Chris Hayes, host of msnbc's new 8 p.m. weeknight program, says there is no appetite in America for a military intervention in Iran.
"I think it would be massively and incomprehensibly destructive and terrible for there to be any military action against Iran. I think we're just sitting here 10 years after the Iraq War and everybody's just talking about the lessons of the Iraq War. Lessons of the Iraq War are don't start wars. And a military strike on Iran would very clearly be starting a war."
"People talk about diplomacy first but everything's on the table. There's always the stick and the carrot," Hayes told msnbc's Alex Witt.
He said the lessons of Iraq can be clearly applied to Iran.
"This is like the Chekhov quote if you put a gun on stage in the first act, it's going to have to go off in the third. If you put military intervention on the table in our political environment, you increase the likelihood of it being used," he said.
The conversation turned lighter as Witt pointed out the background noise Hayes must contend with in his office for the weekend panel discussion show Up. Booming music could be heard throughout their conversation from the NBC gym next door.
"It was like my second day here, and midway through the day a Zumba class emerged throbbing against this wall...I was a little taken aback at first. I've now grown kind of used to it, although I won't be totally grief-stricken at leaving it behind."
Hayes starts at 8 p.m. on April 1.