Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

It cost US taxpayers over $25 million to strike Iran.

 

Via Reddit:






 


 "Preliminary classified findings indicate that the attack sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings.  

Before the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies had said that if Iran tried to rush to making a bomb, it would take about three months. After the U.S. bombing run and days of attacks by the Israeli Air Force, the report by the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that the program had been delayed, but by less than six months.

 The report also said that much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Iran may have moved some of that to secret locations."


Will Trump and Bibi bomb the sites again in 3 months? And then in another 3 months again?

 
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Sent to me in an email by a friend:

"President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) took effect in January 2016. Its term was for 15 years. Iran, China, France, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States all signed the agreement thanks to the diplomatic leadership of President Obama. Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium, and to stop developing a nuclear weapon. As long as the deal lasted, Iran would be held at a point where they were several years from even beginning to build a nuclear weapon. The Middle East, and the entire world, were a safer place. The signatories all insisted on rigorous independent inspections to ensure that Iran complied. The deal would've lasted until 2031. Unfortunately, Trump pulled out of the deal in his first term. Now Israel attacked Iran, and the US dropped the most powerful non-nuclear bombs in the world. But the experts are saying that it may have only set back Iran's nuclear program by three to six months. President Obama had Iran in a place where in 2031 they would be several years from developing a nuclear weapon. Trump has Iran in a place where their nuclear program is set back until the end of this year. But hey, 'Operation Midnight Hammer' sure sounds like the tough guys are in charge."


***************************  


So was Trump’s “Completely and Totally Obliterated” just Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” but in a louder font?

31 comments:

Dave Miller said...

So... the Trump Admin looked at Iran and determined that the US was needed to end the Iranian nuclear capability. The US could not "allow" Iran to get "the bomb" we bellowed.

At our highest levels, we made a decision that Iran was ready to get nuclear weapons and so close in fact, that the US had to bomb them, and bomb them now.

We knew the next day the facilities were not obliterated when his Sec Def Hegseth and General Caine of the Joint Chiefs would not echo the president's words "completely obliterated" in describing the damage.

Significantly damaged? Yes, of course. Completely obliterated? Not a chance.
Even Sec State Rubio is saying the program "has been set behind significantly from where it was a week ago. It is in far worse shape than where it was a week ago because of US actions."

So Sec State Rubio has looked at the damage assessments and determined himself that the Iranian nuclear program has in fact not been totally obliterated.

So why is Trump persisting in this myth?

Based on new reporting, we now know the Iranians moved their nuclear material before the strikes and that at best, their capability was most likely only set back a few months as they retain all of their pre strike nuclear material.

Let's fast forward a few months, once Iran starts anew their efforts to get nuclear weapons.

Do we go back? Will we be bombing again?

Or is their spirit totally broken in the sense of Japan after the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as Trump claimed today from the NATO summit.

We live in an increasingly dangerous world. More dangerous today with Donald Trump as president.

Les Carpenter said...

Continuing to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results: The definition of insanity.

As long as religious zealots in Iran and Israel exist, as long as there is money to be made (MIC), and as long as arrogance (Israel & USA) rules we will never see an end to conflict in the ME or elsewhere.

Dave Miller said...

Now let's add this into the mix...

In April the the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council [NIC], Mike Collins, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof were fired . This action was taken after the NIC produced an assessment that contradicted claims made by President Donald Trump regarding the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

President Trump had a narrative he was pushing and according to the evidence and the analysis of the NIC he was wrong. So he fired them, because without evidence, he disagreed with them.

Or as ppl said after the 2020 elections, we don't need evidence, we already know the election was stolen. Or as people said after Obama won, we don't care what the evidence shows, we believe differently. Or as the Trump Admin said in 2016, "we have alternative facts". Or as MAGA ppl have been saying since 2016, Democrats are just better at hiding the evidence, we know Hillary Clinton is guilty. Or as Mayor Giuliani said about the 2020 election, "we have no evidence, we have lots of theories".

The Trump team and their enablers have a tenuous relationship with the truth, facts and evidence. They believe what they want to believe, independent of the facts. Just look at voter fraud as one example among many.

So now what will happen to those analysts who dared to spill the beans on the truth of our raids on Iran? What will happen to their after incident reports?

Will they soon be replaced? Will a significantly damaged facility in Iran suddenly become "totally obliterated"? Will significantly damaged suddenly mean "totally obliterated" as VP Vance has already claimed?

I dare say our resident MAGA anti government trolls, who have excoriated the Johnson Admin for the Tonkin Gulf BS will have a 100% change of heart now that the government doing the gaslighting is one of their choosing.

But hey, I'm an optimist. Maybe the -FJ cabal will be honest, step up and say what many already know to be true... the emperor has no clothes.

BB-Idaho said...

$25 million for a few holes in the ground. Almost as much his his beautiful parade.

Dave Miller said...

