SecDef Weekend claims success
Trump’s “two weeks” window for deciding U.S. actions against Iran was a ruse:
Iran vowed to defend itself after the United States military joined Israel’s war against Iran early Sunday morning by dropping bombs and firing missiles at three key nuclear sites in the country. The strikes prompted fears of more dangerous escalations across the Middle East.
President Trump said the objective was the “destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity.” He claimed success, saying in a brief, televised address from the White House that the nuclear facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
Trump had no bomb damage assessments when he made that claim last night. If the strikes had “completely and totally” failed, he’d have said the same thing.
Defense Secretary Weekend Pete Hegseth just gave a press statement just now to prove he is good on TV. That’s what Trump hired him for, after all. Hegseth claimed “the highest of operational security” this time. Any Signal texts involved will surface later.
Brace for Iranian retaliation.
The operation was closely coordinated with Israel, now a week into its own highly effective bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear and military sites, a person familiar with the planning told us. After the U.S. strikes concluded, Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long pushed the United States to act.
The operation was closely coordinated with Israel, now a week into its own highly effective bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear and military sites, a person familiar with the planning told us. After the U.S. strikes concluded, Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long pushed the United States to act.
Trump chose to initiate his air assault after he was impressed by the success of Israel’s offensive, which has further eroded Iran’s air-defense capability, and came to believe that “a little push from us would make it incredibly successful,” an ally of the president who spoke with him about the decision told us.
U.S. officials told us that Trump had genuinely wanted to strike a nuclear deal with Iran—seven years after he’d ripped up the agreement reached by former President Barack Obama—but had come to an impasse with the Iranians over the issue of the enrichment of uranium. Washington had demanded that Tehran give up enrichment entirely or else submit to strict American and international supervision; Iran had refused those conditions. Some officials held out hope that U.S. bombing will change Iran’s calculus and force its leaders to negotiate on the full dismantlement of the nuclear program. In the short term, however, they predicted that Iran will resort to asymmetric warfare, deploying cyberattacks and other operations that could potentially draw the United States further into the conflict.
Trump launched these strikes now because he tore up the agreeement struck by Barack Obama out of pique. And likely because Netanyahu “worked” Trump’s fragile ego. Trump saw success from Israel’s attacks and jumped to claim a “win” for himself. Somehow escalation will be all Democrats’ fault.
General Dan Caine, Trump’s chair of the Joint Chiefs, told a press conference moments ago that all targets were successfully struck, no Iranian fighters flew, and no shots were fired from Iranian missile batteries. Battle damage assessments are in progress.
Hegseth dodged a question about what if any new U.S. intelligence indicated that Iran had decided to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel has justified its attack on Iran by saying Tehran was rushing to break out a weapon. U.S. intelligence had not reached such a conclusion.
“A senior US official acknowledged that the B-2 attack on the Fordo site did not destroy the heavily fortified facility but severely damaged it,” the Times reported minutes later.
Obliterated then.
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