In this episode of This is America, hosted by Cyril Venier, Al Jazeera examines the long-term consequences and unintended ripple effects of the US war on Iran — asking what the Middle East and the world will look like ten years from now.
The programme highlights how the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a global energy crisis. In the United States, fuel prices hit their highest levels in four years, with California seeing more than $6 a gallon.
The show features analysis from John Nixon, a former CIA analyst who interrogated Saddam Hussein, and Charles Kupchan, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama on the National Security Council. Nixon argues that US leaders have a “short-term mentality” focused on election cycles, and that Iran will emerge “more hostile” because its leadership is “predicated on anti-Americanism.” Kupchan notes that regime change failed — the US replaced 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with his 56-year-old son Mojtaba, while the IRGC now has “more control than before” — but predicts that President Trump will “look for an off-ramp” rather than a forever war.
The programme also explores how US media narratives are shifting. The New York Times writes that “we will be paying for the Iran war for a very long time,” while The Washington Post declares “the global economy will never be the same.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is heard criticizing that “the Americans clearly have no strategy.” CNBC reports that $58 billion in energy infrastructure has been damaged across Iran, its Gulf neighbors, and Iraq, with the International Energy Agency warning that recovery “may take some time, maybe up to two years.”
Both experts agree US standing has suffered globally. Kupchan says European allies feel the transatlantic “family either doesn’t exist anymore or it’s on life support.” Nixon argues China is positioning itself as a “responsible power” that doesn’t “bring war to the region.” Kupchan concludes that China and Russia are “sitting back, putting their feet up, watching this with a smile on their face.”
The episode concludes that the war may have been counterproductive for Washington — leaving Iran with a younger supreme leader, a more powerful IRGC, higher global energy prices, and a region questioning US reliability for years to come.
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