BB... notice that 25 million did not include the needless flights to Guam by another squadron because the DoD had to provide a feint because Trump had blown mission secrecy to blab about our plans.

Shaw Kenawe said...

When will Americans and the media learn to always question anything Trump says or posts on his social media platform? Do they forget that he's a pathological liar, incapable of telling the truth? He creates his own reality, and that reality is very often WRONG, which leaves the American people vulnerable to his often wrong reactions to world crises and the consequences of his fantasies.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Yes. Nothing has changed since President Eisenhower talked about the MIC. Nothing.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Put a con man in charge of a nation and get a con man's flim-flam policies.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984

Shaw Kenawe said...

Rick Wilson:

"The Only Thing Trump Obliterated Is The Truth

Why boasting triumphalism about Iran puts us in danger.

It’s always the same movie with Donald Trump. Same clunky script. Same overacting. Same goddamn ending. He opens with fireworks, chest-thumping, and the subtlety of a meth-addled rhinoceros, but when the smoke clears, the big, beautiful explosion he promised turns out to be a firecracker in a trash can.

This week’s sequel?

Mission: Accomplished in Iran, a geopolitical fantasy where Trump personally crafts an OPLAN of a B-2 strike so earth-shatteringly awesome that it allegedly vaporized Iran’s nuclear capability in one glorious orgy of American might. He swaggered to the microphones and his Dollar Store social media platform like a C-grade Bond villain, declaring the “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program. All caps. All lies.

Before any intelligence assessment was even a gleam in the eye of some smart DIA and Stratcom intel officers, Trump declared Iran’s nuclear program “totally obliterated.”

It was Trump’s version of Trump’s version of BDA, but instead of Battle Damage Assessment, it’s Bullshit Delusion Always.

No matter what, he was going to declare total victory. It’s as ludicrous as the claims that he’s 6’4” and 225lbs, that he won the 2020 election..."

Les Carpenter said...

Only when people fully awake to the reality they've been played, used, conditioned, and lied to by the gop for the past 57 years will anything change. And really, that is about as likely to happen as it is that rocks will someday fly.

Dave Miller said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Conservative said...

Who cares? What's the cost of WWIII? Iran's nuclear program is not a threat to us. It's also not a threat to Israel. It's only a threat to your imaginations.

skudrunner said...

It will take some time to determine if the attack was warranted and successful but of course trump is taking a bow and the left is in a tizzy. Even the countries in the ME are saying allowing iran to possess nuclear weapons would be catastrophic. We know what inaction by beachchair joe caused, gaza, Ukraine, American deaths in Afghanistan, Minneapolis, Portland, the Southern Border. Where were you when these actions and in-actions resulted in deaths and solved nothing. Try supporting the US and our troops no matter what side you are on.
Any victory is the actions of our military no matter who takes credit or who hates the US.

Les Carpenter said...

For once JC has it right.

We we now need to be concerned with is possible terrorist attacks against US interests and possibly on our soil.

BB-Idaho said...

Israel has at least 90 nuclear weapons in its arsnal, almost twice as many as N Korea. Enriched Uranium is considerably less efficient than Plutonium and the delivery systems vary in complexity and distance. The "Holy Land" has been a hotbed of violence from the dawn of time. It is believed the Iranians have about 600 lbs scattered and hidden in several places. We just poked our Hegseth finger into a hornet's nest.

Dave Miller said...

As Skud said, it will take some time to determine "if the attack... was successful."

Exactly right.

But that is not how President Trump functions. He needs to take credit for looking like a strong leader immediately. Because he lets his ego get in the way of good policy, good actions and good politics.

So Trump, when he announced the mission said...

"Tonight, I can report to the world that... Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated."

Not a single one of Trump's advisors have used that language, either the next morning, or since.

Now we have reports, furiously denied by the White House, that intelligence does not support the "completely and totally obliterated" description the President used.

Sec State Rubio refused to use those words. Sec Def Hegseth refused to use those words. Gen Caine, Joint Chiefs Chairman refused to use those words. VP Vance refused to use those words.

The intelligence reports say there was significant damage that will take time to assess. The same many of the ppl I referenced above said.

Yet Trump, like a deer, is stuck in the headlights. because of his ego.

All he had to do was use the term significant damage, we're waiting for the after action report, we're gonna wait and see.

But he didn't do that.

Here's what's interesting. Those words, "completely and totally obliterated" are very specific. I've got to ask... why can't President Trump be just as specific about support for Article Five of the NATO charter?

But he can't.

There's a glitch in his communications system.

Dave Miller said...

Well Joe... your view seems to be a minority view across the US political world, both inside and outside of MAGA Land.

Many believe a nation that refuses to even acknowledge the nation of Israel has a right to exist should not have access to a nuclear bomb.

Count me as skeptical that Iran would be using any nukes as mostly deterrence a la North Korea. But hey, I could be wrong.

