Today, Explained - Mission accomplished?

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

The US war in Iran is reminding people, uncomfortably, of the US war in Iraq — a conflict that raged on for years after leaders declared victory. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. President George W. Bush addressing troops at MacDill Air Force Base in 2003. Photo by Chris Livingston/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know, there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don't know, we don't know. During the war in Iraq, America's leaders sometimes sounded uniquely stupid. I'm confident that our troops will be successful, and I think it will go relatively quickly. But you can't.

Months. Weeks rather than months. It was eight years. It's tempting when he talks about Iran to see that kind of stupidity and short-sightedness in President Trump. But what he threatened today is something else. A whole civilization will die tonight. Never to be brought back again, Trump wrote on Truth Social. People have been comparing Trump's war in Iran to the war in Iraq.

Is that legit? Today, on Today explained, Fool me once. Shame on, shame on you. It fooled me. We can't get fooled again. After 19 years, they're back. Frankie Munis, Brian Cranston, and the rest of the family reunite in Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. After 10 years avoiding them, Hal and lowest demand Malcolm be at their anniversary party, pulling him straight back into their chaos.

Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. A special four-part event, streaming April 10th on Hulu on Disney Plus. This is Today Explained. My name's Dexter Filkins, and I'm a writer for the New Yorker magazine. Dexter was based in Iraq from 2003 to 2006 and wrote the aptly named and award-winning book, The Forever War. You covered the war in Iraq extensively, starting in 2003. We're at a moment in history where some smart people who remember Iraq well are saying that the war in Iran is making them feel like a kind of deja vu. What do you think? Is any of this familiar to you?

Well, what I would say from the top is that war by its nature is unpredictable. And this war is still going on, and, you know, unlike the Iraq War. And it will undoubtedly go in a bunch of different ways that nobody predicted. But when the war started, the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20, percent of the world's oil flows was open. And it's not open now. And so, you know, we can, we can tally up all the, all the great accomplishments of the American military. But the fact remains, the overriding fact is that the straight is closed. It's hard for me to imagine a way in which the United States can leave until it's open in some way. And so in that way it feels,

in that way it does feel a little bit like Baghdad in, you know, 2006. We know, we know, that a lot of our listeners were children when the war in Iraq started, and so they don't actually have a good sense of what happened. Let's start this way. Why did President Bush start pushing to go to war in Iraq in the first place? Well, United States had been attacked on 9-11. It was a terrible day. We have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That looks like a second plane. 3,000 people dead in New York, many, many people dead at the Pentagon of Washington. And so there was this kind of overwhelming sense that we were under attack from people that, you know,

we didn't even know where they were from or where they were. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people knocked these buildings down. We'll hear all of us soon. And so first we went to war in Afghanistan. That looked like it was over very quickly. very quickly. The United States, supported by many nations, is bringing justice to the terrorists in Afghanistan.

And then we kind of looked around and said, wow, there's this really bad guy, Saddam Hussein, in Iraq, and he's causing a lot of problems, and he's invaded his neighbors. Let's get rid of him too. The threat comes from Iraq. It arises directly from the Iraqi regime's own actions. its history of aggression and its drive toward an arsenal of terror. And the tragedy of the Iraq war, of course,

is that it was never connected to 9-11. Not in any way that anybody could see, but we went in anyway. We were kind of in this, the country. I mean, it was in this kind of deeply paranoid state. And we were kind of, we'd been traumatized. And so it was like, well, we can't have that happen again, another 9-11.

And Iraq had, and Saddam Hussein had tried in the past to develop nuclear weapons. I mean, we knew that. They had tried. They had various secret programs to develop biological and chemical weapons. But we had thought, you know, that those things had been dismantled. The Iraqi government will hand over to UNSCOM their full, final and complete declaration on Iraq's past biological weapons program. And I want to say that I welcome that.

