{"id":7633,"date":"2025-06-22T03:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/?p=7633"},"modified":"2025-06-28T14:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T19:48:56","slug":"7633","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/2025\/06\/22\/7633\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

We wake up today and realize no more Quds Day parades!\u00a0\u00a0And less pressure for other states in the Middle East to develop nuclear weapons programs.\u00a0 And a better chance for peace and development in the region.\u00a0 Watch what Saudi Arabia does now.\u00a0 And without the pressure of a USSR, an Iraq, Syria, or an Iran using terror to push the Palestinians for their own purposes, we have the opportunity for a better future for them.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an article from a couple of days ago.\u00a0 See \u201cA New Middle East Is Unfolding Before Our Eyes,\u201d<\/a> Time, 6-19-25.<\/p>\n

To be fair to those who opposed this decision, I will mention AOC for the first, and maybe only time on this blog about Iran.\u00a0 But I also mention her comments here because I yesterday said Iran wasn\u2019t following its own constitution regarding succession, and here I need to say (and what the majority believes) that Pres. Trump was clearly within his constitution powers to do what he did yesterday.\u00a0 \u201cAOC says Trump’s Iran strikes “clearly grounds for impeachment”,\u201d<\/a> Newsweek, MSN, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOcasio-Cortez ripped the president’s action on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote, “The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLIVE: Pete Hegseth holds Pentagon briefing after US strikes on Iran nuclear sites,\u201d<\/a> AP, 6-22-25.<\/p>\n

Just words (in Parliament) at present, we\u2019ll see if there is action (from Bandar Abbas).\u00a0 \u201cIran reportedly moves to shut Strait of Hormuz after US attacks,\u201d<\/a> Politico, 6-22-25.\u00a0 \u201cThe Iranian parliament backed a measure to close the critical shipping route in response to U.S. airstrikes on nuclear sites in Iran, state media reported.\u201d\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter, in Iran, what the Parliament calls for.\u00a0 It is the IRGC and the NSC (and of course the Leader) who make these decisions.\u00a0\u00a0Israel and the U.S. have a number of analysts who are looking at thousands of variables for clues as to the Leader\u2019s decisions over the next days and weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cRubio says U.S. is ready to meet with Iran after strikes, calls closing Strait of Hormuz “suicidal”,\u201d<\/a> CBS Face the Nation, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0Sec. of State\/NSA Rubio said that as of now Iran does not want to meet.\u00a0 The U.S. is waiting to hear.<\/p>\n

Princeton should have dismissed this Iranian shill years ago, but they continue to support him.\u00a0 He\u2019s never written anything but pro-Regime articles.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAfter US attack, Iran could reconsider its nuclear strategy,\u201d<\/a> Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Middle East Eye, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0He argues that Iran should leave the NPT (but it wasn\u2019t complying anyway).\u00a0\u00a0Notice the essence of Mousavian\u2019s argument\u2014First, that at the end of the 60 day window that the U.S. withdrew its negotiators so the Iranians could not get the agreement concluded.\u00a0 This is not what happened, nothing in the news indicates this, and there is no contemporaneous record of such.\u00a0 Second, notice his complaint that Trump didn\u2019t wait the full two weeks.\u00a0 But the world saw that Trump said Within two weeks, not After two weeks.\u00a0 It hurts to get tricked into losing the nuclear weapons program, maybe he thinks Trump was speaking with taarof.\u00a0 See \u201cTrump to decide on US action in Israel-Iran conflict within two weeks,\u201d<\/a> BBC, 6-19-25.\u00a0\u00a0Here\u2019s the quote from Pres. Trump\u2014”Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”<\/p>\n

Remember how Gaddafi Libya gave up his nuclear weapons program in 2003–by being terrified he was next.\u00a0 I wonder what the Leader is thinking in his underground bunker now that the U.S. has used 14 GBU-57s?<\/p>\n

Classic.\u00a0 Even CNN fooled.\u00a0 \u201cMeanwhile, flight-tracking data reviewed by CNN showed multiple US B-2 stealth bombers taking off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Friday night and heading west. A U.S. defense official clarified that no formal order has been issued to launch any military operation involving the bombers. As of Saturday, the B-2s were flying over the Pacific Ocean and appeared to be enroute to Guam, a key U.S. base in the Western Pacific.\u201d\u00a0 See \u201cIsrael Strikes Iran\u2019s Bandar Abbas, Destroys F-14 Jets As US B-2 Bombers Head To Guam,”<\/a> News X, 6-22-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cGulf states on high alert after US strikes Iran’s nuclear sites,\u201d<\/a> Reuters, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0We will see if the Regime wants to survive in its current state or if it wants to risk its future by attacking the U.S. or other states around it.<\/p>\n

\n

One lonely voice at the (former) newspaper of record.\u00a0 \u201cTrump\u2019s Courageous and Correct Decision,\u201d<\/a> Bret Stephens, NYT, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIran\u2019s hopes of acquiring a nuclear weapon have probably been seriously degraded. And adversaries everywhere, including in Moscow and Beijing, must now know that they are not dealing with a paper tiger in the White House. The world is safer for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld Leaders React to the U.S. Strikes on Iran,\u201d<\/a> NYT, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0Again the UN Secretary General does not address the country who started the tumult, but waits to admonish the U.S. and Israel for self defense and non-proliferation.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said it before, countries are not equal like units or shapes on a playing board or votes in a General Assembly.\u00a0 If the UN wants peace, it has to take moral stands.<\/p>\n