Dave Dubya said...

Skud forgot to blame Biden for covid, WMDs in Iraq, the plague, and every war, every crime and every natural disaster in history.
Come on, Skud. Get with it. Blame everyone but Trump and Republicans for everything. We KNOW you want to.

skudrunner said...

Dave, Just wait a week and he will be onto another self promoting project. He takes credit for anything that looks good and lets others iron out the truth and the details. That is kinda what CEO's do. They don't do the follow up just dream of the idea and take credit for what goes right and blame others for what goes wrong.

Les Carpenter said...

The FOTUS and the Zionist Butcher may very well be the two sparks that ignite WW III.

Joe Conservative said...

Do you want the Israeli's to STOP bombing Iran? Better say, "Their nuclear facilities were totally and absolutely OBLITERATED." To say less is to invite WWIII and force Israel to "make sure".

Joe Conservative said...

You really think Israel won't strike Iran first with nukes? Then you haven't been watching. Iran will only ever have nukes if they secretly buy them and use them before Mosad finds out.

Les Carpenter said...

If that's how the FELON plays it sooner or later it'll come home to roost. Exactly when or how who knows. But where there is cause there'll be an effect. And sooner or latter... BOOM! Humankind will fill the prophesied end of the world.

Violence ultimately leads to more violence. And the bloid Thirsty Butcher of Israel seems bent on Violence. It is he who needs to vanish.

Joe Conservative said...

America and Israel have clearly demonstrated that they hold the upper hand in the region. All they require now is the will to respond to future provocations.

Dave Miller said...

Joe... I want him to grow up and quit being a narcissistic egomaniac. Even Z is tired of his lies, his BS exaggerations, etc., and she's a huge believer in him.

It's amazing to me that people who used to say someone acting like Trump, lying without shame, exaggerating on a serial basis, was a jerk and should not be president, now love it.

I just don't get it.

Joe Conservative said...

Thomas Kuhn once explained the paradox of scientific progress. Science went through phases of normal and revolutionary advancement. Trump has "revolutionized" the political process, much as Einstein revolutionized Physics. Many people like Z who practice "normal politics", have not yet accepted the changed "revolutionary" paradigm.

America has been on political "autopilot" since WWII. We have reached a time when the normal 'autopilot' politics had to change, to meet the new challenges of the economy. The capitalist Neoliberal "open society" order had reached its' limits and was stalling out. Technology has stealthily "replaced" it, and we are now entering a period of technofeudalism. We have become an internet-based "cloud capital" based system with tech lords like Musk, vassals in the form of corporations producing products, and serfs (gig and Itsy-based economy), all trying to "Achieve" in the new Tech-based "Achievement Society.

We need to transition the economic paradigm from technofeudalism to a Third Wave Prosumer economy. This is the "Power Shift" that Alvin Toffler wrote about in the 80's, when Silicon Valley was just taking off.

The commodification of "information" is well under way (capitalism was originally the commodification of land, labour, and capital). We need new politics to get ahead of it, and prevent the complete commodification of information.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

o/t - @ Shaw et al,

Is anyone else getting a lot of Blogger traffic from Vietnam and Brazil today? I think Blogger may soon be experiencing a DDoS attack. I got over 80k visits today, and am still getting a steady 100 visits per minute.

Dave Dubya said...

Labels. Orwell's "INGSOC" (English Socialism) was plain old fascism (National Socialism).
Trumpism is just the latest incarnation of fascism. It demolished truth and exploited the flaws and remaining good faith in our system.
Same lies. Same treachery. Same corruption. Same criminality. Same cruelty. Same oligarchy.
"Technofeudalism" is just a new wrapping on the same rotting pile of putrid fish.

Les Carpenter said...

You mean future butchering opportunities for the Zionist Butcher Netanyahu.

Joe Conservative said...

I think Z figured it out. We now have an active Chinese-Style Social Credit Scoring System actively monitoring the Internet (and able to DDoS shut-down individuals at will).

Dave Dubya said...

One thing Geeez hasn't figured out is Trump is a pathological liar:

BB-IDAHO....since you’re on the Left, do you even NOTICE statements like the one Ed picked out of my NPR article for this post? “FALSEHOOD”.

“The fact that the development and rollout follow President Trump’s falsehoods about widespread noncitizen voting makes election experts wary of how this new tool will work.”

The media NEVER wrote those things before….they’d write “Unsubstantiated” or “Trump’s belief that…”

Now the NEWS has DECIDED it’s FALSEHOODS…………………sickening bast*rds. OOOOPS sorry!! The media is the judge and jury.

I ALSO WISH TRUMP WOULD STOP STOP STOP THE UGLY SCHOOL YARD NAME CALLING.


The intimidated media's failure to call Trump a liar is a big reason he's still around.

Who couldn’t imagine an ugly schoolyard bully doesn’t lie? Geez.