But then there was this kind of lingering suspicion that Saddam was trying to build what they called weapons of mass destruction, which is to say nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, that could wreak havoc on the United States. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are controlled by a murderous tyrant.

who has already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. And so there was this kind of great fear that, oh, my God, what if we didn't get it all? What if there's some secret place deep underground where they're making this stuff again? And that was the driving fear. So there was intelligence that suggested all of this, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. That seemed to contribute, as I recall, to a sense in the country that like, okay, yeah, we got to. to do this now. Where did we get the intelligence that Iraq had WMDs? Well, I would frame it a little bit differently. I'd say, I'd say we didn't really have very solid intelligence that Iraq had

weapons to mass destruction. We had, I would say, you know, hints and emanations and, you know, second and third hand reports. But we didn't have the smoking gun and we didn't have, you know, we didn't have the photo of the secret lab where they're making the stuff and so and you know the the world of intelligence is you don't always get the photo uh of of you know you don't get the smoking guns so it's it's people kind of trying to make connections and and again everybody was kind of utterly paranoid at the time and so they the the intelligence people they were under a lot of pressure from the white house from the bush white house at the time to basically give an answer uh that comported with the White House's fears. And so the Bush White House kind of took that and ran with

it, basically, and said, okay, we're not going to sit around and wait to be attacked. This is good enough, even though it's not conclusive. It's good enough. And we're going to war. All right. So the U.S. becomes convinced that this war is a just war and a good war. We're going to do it. And then what did it actually take to get us into it? Where did Congress fit into all of this? Well, that's a really good question because it was very different. If I could take one step back and say, you know, if we all had a copy of the Constitution in front of us, it would say Article 1, which is the powers enumerated to Congress, Congress has the power to declare war. The President of it does not. The President is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but Congress has that power.

And that's in practice, it hasn't worked out that way. But in the Iraq war, you know, Bush went to Congress and said, I need a resolution to go to war and to use force. Members of both houses, both political parties, have deliberated with care. And they have spoken with clarity on behalf of the American people. We will face our dangers squarely. So it wasn't a formal declaration of war,

but it was basically, I mean, it was pretty much of a blank check to do what he needed to do. And so there was a, there was this kind of sense of buy-in, you know, that basically Congress was on board. And so that is conspicuously missing from this war. You know, President Trump went on his own. He didn't ask Congress. He didn't ask him for a declaration.

We didn't have a debate in Congress. We didn't have, we didn't even have a speech to the American people about it until the president on his own decided to launch this. And I think that that's the biggest difference is that Trump is alone. with this war. It's his. What about our NATO allies at the time? So I recall there being a fight over France, and we started calling them freedom fries. We opened up our menu and the word French just took us and grabbed us.

So all of a sudden, we decided, you know what we're going to do? We're going to change our French fries to freedom fries. And there was a sense that, like, our allies did not have our back. But what was the real story about what was going on when the U.S. made this decision with our NATO allies? Well, I think at the time, our allies were not convinced, and they weren't convinced of either the wisdom of going to war in Iraq or the evidence that showed that Iraq had weapons and mass destruction.

France's distinct distaste for war continues to infuriate the United States. If military action proceeds without a new resolution of the Security Council, Canada will not participate. They stayed out largely, not entirely, but largely. And I just want to say because a lot of people are angry at NATO right now and saying, how come you haven't helped us? And it's like, well, they did help us. And in Afghanistan, you know, when the United States got attacked on 9-11, all the NATO countries came to Afghanistan to help us. And a lot of them took a lot of casualties like, you know, President Trump was trashing Denmark. Denmark lost a lot of people in Afghanistan. and a lot of dead wounded up for us. And so we forget that. But when Iraq came, the ally said,

look, this isn't a good idea. We can't really tell from this intelligence what's up and what's down. We wouldn't want to do this, basically. Now, the big exception were the Brits. There were some others, but the British said, look, we're your oldest and close. It's ally, and we'll join in. I know this course of action has produced deep divisions of opinion in our country. But I know also the British people will now be united in sending our armed forces, our thoughts and prayers. All right. So in March of 2003, we invade Iraq. The slogan we heard at the time was shock and awe. This is shock and awe, Tom, for the population back at. Shock and awe in peace. And there was an idea that, like, we would win really good.

quickly. We had a very strong military. Iraq was kind of a mess. What actually happened? How did the war proceed? Well, this is the most shocking part of the war. And I, you know, I was sort of there on the ground that I remember the feeling of, holy cow, how could we be so stupid? And what I mean by that is, so we did. The United States, like, the military just like raced in. It took like, I don't know, 21 days or 20 days, and took down the Iraqi government. Piece of cake. We hardly had any casualties. Tanks and armored vehicles drove past the wreckage of Iraqi tanks, largely unopposed.

