You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
You can't say civilization don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way.
We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed a top Iranian general as it traded more strikes with its longtime foe, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned residents of Tehran to evacuate while demanding that Iran surrender without conditions.
Thank you very much.A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive, precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime. Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.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.Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. Future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.For 40 years, Iran has been saying. Death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East, and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular. So many were killed by their general, Qassim Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that's so. I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan 'Razin' Caine, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.And I want to just thank everybody. And, in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.
The legality of this is really questionable, as is the wisdom, and effectiveness, of it. And the development of the US openly taking a part in a Middle Eastern War, started by Israel, on behalf of Israel, is a dangerous development. The US has never done that before.
As war is an extension of politics by other means, and all politics is local:
June 23, 2025
The United States and Israel v Iran
Since the US B-2 missions (which were impressively flown out of Missouri in the longest bombing mission of all time), there have global reactions to the strike, some of which praised it. It's clear that European nations generally support them.
Russia issued a statement in which it condemned them and indicated that now other nations may transfer nuclear weapons to Iran. How much Russia can be trusted in regard to anything it states is a clearly open question, but being concerned about this possibility, particularly as Pakistan is nearby, is perhaps merited. Likewise, being concerned about what rogue state North Korea may do is also warranted.
Iran itself has indicated that it will close the Straits of Hormuz and that it will otherwise retaliate.
The morality of this action is debatable and interesting. It's clearly an act of war with no clear exist strategy based on the hope of Iranian concession. However, the argument can be made that waiting until Iran had a nuclear weapon, which they are clearly working on, would put the world in an untenable position.
That it is an act of war was interestingly noted when a Congressman on This Week said Iran could "sue for peace". You only sue for peace in a declared war, which this is not.
A group of Congressmen have put together a war powers resolution seeking to limit further US action. It's all Democrats save for one Republican. If history is our guide, politically most Americans will support action against Iran, at least at first. If things drag on, they'll be discontented. In the short term condemning the strike is probably a bad political move, but in the long term it might not be. If Iran is not cowed into submission, and perhaps its regime can't afford to be, we'll either have to materially support an ongoing Iranian air war indefinitely or become more involved in it. People repeatedly are noting that there will not be "boots on the ground", and there very likely won't be on a largescale, but on a small scale there may very well be. If Iran closes the Straits of Hormuz the U.S. Navy will have to reopen them, and that will be a major task.
cont:
Yeoman's Fourth Law of History at work, and Donald Trump demonstrating that he doesn't know how economies work.
June 24, 2025
The United States and Israel v Iran
On the Iranian retaliation, which was muted:
Update Video: Iran “Retaliates.” It appears to be over.
Apparently a cease fire has been agreed to, although there may have been some post agreement fighting.
A ceasefire isn't a peace agreement. What's going on, and what was achieved, are the real questions.
And of course, Trump is acting weird.
And this:
We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.
Donald Trump.
June 24, 2024
United States and Israel v. Iran.
An early assessment holds that Iran's nuclear facilities were not destroyed, only damages, and they're merely set back in the production of an atomic weapon a few months.
Can't say I'm surprised.
So the US attack may have simply reinforced the Iranian desire for a nuclear weapon.
cont:
A report by an expert on NPR Politics holds that there's no way that Iran's nuclear program was destroyed.
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