What did Robert Pape say about Trump's three-day plan to strike Iran?

Robert Pape said the leaked three-day plan is far bigger than its name suggests, targeting leadership, refineries, bridges and economic power. He likens it to Instant Thunder, the 1991 air plan against Saddam Hussein's Iraq that hit 84 leadership and infrastructure targets, was planned for three days and ran for 43. Pape expects the same pattern: the regime is not fully paralysed, nobody is left to negotiate with, surviving forces strike Gulf states, and pressure builds for US ground troops.

• Pape says Trump has ordered CENTCOM to be ready to execute within a maximum of 96 hours of his go code.
• Pape says the 1991 campaign killed somewhere between 5,000 and 15,000 Iraqi civilians.
• Pape notes embassy families have already been withdrawn from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (2026-11-05). Read the whole episode summary →

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