Just in the last few moments, a U.S. Marine tank with a large chain has pulled the statue of Saddam Hussein down. And then what followed was anarchy. Baghdad, August the 19th, 2000. A massive truck bomb destroys UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel. And the reason why it was the anarchy was in part because there was no plan for the day after. So they had basically planned to destroy the Iraqi government, but no one had basically made a plan for what to do after the government was destroyed. And so, you know, Iraq has really broken, traumatized country, and it just flew apart. Dexter Filkins, as Iraq was flying apart, the U.S. declared mission accomplished.

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That is upwork.com to connect with you. top talent ready to help your business grow. That is UPWRK.com. Upwork.com. It's free to use. Check it out. This is today explained. Today explained is back. Dexter Filkins is back. Dexter. Let's remember this. President Bush claimed to have won the war in Iraq. About six weeks in, he gets on an aircraft carrier. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. He's got this banner behind him that says mission accomplished. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free. What was the moment, you were in the region, you were on the ground. What was the moment for you, it became clear that the mission had not been accomplished?

Well, well, it was clear. It was clear the moment we got the, the U.S. military entered Baghdad. And it's, I think, let's see, I think the anniversary, It's April 9, 2003. So we're just, we're close to that anniversary. The anarchy and the chaos and the looting and the bloodshed began immediately, immediately. So by the end of the day, after the U.S. military marches in triumphantly into the capital, by nighttime the capital is on fire. About 45 minutes after those Iraqi civilians tore down that statue of Saddam Hussein,

These Marines found themselves in the middle of a firefight. And there's total anarchy. And so when President Bush flew in on the aircraft carrier and said, you know, mission accomplished, I mean, it was absurd then. But then, of course, it became kind of a cruel joke because the anarchy that we witnessed in the capital that day just spread far and wide across the country and engulfed the country and stayed that way for a very long time. What allowed it to keep going? I like that you say the anarch – I mean, I hate that it happened. But yes, the anarchy starts in Baghdad and then it spreads. And there's a world in which, okay, the U.S. is there. We've got good troops. We've got good weapons. And so we just win. But that's not what happened. What was happening in Iraq with Iraqis that this just kept going on and on? Well, I think the important thing to consider is that it's not enough. It's never enough. And you could say that – you could say this about the Iraqis. Iran War. You know, the U.S. military is really good at what they do, and what they do is, you know,

destroy their enemies. But that is not enough necessarily to make a just and lasting peace that will endure and that will, say, allow the United States to leave. And so the United States had, you know, plenty of firepower, lots of guns, lots of, you know, great weapons. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to hold the country together. And so again, this was a, you know, this is a very traumatized country that had been kind of torn apart in many different ways, including by its own government for many, many years. And so all these things kind of spilled out in front of us. But the main, but the overwhelming fact was, is that the United States military, after it destroyed the government, was unable to keep order. And until you can have

order, you can't really have anything else. You can't build anything that will last because you have to have order and you have to have calm. And again, it took many, many years for the United States to figure out a way to make that happen. By the time we pulled out of Iraq in 2011, how had the region changed? Like, what did that war do to the Middle East? Oh, God. Well, the Iraq War was, it was like a magnet for for every lunatic, and I mean it, every lunatic in the, not just in the Middle East, but across the world. And so it was drawing people from, particularly from across the Islamic world, into the country to fight the Americans. The early months of the war appear to be a swift and stunning victory as the old regime melts away. But Al-Zakawi is waiting in the shadows.

