Israel Hits Iran Nuke Site to Limit Access; Source: Iran is not Iraq, A Land War Would be Bloody
June 23—Spokesmen for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said today that its aircraft struck Iran's nuclear facility at Fordow and the roads and other infrastructure around it, after U.S. B-2 bombers had devastated the site—embedded 300 feet in a mountain near Qom—with six 15-ton bunker-buster bombs on Sunday, Iranian time.
Sources close to the White House said the IDF attack, which was part of a larger raid on Iranian government sites including the gate to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, where the regime holds its political prisoners, was coordinated with the Pentagon. The purpose was to restrict and prevent access to the site, so as to limit possible repairs and, more importantly, the movement of equipment to other locations.
Conflicting Claims About Damage to Fordow
While President Donald Trump, in speaking to the nation, said that Fordow—one of Iran's most important known enrichment facilities—had been completely destroyed by the U.S. attack, others said such statements were premature. That was especially the case, said a source with contacts in Iran, since the Iranians had reportedly removed much of the equipment, including the centrifuges used in the enrichment process, to other as-yet-undisclosed locations in the vast country, even before the first Israeli strikes on Fordow and three other Iranian enrichment facilities starting June 13.
Sources with contacts in the IDF command say that, while the combined effects of the IDF attacks and the subsequent bunker-busting attacks by the U.S. B-2s have undoubtedly crippled Iran's program to create a bomb—which the Israelis alone claim was in full operation, while U.S. intelligence and even the International Atomic Energy Agency find no evidence to support—the strikes have not, at this point, eliminated the Iranian program. These sources doubt that any air campaign alone will be able to do that.
Netanyahu’s Endgame and U.S. Tensions
“Bibi has refused to say that the threat has been totally removed,” said a source, referring to Israel’s messianic Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu. “But Bibi has another purpose in making such a denial. He wants the U.S. to join Israel in a mop-up campaign with troops on the ground. He wants this because this will trigger the wider war with Iran that he wants, one that would totally destroy that nation. Bibi is totally insane in this and has already rejected any kind of negotiated deal. Trump has no intention of joining this campaign to destroy the Iranian nation, which he does not support. He wants the war to end.”
Bibi has some other cards to play in this, said the source. “The world is awaiting Iran’s response to the U.S. attack. Iran is being urged to show constraint, and to attack only American military targets on U.S. bases in the region, which are in the range of Iran’s missiles. If they do more than that, or if they strike the U.S. outside the region—such as in a terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland—then all bets are off and Bibi gets his wider war, with an angry Trump fully played.”
But another source warned that Bibi’s play could be something else if Iran shows restraint. An expert with more than 50 years’ experience on such matters says that Bibi could strike the U.S. with a “false flag” operation using some Iranian assets, or merely networks linked to the lunatic Kahanist movement that supports his government. “You think that is impossible? Then think again, because you don’t understand how crazy Bibi is. And he might be assisted in this by the British and NATO, who want this wider war in part to bust up the developing rapprochement between Trump and Vladimir Putin.”
There are at least some old and steady hands in the U.S. intelligence community who understand what’s in play here, and they are helped by Trump’s distrust of Bibi.
A Caution Against Ground Invasion
“You don’t want to fight the Iranians on their homeland,” said the source, who laughs at the “stupid neo-com commentators” as promoted by the NATO propaganda machine in the media. “Look at how stupid they [the commentators] are! They keep talking about how weak the regime and the Ayatollah are, and claim that U.S. and Israeli forces would be greeted as liberators, and the regime would be overthrown. Yes, the Ayatollah was weak—but that was before, when first Israel and then the U.S. bombed their country. Now, there are mass demonstrations in Tehran supporting the regime and demanding that Iran fight for its sovereignty. These same people—the majority of them—supported a deal with Trump, that Bibi never can support. They will still support it.”
“I worry about some of the yahoos in the U.S. military command, like this Air Force guy that Trump calls ‘Razin’ Caine [Gen. Daniel Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff],” said the source. “I fear that they might think the Iranian Army would perform like the Iraqis in Desert Storm, and not really fight. That these 'robo warriors' could roll into Iran, and the Iranians would give up in face of the mighty United States. The core of the Iranian Army is the five million highly trained Revolutionary Guards. They have joined that organization, which has three levels of force structure. Each person has joined with the commitment to become a martyr for Iran. They are committed to die, since Islam confers a special meaning to their life and martyrdom. Have you ever fought a trained military whose soldiers, to a man, are willing and wanting to die in destroying you? And we will send some kids trained on video games and smoking dope against this?”
“About a million or more of the Guards are organized into something called the ‘neighbors’ units,” the source concluded. “They don’t wear uniforms and run local businesses, but they are ready to fight deadly covert warfare against an invader, with arms in place. Some of these people are operating in foreign countries. Like the U.S.”
Call for a Negotiated Resolution
“So, you want to fight Iran? What the hell for, if there can be a peaceful way out of this? Are you prepared to accept mass casualties, or perhaps you think that you just do what Bibi wants and bomb them back to the Stone Age. The only way out of this is a negotiated settlement.”