Josh Marshall (TPM) explains of the bombing of Iran by the US:
Trump has referred to this as very successful and — if I’m understanding his statement — essentially done. I don’t think that’s how it works. My understanding is that there’s real uncertainty about how many strikes it would take to destroy especially the Fordow facility, which is buried deep in a mountainside. So I think we should be skeptical about how we know how successful this was. You need after action reports to have any sense of what actually happened. The geography here, the composition of the mountainside, how it interacts with these particular munitions. These are incredibly complicated and make outcomes uncertain. (I’m going from memory since we’re reacting to breaking news. So keep that in mind.) The U.S. has conducted extensive testing on these “bunker buster” bombs. And there has been extensive planning going back a number of years on how this attack specifically would be carried out. The Pentagon produces and maintains war plans on almost everything. But this specifically has been planned out in great detail and over many years.
Has Fordow been destroyed as Trump seems to be saying? I very much doubt the military planners would be stating that so confidently at this point.
Let me add a political judgment where, unlike with munitions, I feel like I have understanding of the situation. Trump’s statement on Truth Social was very much: “We did it. It worked. It’s done.” I think Trump felt like he’d gotten himself far out on a limb with his threats and was now in a position where if he didn’t act he’d again be mocked as someone who always caves in response to fear or pressure — TACO, as they’re now saying. So he was stuck there and it was weighing on him. Now he feels like he’s addressed it. He acted. He doesn’t chicken out. Whether the facilities were actually destroyed or how much they were damaged is less of a priority. But I suspect he at least feels like he got himself out of the box he’d gotten himself into. I think that’s what’s driving a lot of this.
Let’s state the obvious that the U.S. has committed a major act of war against another country without any specific immediate or even medium term threat. This is not a token bombing of the kind the U.S. has done more than a few times in the post-Cold War era to make a point.
Lets do a round up of what people are saying. The editorial boards of WSWS writes:
June 21, 2025 is a day that will live in infamy. In a massive and unprovoked assault, the United States launched a sneak attack on Iran, dropping the most powerful non-nuclear bunker-buster bombs ever used in combat on Iranian nuclear energy facilities. This act of aggression is the continuation and escalation of the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, and threatens to engulf the entire Middle East and set the world on fire.
Codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” the assault involved more than 125 aircraft, including at least eight B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, backed by fighter jets, refueling tankers and surveillance aircraft, in what was the largest B-2 strike operation in US history.
The centerpiece of the attack was the deployment of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 13.6-ton bunker-busting bomb—the most powerful non-nuclear weapon of its kind ever used. Twelve MOPs were dropped on the heavily fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site, and two more on Natanz. These were accompanied by numerous 2,900-pound Tomahawk missiles, which rained down on both facilities as well as the Isfahan research complex.
US President Donald Trump justified his attack in a four-minute homicidal, lying rant, delivered Saturday night. Announcing that US forces had struck three nuclear facilities, he claimed they were part of a “horribly destructive enterprise” which was supposedly necessary to “stop the nuclear threat” posed by Iran.
In fact, these sites are part of Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program, developed in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and subject to international inspection. For years, the United States’ own intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran was not actively pursuing nuclear weapons. But in the tradition of the Bush administration’s lies about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction,” Trump once again invoked fabricated threats to justify extraordinarily reckless acts of unprovoked aggression.
Trump boasted of the “spectacular military success” of the attack, which he intended to serve as a message to the entire region, declaring that “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.”
The reference to Iran as the “bully of the Middle East” turns reality on its head. For over a third of a century, US imperialism has been at war and carried out regime change operations throughout the region, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Over the past two years, the Israeli government has waged a genocidal war in Gaza with continuous US support, slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. This has been merely a dress rehearsal for a broader campaign of mass murder.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation issued this statement:
Donald Trump’s destruction of Iran civilian nuclear energy sites by the use of bunker busting bombs and cruise missiles will open the gates of hell in the Middle East, perhaps igniting a regional and global war. The people in the United States should imagine their reaction if a foreign power dropped 31,000 pound bombs and launched cruise missiles to destroy US civilian nuclear reactors. This is what Donald Trump did to Iran tonight. This is a war crime!
And to make it even more outrageous, Trump included in his announcement of the strikes that “now is the time for peace!” To include a call for peace in a literal announcement of war is a mind-blowing expression of hypocrisy and arrogance that has perhaps no equivalent in world history. What Trump has done is shred hopes for peace, and instead plunged the region and perhaps the world deeper into devastating conflict.
In his White House address tonight, Trump claimed “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater, and a lot easier.” It is hard to imagine a statement that more completely turns reality on its head. Just since the Bush administration, the United States has invaded Afghanistan, invaded Iraq, bombed Libya, Syria and Yemen, and made Israel’s genocide in Gaza possible. It is the US and Israel, not Iran, who are “the bully of the Middle East”. And how is the onus on Iran to make peace, when they have been the victim of an unprovoked, brutal aerial bombardment by Israel and now the United States itself?
Trump also said in his speech, “I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” That Trump would embrace an internationally wanted war criminal like Benjamin Netanyahu is no surprise – Trump himself is a war criminal and a hardline supporter of the genocidal Israeli regime.
Because of Trump’s aggression, there is now no telling how far this will escalate. Iran could imminently retaliate by hitting one or more of the many U.S. military bases that surround their country. If this leads to U.S. casualties, the next step could be an open-ended U.S. bombing campaign, a “boots on the ground” invasion, or even the uncontrollable spread of war around the world. The one who is responsible for the grave danger to every person on the planet is the war criminal Donald Trump.
