I was watching the U.S. Secretary of Defense (soon to be renamed War Secretary) explain how the Fake News (i.e., CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times – and tangentially the Washington Post) are robbing the President of the credit due him for his “historic” doing that he did in attacking the three nuclear sites in Iran. He explained how the Fake News, who wish the President not to succeed, look for angles and wedges in a story that they can make into a scandal. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-hegseth-berates-news-media-during-briefing-on-u-s-strikes-against-iran. How does he know how news organizations spin the news? Well, he, who was handpicked by the President for his “good looks” on television be come the head of the Department of Defense https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestv/2024/12/10/tammy-duckworth-pete-hegseth-only-chosen-for-defense-secretary-because-trump-thinks-he-looks-good-on-tv/, was an employee of Fox News, where they did exactly what the Secretary accuses the other media of doing.
In announcing his equivalent of the U.S. nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, President used the word “obliterated” in describing the end result of the attack on the Iranian nuclear program (it ended the war, he said). We know he is given to hyperbole and superlatives about anything he does (including referring to himself as in the British royal “we” instead on I, and as “us” as in the U.S. in the French style of L’etat est moi). But, let’s dig deeper.
The word “obliterate” as in the obliteration of the Iranian nuclear program by any dictionary definition means “to do away with completely so as to leave no trace. To wipe out, rub off, or erase.” The American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993, p. 941 (emphasis added).
The Iranian nuclear program consists of three factors of production: Labor (human assets), capital (machinery), and land (location). In order for the U.S. to claim that it has “obliterated” the IRI’s nuclear program it should show that the U.S. and Israel in the “Twelve Days War” made extinct all of the three aforementioned factors that constituted Iran’s nuclear program. The jury is out on each of those factors.
While Israel, true to form, has been knocking off Iranian nuclear scientists and managers with impunity for some time now, there is no way of knowing how many more remain. As for the capital (machinery) factor, one cannot know for sure how much of the machinery (centrifuges, etc.) have survived the attacks on the Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan facilities or simply have been removed (along with the highly enriched uranium in solid form) prior to the attacks. The debate between the Administration and its skeptics however is over the effect of the strikes on Fordo (land) it self. All we know about the damage that the bunker-busting bombs (BBBs) delivered by the B-2 bombers (what is the obsession with Bs) is that they were dropped over Fordo – that is all. How much they penetrated into the inner sanctums of the facility is not known, other than by conjecture based on somebody’s, probably bomb manufacturer’s or other’s theoretical simulation of what that kiloton of explosive power can penetrate an do into structure (of unspecified concrete aggregate or mountain).
The braggadocious pronouncements of the President about the damage done to the Iranian nuclear program is as divorced from verifiable reality as is that of the IRI’s Supreme Leader pronouncement https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjxy039ln8o, minimizing the extent of the damage done to the Iranian sites.
The skepticism (by the media and others) about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program by the Israeli and American strikes leaves the door open to further attacks by Israel and the U.S. to finish the job! On the other hand, the Supreme Leader’s downplaying of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program is tantamount to an invitation to Israel and the U.S. to come and finish the job! And they may just do that!
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