Baghdad Bob, Meet Tehran Tim

Baghdad Bob, Meet Tehran Tim Duane Patterson 12:55 PM | January 15, 2026 AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File In the first full week of April, 2003, George W. Bush authorized U.S. and allied forces to begin Operation Iraqi Freedom to depose Saddam Hussein once and for all. The invasion campaign itself, led by General Tommy Franks, was a marvel at the time in speed and lethality as Baghdad was surrounded and penetrated within six days, far sooner than many military experts thought possible. The more pessimistic pundits feared it would take weeks into months, and would devolve into a house-to-house quagmire. The initial campaign, at least, surpassed the most optimistic of predictions. Advertisement One of the riotously funny recurring moments as Baghdad was surrounded and eventually controlled by American and allied power was the daily press briefings of the official Iraqi Information Minister, Muhammad Saeed al‑Sahhaf. In the States, he was quickly nicknamed Baghdad Bob. Our friends across the pond liked to refer to him as Comical Ali. Baghdad Bob, in some sense, is the O.G. of memes because of how cartoonishly foolish the lies he spun as propaganda looked and sounded to Western audiences. In case you were too young to see it in real time, here's a clip to give you a sample. <span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;"> </span> Yes, the Iraqi phase of the Global War On Terror was badly managed after Hussein fell, and yes, there were too many casualties in the advance on Baghdad, including Michael Kelly, who was embedding for The Atlantic and lost his life when the Humvee in which he was traveling overturned on open terrain. But few can criticize how successful the mission was to invade Baghdad and overthrow Hussein. And it was surreal, and yes, wildly hysterical, to see the extent to which a regime loyalist was willing to go in order to pretend what every Iraqi citizen could see with their own eyes was not really taking place. Shortly after this series of press statements, and especially when the Hussein regime did fall, Baghdad Bob quietly left the public stage and hung out in the United Arab Emirates for the next decade or so. His work in Iraq was clearly finished. Flash forward to almost 23 years later, and the spirit of Baghdad Bob is alive and well in the embodiment of the current Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi. All credit goes to America's Anchorman, Bret Baier at Fox News, for landing what easily is the wildest interview of the year thus far, and one that might make the top ten list at the end of 2026. The result? Baghdad Bob, meet Tehran Tim. Except unlike Minnesota's Tim, who also lies and spins in the same way you and I breathe, Araghchi does not suffer from Governor Walz' jazz hands condition. Advertisement Baier began the interview by asking about the massacre of Iranian protesters in the streets of Tehran. Minimum estimates over the last few days are around 2,000 unarmed Iranian...

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