Name: 'Careless’: Panel reacts to White House 'memefying' Iran war
Uploaded: 2026-03-06T16:43:45.000Z
Duration: 8 min 53 s
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Is the White House striking the right tone when it comes to its war with Iran?

Past simple

The official White House Twitter account posted that Call of Duty style clip promoting its war effort.

And then there's the video the Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino shared featuring Marco Rubio and a pit bull song.

The videos from the White House and Scavino have sparked a debate whether the administration is making light of a war that has claimed the lives of six US Service members already and hundreds of people in Iran, tragically including over 100 children in a strike that still hasn't been determined who was responsible for it.

This is part of a broader strategy of the White House to memeify everything.

I just wonder, are there limits to this even when we're talking about war and peace?

So I'm kind of of two different minds because on the one hand, I don't like these kinds of videos.

I do think it makes light of something that's incredibly serious.

But I also think at the same time they're trying show what it is they're doing because I think they fear that they're losing some support amongst younger Americans, particularly younger men online who are seeing some of the opposite messaging going out there.

The Douglas McGregor's of the world who are pretending that somehow we're losing this and it's a total catastrophe for the United States.

And so I think that there's a little bit of an information war going on that they're trying to compete with.

I think this is raising a lot of attention for what it is they're doing.

I don't, again, don't particularly like the tactic, but I understand what it is they're trying to do.

It's interesting because I mean, I actually wonder if maybe that might have the opposite effect because if you are, if you are a young person and you're worried about being dragged into war, the White House essentially making light of it is not necessarily reassuring.

And then President Trump, he gave an interview with Time magazine and he was asked about what are the risks of, you know, the United States being retaliated against.

I guess he says, but I think that they're worried about that all the time.

He says, we plan for it, but yeah, you know, we expect some things.

Like I said, some people will die when, when you go to war, some people will die.

It's an ugly image to present to the world.

Businesses across the region have been disrupted.

You look at people who live in the Gulf countries who did nothing, who were begging America not to go to war, whose lives have been disrupted.

These are hubs that connect the entire world.

I'll remind you all, the way in which we're talking about war here is not right.

This is not how wars are meant to be fought.

Iran and the United States were talking to each other.

And then the United States attacked in the middle because they weren't serious with serious conversation.

I'm sorry, you're the one who's just saying that.

I know because I can back it up with facts.

he said, it seems very clear that Iran is not all about one thing at a time.

And underlying this whole conversation about the broader issue with Iran, who we know is a bad actor and has been for 47 years, is who gets to decide when American blood and treasure is put on the line.

And this administration seems insistent that the only person who does get to decide is the president.

Can I just say one more quick thing here?

they are a bad actor and you are a bad actor.

I think it's important, do we think North Korea is a good act or do we think they're a bad actor?

Now, it is fair to have a discussion on what you do when dealing with bad actors, but

it is not a discussion at this point for any serious person to say that Iran might be a good actor.

Well, they might be or they might not be.

I think what you're talking about is there really needs to be more of a leveling with The American people, yes, they talked about the threat by Iran, but

What is the sacrifice that Americans might be facing, whether in blood, treasure, economy, you know, safety, terrorism?

And I think what we're seeing with these videos and with Pete Hegseth kind of comparing it to a football game and, you know, this frat boy culture, this bro culture, it's disrespectful to the families.

And there is nothing more serious than a country at war.

And I just wish that this wasn't so glib.

I think the seriousness of the moment is not, you know, there's a sensitivity here that we need to be all together on, you know, if not united, about the war itself, but

I mean, I also find some of these things distasteful.

But we have to separate what is public kind of rhetoric or public signaling or media from the actual strategic decisions that are being taken by the United States.

As someone who witnessed now 25 years of what I believe were, from the American side, extraordinary, patience, extraordinary, you could say, almost magnanimity towards the Iranians.

So much so that I just simply could not believe that the Americans were, you know, my government and the Americans were actually sitting down and negotiating with the government that had imprisoned me and killed many people.

But you can look at it this way, very charitably, you could say that from 2003, 2004, when Iran's clandestine cheating on building a nuclear weapon was exposed to the world, the United States and Europe and so forth, have gone bent backwards to try to get some kind of negotiated deal.

And I was in the State department in the 2000s when we implored the Bush administration not to restrict the engagement with Iran simply to the nuclear file.

What happened with President Obama is that for better or worse, and

I'm not going to litigate that here, he decided that given the four big problems that have always been on American objectives with Iran, that is enrichment, ballistic missiles, proxies, and

democracy inside Iran, that he would put all the last three aside and focus only on the nuclear deal.

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'Careless’: Panel reacts to White House 'memefying' Iran war

essentially

extraordinary

pretend

gross