BY ED FELIEN
What happened?
For about two days, a state of war existed between the United States and Iran.
On the first day of summer, Saturday, June 21, President Trump sent three B-2 bombers into Iran and bombed three sites: the Natanz Enrichment Complex; the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center; and the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, buried deep under a mountain.
In a television address to explain the bombings, Trump said, “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”
Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 25 “The IC [the U S Intelligence Community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
So, why did Trump do it?
Was he still upset that more than five million people at over two thousand No Kings rallies across the country overshadowed his birthday parade?
Was he upset that former allies and friends told him to shut up or ignored him at the G-7 talks in Canada?
Was his fragile ego shattered by the clever TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) putdown?
Did he need some well-choreographed, big dramatic event to wipe out those embarrassments?
Israel had been begging Trump for months to send in B-2 bombers with bombs big enough to blow up the mother-lode of enriched uranium inside the mountain at Fordow. In case the Iranians had missed the cues, Israeli public television announced on Saturday that three B-2 bombers had left for Guam, the staging area for an attack on Iran. Everyone, especially the Iranians, knew what was happening and what was about to happen. You can be sure Iranians evacuated the sites and took everything of value that wasn’t bolted down.
Two days later Iran announced it would retaliate by striking the large U S Airforce base in Qatar. That gave everyone enough time to clear the area, so when Iranian missiles struck there were no casualties.
After this face-saving retaliation, the U S declared a Cease-fire.
Iranian trucks removing nuclear materials three days before the attack on Fordow
Israel said it would agree to the Cease-fire, but first it wanted to bomb District 6 in Tehran, and the Israeli military published maps showing where they would bomb.
Iran said it would agree to the Cease-fire, but first it wanted to bomb a military infrastructure in Israel, and they published maps of the area they wanted to bomb.
After both sides finished their bombings and finished accusing the other of breaking the Cease-fire, things settled into an uneasy peace.
The twelve-day war has been harrowing for Iran. 974 people have been killed and 3,458 have been wounded. 24 people were killed in Israel and more than 1000 were wounded.
What was accomplished?
Did it wipe out Iran’s nuclear capability?
Probably not. First, they were nowhere near to building a bomb, and, second, if they really wanted a nuclear bomb, former President Medvedev of Russia has said that one of their friendly neighbors could give them one.
No, the real accomplishments of the twelve-day war are that Netanyahu gets to act like a hero in Israel, and Trump gets a favorable press that forgets about TACOs and tariffs.
