Having first demanded that Iran 'open the fucking strait', President Trump followed up with a post vowing 'an entire civilisation will die tonight' if it did not do so.

But could any such order ever be legal, and would the American military even agree to carry it out?

Patrick and Tom chew over these and other questions, including whether it's time for America's long-standing allies to bail on it, if bombing a country into submission ever works, and what the sacking of the head of the US army tells us about the state of the country's military and, perhaps, its constitution.

But first up, in a week which saw possibly the finest rescue mission ever carried out, John Nichols recalls his experience in the first Gulf War of being shot down over enemy territory, attempting to evade capture, and waiting for the infantry to arrive.

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Guest: John Nichol

Producer: Micaela Arneson

Executive producer: Fiona Leach

Image: Getty

Get in touch: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

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For their Easter special, Tom and Patrick turn the entire show over to you. They answer as many listener questions as possible that have landed in the General & Journalist inbox since Christmas. Among them: whether Europe could defend itself in the events of an immediate Russian incursion, and whether the Iran war has changed Xi's calculus over taking Taiwan - and many more.

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Producer: Shabnam Grewal

Executive producer: Fiona Leach

Get in touch: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Kremlin's treasury runneth-over with oil revenues, Moscow's military is being treated to a lesson in the latest US warfare in real time, and the world's eyes are averted from Ukraine.

Trump's war with Iran has been a boon for President Putin. And yet rumours of paranoia, deserting elites, and strange defections abound.

To decipher what exactly is going on in Moscow, Patrick and Tom are joined by Russia-watcher extraordinaire, Mark Galeotti.

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn

Guest: Mark Galeotti

Producer: Shabnam Grewal

Executive producer: Fiona Leach

Image: Getty

Listen here to Mark's podcast, In Moscow's Shadows

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.