Someone please tell NPR and the NYT and others that the aim of the U.S. strikes was to end the Iranian nuclear weapons program.\u00a0 What is the difference between destroyed and severely hurt and obliterated and etc.?\u00a0 For example, \u201cSatellites show damage to Iran’s nuclear program, but experts say it’s not destroyed,\u201d<\/a> NPR, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0Do the \u201cindependent analysts\u201d want the U.S. to use an atomic bomb on Fordow?\u00a0 What is a legitimate question, though, is where is the HEU?\u00a0 David Sanger of the NYT can ask this, \u201cOfficials Concede They Don\u2019t Know the Fate of Iran\u2019s Uranium Stockpile,\u201d<\/a> NYT, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cVice President JD Vance told ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d on Sunday, referring to a batch of uranium sufficient to make nine or 10 atomic weapons. Nonetheless, he contended that the country\u2019s potential to weaponize that fuel had been set back substantially because it no longer had the equipment to turn that fuel into operative weapons.\u201d\u00a0 \u2026\u00a0 And there was growing evidence that the Iranians, attuned to Mr. Trump\u2019s repeated threats to take military action, had removed 400 kilograms, or roughly 880 pounds, of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. That is just below the 90 percent that is usually used in nuclear weapons.\u00a0 The 60-percent enriched fuel had been stored deep inside another nuclear complex, near the ancient capital of Isfahan. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said by text that the fuel had last been seen by his teams of United Nations inspectors about a week before Israel began its attacks on Iran. In an interview on CNN on Sunday he added that \u201cIran has made no secret that they have protected this material.\u201d Asked by text later in the day whether he meant that the fuel stockpile \u2014 which is stored in special casks small enough to fit in the trunks of about 10 cars \u2014 had been moved, he replied, \u201cI do.\u201d That appeared to be the mystery about the fuel\u2019s fate that Mr. Vance was discussing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s supreme leader faces his defining moment,\u201d<\/a> Financial Times, 6-22-25.\u00a0 The Supreme Leader has to be careful.\u00a0 If he overplays his hand, the U.S. may decide to finally cut the head off the snake.<\/p>\n

In China\u2019s interest\u2014they get so much of their oil from the Gulf.\u00a0 \u201cUS urges China to dissuade Iran from closing Strait of Hormuz,\u201d<\/a> Reuters, 6-22-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnalysis: How might Iran retaliate against the US?,\u201d<\/a> FDD\u2019s Long War Journal, 6-22-25.\u00a0\u00a0\u201c[R]egime media circulated a video, purportedly filmed near the Fordow nuclear facility, then insisted the situation was \u201ccalm\u201d and there was \u201cno visible sign of a strike.\u201d\u00a0 In classic fashion, the Iranian regime is both minimizing the damage and threatening retaliation for an attack that it claims wasn\u2019t serious in the first place.\u201d The influential Long War Journal makes another appearance in the blog. \u201cTehran has historically relied on proxies\u2014especially in Iraq\u2014to target American positions. Between October and December 2023 alone, Iran-backed militias carried out at least 160 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. One of the most significant precedents came in 2020, when Iran responded to the US assassinating Qassem Soleimani, then-commander of the IRGC Qods Force, at Baghdad International Airport. While the current military campaign has overshadowed that event in scale, Tehran viewed Soleimani\u2019s death as a major escalation. In retaliation, it launched a ballistic missile barrage on Ayn al Asad airbase in Iraq\u2014but not before warning the US via Swiss diplomats and the Iraqi government, ensuring minimal American casualties. The response was forceful but calculated\u2014meant to show strength without provoking a full-scale war. \u2026 Regime ideologue Hossein Shariatmadari, who enjoys close ties to the supreme leader, perhaps captured Iran\u2019s likely response best. \u201cIt is now our turn. Without delay, and as a first step, we must launch missile strikes against the US naval fleet in Bahrain and simultaneously close the Strait of Hormuz to American, British, German, and French ships,\u201d Shariatmadari wrote. He ended his statement by citing a Quranic verse: \u201cAnd kill them wherever you find them.\u201d Tehran\u2019s response might include a combination of all these threats: striking US bases, assassination attempts, and disrupting the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump Meets the Moment on Iran:\u00a0 The President bombs three nuclear sites to spare the world from an intolerable risk,\u201d<\/a> WSJ Editorial Board, 6-22-25.<\/p>\n

I am predicting the martyr path to be chosen by the Ayatollah.\u00a0 His whole life is crumbling around him.\u00a0 He will strike out.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not how many persons will actually think of him as a martyr \u2026.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWill Iran Again Sip the \u2018Poison\u2019 of a Forced Peace, or Escalate?,\u201d<\/a> NYT, 6-22-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cBenjamin Netanyahu vs. Qassem Soleimani,\u201d<\/a> WSJ, 6-22-25.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We wake up today and realize no more Quds Day parades!\u00a0\u00a0And less pressure for other states in the Middle East to develop nuclear weapons programs.\u00a0 And a better chance for peace and development in the region.\u00a0 Watch what Saudi Arabia does now.\u00a0 And without the pressure of a USSR, an Iraq, Syria, or an Iran … <\/p>\n

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