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(...) Perhaps it is hard to square the limited impact of the bombing with the spectacular appearance of a bombing campaign, with its screaming missiles and thunderous explosions. It says a lot that one of the most impressive displays of airpower in history did so little to damage Iranâs nuclear program. This is precisely why, at the outset of the campaign, I made clear that the strike would likely only succeed if the Iranian regime fell.
While regime change by airpower always seemed to be a desperately long shot, it was somehow still more plausible than the obliteration of a large, dispersed, and deeply buried nuclear program such as Iranâs. I think that the Israelis knew that, too. After all, Netanyahu named the operation Rising Lion, after the national symbol of prerevolutionary Iran. Israelâs national animal is the gazelle.
Was regime change what Washington really wanted, at least if its goal was keeping Iran nonnuclear? Iran, after all, has been a few months away from the bomb for almost 20 years. The thing holding Iran back was never primarily technicalâit was always political. For everything that I dislike about the repressive and meddling Islamic Republic, it has at least been reluctant to build the bomb.
Iranâs supreme leader suspended the nuclear weapons program in 2003 for reasons that still arenât clear. That program, according to the U.S. intelligence community, was still suspended right up to the moment that Israel started bombing. We donât know what Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his advisors said when they went around the table debating a nuclear weapons program in the past. But something stayed his hand.
Even when Iranian officials dragged their feet about cooperating with the IAEA or negotiators stonewalled in talks, Iran always seemed to be seeking some sort of diplomatic resolution. The Trump administration, for its part, is sure that itâs taught Iran a lesson. Trump officials say that the Iranians will now return to negotiations, chastened by the bombing. There are, of course, other lessons that some Iranians might have learned.
Either way, I am sure the inevitable internal discussions in Iran will now look different, not least because there are going to be a number of new faces at the table. The United States and Israel have changed the regime in some senseâjust maybe not in the way that they hoped.
How could the US Secretary of State not know that at least four or five nations which enrich uranium do not possess nuclear weapons? Do these clowns know the truth and just brazenly lie about it, or are they just ignorant and dimwitted? Both, I guess.
Just straight up lies to support a desired conflict (desired by some people). Vietnam, Iraq, etc.
The State Dept. is the worst offender in this aspect.
How could the US Secretary of State not know that at least four or five nations which enrich uranium do not possess nuclear weapons? Do these clowns know the truth and just brazenly lie about it, or are they just ignorant and dimwitted? Both, I guess.
