Mohammad Marandi, Lt Col Danel Davis – Iran: Just a Bunch of Crazy Bastards According to Trump?

by Daniel Davis, Deep Dive [4-6-2026] Seyed Mohammad Marandi(bio).

(RAD: This very relevant interview with Professor Marandi starts at 18:22 after waiting for a good internet connection with Tehran. I'm posting this interview as a very important marker for future reference. Is Trump going to irrationally plunge the world into a depression more severe than 1929 by trying to destroy Iran's infrastructure? If he tries, Iran will retaliate by finishing the destruction US bases in the Persian Gulf & destroying the ability of the Arab states to supply & export oil & gas. Iran isn't going to back down & submit to Trump's totally irrational demands. — RAD)

Related

Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic Republic of Iran [2013] This book is highly recommended by Professor Marandi.

Author, Hillary Mann Leverett served at the National Security Council and State Department and negotiated for the U.S. government with Iranian officials; she is now senior professorial lecturer at American University. Her writing with Flynt Leverett has appeared in the New York Times, Politico, Foreign Policy, and Washington Monthly, among other publications. They are the authors of Going to Tehran and live in Northern Virginia.

Author, Flynt Leverett served at the National Security Council, State Department, and CIA, and is currently a professor of international affairs and law at Penn State. His writing with Hillary Mann Leverett has appeared in the New York Times, Politico, Foreign Policy, and Washington Monthly, among other publications. They are the authors of Going to Tehran and live in Northern Virginia.

An eye-opening argument for a new approach to Iran, from two of America's most informed and influential Middle East experts.

"Balanced, sober, impressively document, and rich in insight . . . a valuable antidote to the warmongering that passes for analysis of Iran and US-Iranian relations."—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Breach of Trust

Less than a decade after Washington endorsed a fraudulent case for invading Iraq, similarly misinformed and politically motivated claims are pushing America toward war with Iran. Today the stakes are even higher: such a war could break the back of America's strained superpower status. Challenging the daily clamor of US saber rattling, Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett argue that America should renounce thirty years of failed strategy and engage with Iran—just as Nixon revolutionized U.S. foreign policy by going to Beijing and realigning relations with China.

Former analysts in both the Bush and Clinton administrations, the Leveretts offer a uniquely informed account of Iran as it actually is today, not as many have caricatured it or wished it to be. They show that Iran's political order is not on the verge of collapse, that most Iranians still support the Islamic Republic, and that Iran's regional influence makes it critical to progress in the Middle East. Drawing on years of research and access to high-level officials, Going to Tehran explains how Iran sees the world and why its approach to foreign policy is hardly the irrational behavior of a rogue nation.

A bold call for new thinking, the Leveretts' indispensable work makes it clear that America must "go to Tehran" if it is to avert strategic catastrophe.

"There is a whole slew of highly dubious assumptions and narratives about Iran that are rarely challenged in any meaningful way in media circles. Going to Tehran is vital to thinking critically about these claims. . . . Because of their expertise and their long immersion in these issues, the Leveretts and this book deserve a prominent voice in any serious debate about Iran." —Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian

"Read this book. You'll find a lot of information that's not generally available, and valuable insights that are sharply at odds with conventional views in the United States. This book may help, if it's widely enough understood, to halt a very clear drift toward what could be a terrible war." —Noam Chomsky

Most libraries will want this book—but be prepared for polarized reader response. The Leveretts have served key foreign-policy institutions: the State Department and National Security Council (both), and the CIA (Flynt). Flynt Leverett is an international-affairs professor at Penn State; Hillary, a senior lecturer at American University. Their analysis of U.S.-Iran relations challenges Washington’s conventional wisdom. Going to Tehran maintains the U.S. has misunderstood the Islamic Republic of Iran since its 1979 revolutionary inception, erecting myths (of irrationality, illegitimacy, and isolation) as the basis for a foreign policy that ill serves U.S. interests. The authors address each myth in detail, arguing that Iran’s government is neither irrational nor illegitimate, and that U.S.-led isolation will never produce the pro-U.S., pro-democracy government its supporters promise. In fact, they argue, the best analogy for U.S.-Iran relations today is U.S.-China relations in the 1970s; what we need, the Leveretts suggest, is twenty-first-century equivalents of Kissinger and Nixon, traveling to Tehran to take steps toward a sound relationship to replace a half-century of mythmaking. --Mary Carroll

Reviews

“Balanced, sober, impressively documented, and rich in insight...A valuable antidote to the warmongering that passes for analysis of Iran and U.S.-Iranian relations.” ―Andrew J. Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power

“There is a whole slew of highly dubious assumptions and narratives about Iran that are rarely challenged in any meaningful way in media circles. Going to Tehran is vital to thinking critically about these claims....Because of their expertise and their long immersion in these issues, the Leveretts and this book deserve a prominent voice in any serious debate about Iran.” ―Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian

“Read this book. You'll find a lot of information that's not generally available, and valuable insights that are sharply at odds with conventional views in the United States. This book may help, if it's widely enough understood, to halt a very clear drift toward what could be a terrible war.” ―Noam Chomsky

“One needn't agree with every word in Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett's new book, Going to Tehran, to grasp its basic truth: U.S. Iran policy is delusional. To shatter this ‘sorry Scheme of Things,' as the Persian poet describes it, will require a U.S. President with courage, audacity and political skill. It will also require a plan not too different from what the Leveretts lay out.” ―Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell

“This brilliant book eviscerates the American case for continued belligerence toward Iran. Evidence of an Iranian bomb is just not there, the Leveretts write, and American diplomacy should be focused on resolving the conflict, not expanding it. It is time, the book concludes, for an American president to reach for peace and go to Tehran.” ―Seymour M. Hersh, staff writer, The New Yorker

“This courageous and important book contains the three elements that are necessary for a rethinking of US policy towards Iran: a rigorous critique of the intellectual foundations of present strategy; a devastating expose of misreporting of Iran in the Western media; and a set of bold ideas for how the present dangerous impasse in relations can be broken. It should be essential reading for policymakers and journalists alike.” ―Anatol Lieven, professor of War Studies, King's College London; senior fellow of the New America Foundation

“Armchair warriors howling to have a go at Iran will denounce this book: you can count on it. Those who have had a bellyful of needless wars will have a different view. Going to Tehran is balanced, sober, impressively documented, and rich in insight. As an antidote to the warmongering that passes for analysis of Iran and US-Iranian relations, its appearance could hardly be more welcome or more timely.” ―Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War