# ‘The US LACKS THE POWER TO DEFEAT IRAN’ Afshin Rattansi Challenges Ex-Deputy CENTCOM Commander Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-underground-hosted-by-afshin-rattansi-6331572/the-us-lacks-the-power-to-defeat-iran-afshin-rattansi-challenges-ex-deputy-centcom-commander Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-underground-hosted-by-afshin-rattansi-6331572/the-us-lacks-the-power-to-defeat-iran-afshin-rattansi-challenges-ex-deputy-centcom-commander.md Podcast: [Going Underground Hosted by Afshin Rattansi](https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-underground-hosted-by-afshin-rattansi-6331572) Published: 2026-06-27T10:13:24+00:00 Episode link: https://goingunderground.castos.com/episodes/the-us-lacks-the-power-to-defeat-iran-afshin-rattansi-challenges-ex-deputy-centcom-commander Audio file: https://episodes.castos.com/644258b7650582-10405540/2507791/c1e-o9nggij7xdjcm6j20-2582vpk1hwng-tdy30j.m4a Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/going-underground-hosted-by-afshin-rattansi-6331572/episodes/the-us-lacks-the-power-to-defeat-iran-afshin-rattansi-challenges-ex-deputy-centcom-commander Duration seconds: 1697 ## Resource On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Vice Admiral Robert Harward, Former Deputy Commander of US CENTCOM. He discusses President Trump’s axing of the National Security Adviser job and the power of the National Security Council, whether he believes Iran will comply with the conditions of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the USA, whether the Iranian population increasingly believe that Iran must have nuclear weapons to deter Israel, his response to Afshin Rattansi’s challenge that Israel maintains it was behind the protests in Iran in January, why the GCC countries are beginning talks for their own new agreements with Iran, whether the US’ inability to carry out regime change in Iran is due to Iran’s military power or the US’ lack of political will, his response to Afshin Rattansi’s challenge on how the US would act if Russia interfered the same way in Mexico as the US did in Ukraine since 2014, and much more. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/going-underground-hosted-by-afshin-rattansi-6331572/episodes/the-us-lacks-the-power-to-defeat-iran-afshin-rattansi-challenges-ex-deputy-centcom-commander/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/going-underground-hosted-by-afshin-rattansi-6331572/the-us-lacks-the-power-to-defeat-iran-afshin-rattansi-challenges-ex-deputy-centcom-commander.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.