Israel strikes Iran (Update: US Bombs Iran at #848)

Israeli intelligence was better in assessing things

 

I didn't say I agreed with Sharmine Narwani's post. I said "Iranian take."
That said, Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty to involve the US in war. Right now Israel is starting to falter, i.e. the path they are on cannot be sustained without US involvement. We should not underestimate what Netanyahu is capable of..

 

And Iran was responsible for about 1 in 5 causalities in Iraq and has repeatedly conducted terror acts against the US.

How is the Israeli attack starting to falter? They have air supremacy over Iran right now. They could drop a parachute regiment onto the nuclear sites and have them going in an destroy it on the ground at this point if they wanted. What Israel is experiencing now is called catastrophic success.

 

Of course, that CENTCOM. You think there are, like, multiple geographic combatant commands for a given region the government has to choose from and they just go with the one who has the best slides? “Here at U.S. Central Command, we know you have many options to choose from when deciding to change the regime of a Middle Eastern despot. Thank you for making us your choice for Iraq.”

If your objection is to the war itself, CENTCOM did not make that decision. The President and over two-thirds of the Congress did. CENTCOM just executed the military aspects. If your objection is to the intelligence, CENTCOM creates very little of that intelligence itself. What CENTCOM does do is synthesize and analyze the various reports of the IC and our allies into reports such as you saw linked there. But if a war from over 20 years ago means you don’t need to read that report, then okay.

 

Interesting there is such wide variability in the assessment of the status of Iranian nuclear program (imminent to years away). But this is my concern with what has happened so far and why I think Iran needs to agree to a complete dismantling overseen by the US and international community, or we take out the facilities:

Now, after days of Israeli airstrikes, US intelligence officials believe that so far, Israel may have set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a matter of months, according to one of those people, a US official. Even as Israel has done significant damage to Iran’s facility at Natanz, which houses centrifuges necessary to enrich uranium, a second, heavily fortified enrichment site at Fordow has remained effectively untouched.​

Israel lacks the capability to damage Fordow without specific US weapons and aerial support, defense experts say.​

“Israel can hover over those nuclear facilities, render them inoperable, but if you really want to dismantle them it’s either a US military strike or a deal,” said Brett McGurk, a former top diplomat to the Middle East under the Trump and Biden administrations and a CNN analyst.
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https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/politics/israel-iran-nuclear-bomb-us-intelligence-years-away

 

Israel and the US backed Al Qaeda and Islamic State in Syria

If you think Israel can take out Iran's nuclear facilities why don't they do it?

 

You mean why do they not drop a parachute regiment on the nuclear development sites?

 

Well, in fairness, there were lots of doubts by many highly placed, highly competent people on both sides of the aisle about how good and deep the Israeli intelligence was. Speaking for self, I was probably less skeptical than TG, but if you had told me, “Israeli intelligence is so good, they can place the entire IRGC general staff in one room, kill them in one stroke, and take out all of the Iranian nuclear scientists in one night,” I would have said, “You, sir, smokith the crack.” TG is almost certainly second-guessing her assumptions about Israeli intelligence today. Everyone should be doing the same.

 

AIPAC has tremendous influence on Congress. They've gotten many Americans to believe that what benefits Israel benefits the US.

 

The top MAGA influencers almost unanimously oppose starting a war with Iran

 

But we were told MAGA is a cult

 

Even as you blare your dog-whistle, the very thought that Israel attacked the Liberty to involve the US in the War is one of the silliest tropes that has ever been uttered on this Board.

Some context for those who (understandably) may not be aware of facts: The Liberty was in hostile waters in the middle of the 6 day War in 1967, almost 60 years ago. The Liberty was in the hostile waters, as a neutral vessel, to send intelligence to US channels about the progress of the war. Israeli war planes mistakenly believed the ship was Egyptian, and attacked, and the Navy supported the attack by launching torpedoes. Roughly an HOUR AFTER THE ATTACK, Israel learned the first signs it had attacked not an Egyptian ship, but possibly a “neutral” ship. Upon learning of the horrible mistake, Israel then sent aide and assistance to the vessel. Certainly too little too late under any definition.

Israel quickly made its formal apologies. Israel paid agreed upon reparations for the at-War error. And the tragic event was put behind the two countries.

Here’s a helpful official explanation and timeline for those interested in facts:

Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

Now, turning to absurdity of accusing Israel of deliberately trying to envelope the US into war … This was in 1967, not today. Israel very quickly accepted responsibility for the egregious errors. And thus, given that the World knew that Israel catastrophically sunk a neutral, American vessel, the suggestion is that Israel would intentionally involve the US to declare War on Israel?!?!?!

Israel has been accused of many things, but patently stupid is not one of them.

 

I can't believe people don't understand the differrence between the US deploying 1-3 day bombing raid in Iran to back Isreal's play and to destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure, to "going to war".

No boots on the ground. It's not part III of Iraq and Afganistan.

 

My own view, at least as it stands today, is why directly involve US soldiers or pilots when we can leave it to Israel todo the heavy lifting? It appears, at least for the moment, that Israel has the task at hand. Give Israel the aide and material, and thank them for our collective safety.

 

Obviously sending in an occupying force is different than bombing a country (that was the entire justification behind our use of nukes in WWII), but bombing a country is still an act of war and has the potential to cause an escalation including drawing us into a sea battle. I still support taking out their facilities but look at it with open eyes and weighing the risks.

 

Israel’s justification for this war was to take out Iranian nuclear capabilities which they can’t do. We also can’t simply give them a B-2 bomber and some GBU-57s and tell them to have fun.

 

Yep... Israel needs the US for bunker busting and maybe some mass bombing of missile/drone facilities. I don't think Israel cares about Iran's navy, so the US might want to some thing there as well. The rest is Israel.

 

Until Trump flipped at the request of Erdogan the US backed the Syrian Kurds were fighting against the Islamic State in Syria. In fact the Kurds in both Syria and Iraq played a significant role in the defeat of ISIS, a result for which Trump regularly claims complete credit.

 

Some sort of sea battle may be part of it. The goal would be to completely neuter Iran's military.