Trump was lying when he promised that he would keep the United States at peace. Since his entry onto the political scene, Trump has tried to take advantage of widespread opposition to endless war in the Middle East by pretending to share this view. But at his core, Trump is a hardcore militarist who wants to use the Pentagon war machine to bully and subjugate the entire world. Human lives – Iranians or the working class youth he sends to kill and die – are of absolutely no concern to Trump and the other war mongers.
Trump is also lying when he says that Iran was about to develop a nuclear weapon. Even the U.S. government’s own intelligence does not believe that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear-armed power. And the hypocrisy is striking – Israel is a nuclear weapons state but refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the United States has the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpile and is the only country to have ever actually used nuclear weapons in war. “Iran is developing nuclear weapons” is a poor imitation of George W. Bush’s lie about Iraq’s supposed “weapons of mass destruction”, and just as false.
The people of the United States do not want another endless war. Tomorrow and in the coming days, people will be taking to the streets across the country and around the world to say: “No war on Iran!”
At IN THESE TIMES, Phyllis Bennis offers:
The reckless, illegal U.S. bombing of Iran on Saturday night opens another new and profoundly dangerous phase of conflict across the Middle East, and potentially even further. This was an act of war, launched in violation of both United States and international law. While various White House officials claimed during the first hours after the bombing was announced that this would be a “one and done” operation, and that no more strikes were planned, this is in fact the beginning of what is likely to be a medium-to long-term U.S. war. And we are far from knowing how it will end.
For its part, Israel made no such claim of one and done — indeed, Tel Aviv continued bombing Tehran, a city of 10 million people, even as U.S. warplanes were attacking the nuclear facilities elsewhere in Iran. Just 24 hours before the U.S. bombing raids, the head of the Israeli military warned its population of the need to prepare for a long war.
President Trump said that there will be either “peace or tragedy” for Iran. He didn’t mention what it would mean for the people of Iran — Israeli bombing has killed at least 430 people since the strikes began on June 13. And he certainly showed no concern for anyone else — not for the 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, for neighboring countries, for Palestinians, for Israelis, or for the United States. Trump also didn’t mention the role of Israel’s rarely-discussed nuclear arsenal — of around 90 or more nuclear bombs at the Dimona plant — in destabilizing the region, in undermining non-proliferation and in violating international law.
At THE NEW REPUBLIC, Michael Tomasky observes:
Are you surprised? If you’re surprised, frankly, you’re a fool. You understand nothing about politics and international affairs, and you bought into obviously dishonest propaganda about who Donald Trump is.
As of the morning of Friday the 13th, as fate would have it, it was about 90 percent likely that the president was going to join Israel’s war on Iran. That was the day, according to numerous news accounts, that Trump woke up to see the hosts on Fox News bleating about how tough Benjamin Netanyahu was (the bombing had started the night before). Trump’s social media posts that day made it obvious that he wanted a piece of that action.
Once those wheels start turning, history tells us that it’s the rare leader indeed who has the will to tap the brakes. There’s something about men and war; have you noticed? It was reported at the outbreak of the Iraq War that of the past 3,400 years of human history, our race had been completely at peace for only 268 of them.
Before going any further, I want to allow for the possibility that this might not end in disaster. First of all, no one wants a nuclear-armed Iran, so if these strikes actually accomplished that, then that’s a plus. Second, if this attack somehow topples 86-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei, that could end up being to the good, in theory anyway. Third, there is a chance it might not lead to a full-blown war, because Trump is crazy enough to nuke Tehran, and I’d imagine the Iranians know it. It’s for this reason that Iran might not retaliate on a massive scale. As Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay at the time) said of his pre-fight antics toward Sonny Liston, “Only a fool ain’t afraid of a crazy man.”
But Iran will retaliate in some way. There are 40,000 or so U.S. troops in the Mideast, stationed on bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Bharain, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. Iran, according to globalfirepower.com, has the world’s 16th most powerful armed forces. The United States is number one, of course, but 16 ain’t too shabby.
Fred Kaplan (SLATE) concludes, "In other words, we could be on the precipice of a new, possibly more peaceful Middle East—or a wider, more violent war that draws in American citizens, whether we like it or not."
I'm tapped out and tired. I have one idea regarding commenting on the above and will save it for tomorrow morning. Ava and my piece just went up at THIRD.
Sorry if you were wanting a full edition. We're not in the mood to wait.
We had to write a hard piece where we call out someone we know and like.
There was no reason for her to lie but she chose to lie. And, yes, when White women lie about Black men, we are back in the day of lynching.
The man in question? Slime. I don't like him, I've never liked him and I've made that clear here and at THIRD. And did so years before he got exposed for assaulting women.
But that doesn't mean you can make up things to attack him with.
I said this about Chump over and over here during his first term: Don't lie to make him worse.
If we have to lie to call out Chump, what does that say about us?
So it's the same with regards to Bill Cosby. I've also called him out to his face going back to his freak out over Lisa Bonet's pregnancy. I am not and have never been his friend. He's helped many people over the years but not me and I don't owe him anything.
What's he's done is horrible. Why in the world do you have to lie about him with all there is to call out? It makes you look dishonest and makes other people wonder if others are lying as well.
It was hard to write for that reason and I don't want to look at it again. I certainly don't want to have to rework it.
So we finihed our piece and no one else was done but we're done with what we wrote and it's now published.
The following sites updated:
