I hope you’re sitting down folks, because it turns out Donald Trump may not have been entirely truthful when he touted his attack on Iran as “a spectacular military success” that “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Embellishing the truth or, frankly, just outright lying is kind of Trump’s thing. But, unfortunately for him, the Pentagon must deal with actual facts and cold, hard reality… and the cold, hard reality seems to be that his attack has done little to dent Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
As reported by The Guardian, the Pentagon’s initial assessment of the impact of Trump’s strikes says they failed to destroy two of the targeted sites and, at best, have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. In another blow to Trump, it also concluded that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is undamaged, having been quietly moved to an unknown location before the strikes took place.
It also found that the primary target of the strikes, the Fordow uranium-enrichment facility buried within the Zagros mountains, likely only suffered surface damage. The core of the facility is buried beneath around 300ft of bedrock, which is why Israel pleaded with the United States to use its bunker-busters to reach it. Well, this is one bunker they couldn’t bust, as it apparently remains intact.
A modern Canute
Ideally, when presented with objective facts and evidence, a good leader would take them into account and adapt their plans, adjusting to the new information. Trump is simply attacking reality, taking to TruthSocial to insist, wrongly, that the facilities are “COMPLETELY DESTROYED”:
This message will be music to Iran’s ears. After all, if Trump is wrongly convinced the mission was a complete success, they theoretically don’t have to be afraid of any follow-up strikes. If the Air Force were to argue a second set of strikes is now necessary, they’d be calling Donald Trump out on his lies. And that famously doesn’t go well.
Ultimately, not even the president can argue with reality forever. Trump has an unusual ability to bend reality to his will, but he can’t bloviate and yell loud enough to turn a military failure into a success. He can be as angry as he wants: that nuclear facility will still be there. Perhaps we should remember King Canute, sitting on a beach frantically ordering the incoming tide to retreat even as the waves wash around his feet and ankles.