Zarkawi, born in Jordan, is the most capable terrorist. interact today. And so it became, it became this kind of self-sustaining firestorm. And so you could, you could hear, you could see the propaganda, you could hear it on loudspeakers, come, come to the fight, come and fight the Americans. And that's, that's, and so we got ourselves into this kind of terrible situation where we saw ourselves as the saviors. But many people across the region saw us as invaders and as occupiers. And so it took a long time to sort that out, too. Yeah, our standing in the region was horrendous post-war, I mean, during the war, but then post-war. But I wonder also if you can reflect on what you think the Iraq War did to Americans.

Because I remember, like, I remember the torture memos. I remember Abu Ghraib. I just remember, and again, I was young, but I remember these things where it was like, oh, shit, this is who we are. now. And I wonder, you know, having experienced it as somebody covering it, what would you say that the Iraq War did to America? In terms of America, I would say it is a kind of a, it's a bit of a sad ledger because I think when the Americans went in and couldn't find any weapons of mass destruction, didn't find any nuclear weapons, people felt, I think many, many people felt like they'd been lied to. That, like, you know, the government wanted. wanted this war, they wanted to go to war, no matter what, and they made up this intelligence

to go in. And so, you know, whether that's true or not, I think there was a huge sense that people had felt betrayed. But yeah, we kind of lost our bearings. Today, an independent panel appointed by the Pentagon, released its report today on the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Americans did this to an Iraqi prisoner. According to the U.S. Army, the man was told to stand on a box with his head covered, with wires attached to his hands. He was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted. I think correctly there was a feeling like, oh, my God, like, what did, you know, we embarked

on this gigantic, ambitious, bloody, expensive venture, and like, what did we get out of this? And I think, you know, the first and foremost, I think, for a lot of people, it was a lot of pain is what we got out of it. All right. So as you've told the story of the war in Iraq, I am definitely hearing parallels to the war in Iran, right? There's a country. It has weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons. We've got to keep them from getting those weapons.

Our allies are uncertain, if not outright, unsupportive of what we are doing. There is chaos in the region. What do you make of the comparisons? What is appropriate and what is going too far at this moment? Well, I'm a little skeptical, those. I'd say, I'd say, you know, any war is horrible and terrible things inevitably happen, like, for instance, in the Iran war, it's pretty clear that the United States bombed a school for children and killed, you know, 150 kids or so. And that kind of thing happens, and it's not to excuse it in any way, but it's, it's, and those things are kind of terrible across the board. But I, and I, and I, and I, I, and I, But I would say there's a sense that I have, having lived through the and seen up close to the Iraq War, that the government, once again, is having a hard time speaking clearly about its goals and its justifications for being there. And that's kind of, you know, that's disturbing because, like, we live in a democracy.

And they only, the government should only be able to do what, you know, what they are sanctioned to do from the, by their, people. And so, you know, President Trump has given out so many different justifications as to why we're there. And so in that sense, it's kind of a, I do have this kind of empty, terrible feeling, kind of deja vu. I want to ask you a last question. So one of the takeaways we hear, if you like turn on MS now, for example, you're going to hear America never learns its lesson. America is going back into the Middle East. America's going to fight another stupid forever war. We just don't learn our lesson. We abandon our allies. We make the same mistake over and over again. You clearly have a more nuanced perspective on this, and you were in the region and that counts for a lot.

What is the big lesson here for you after the last 25 years of U.S. interference in the Middle East? Well, I think maybe that there isn't a big lesson, but I think in the case of Iran, in the Iran war, I'll tell you how I feel about it. I don't like the way the war started. I just kind of spelled out why I didn't like that. I'm very disturbed by it. But we're in it. And it's too late to turn back now. And so I think the best that we can hope for and that we should hope for is that we can get to a kind of satisfactory resolution.

And so at a minimum, I think that means for the straits to be open so that the world economy, the global economy, doesn't just tumble and tumble into recession. My main hope is that we can somehow extricate ourselves from this war in a way that that kind of doesn't leave the region in even greater chaos than what we have now. Dexter Filkins, the New Yorker and the Forever War. Miles Bryan produced today show, Jolie Myers, edited, Gabriel Donatov fact-checked and Patrick Boyden, David Tadishore, engineered. I'm Noelle King. It's today Explained.