christian nation and that this war is about upholding Christian values always conveniently forget that this nation was founded on the idea of religious freedom. The word Christian does not appear in the Constitution, but you know what does?

"They made a desert and called it peace." —Tacitus. AD 98.

Let’s see, the U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, oil is above $90 a barrel, the president is spending approximately $1 billion a day on a war that the majority of Americans oppose, and the national debt s $39 trillion, the highest ever. America’s golden age.

The Secretary of Defense says "We are accelerating, not decelerating" in Iran. Accelerating to what exactly? No one in the administration has ever said.

What Trump used to understand when he railed against "endless wars" in the Middle East is that there was almost zero upside for presidents getting involved in the Middle East and catastrophic downsides.

Bibi has tried to get every American president, of each party, to invade Iran. They all had the good sense to turn him down. Except one. (Great reporting.)

Well, it turns out a vote for Donald Trump was a vote to start wars not end them. No president in modern history has ordered more military attacks against as many nations as Trump. And now he's started a war in the Middle East, the exact thing he campaigned against.

1. We invaded not because the threat was imminent, but because it was not. 2. The negotiations were a pretext. 3. There is no day after plan. This is the "let's-see-what-happens" presidency. 4. Hoping the Iranian people will rise up is not a strategy. 5. This is exactly what he promised not to do

I remember when foreign policy wonks used to ask, Is Iran a rational actor? Now people are asking whether America is a rational actor.

The president campaigned on ending wars, not starting them. With the attack on Iran, he has now launched strikes on 7 other nations. He says Iran was an "imminent threat" to the American people.The Iranians do not have missiles that can reach our shores.