Curiously, I was at home on the evening Thursday, 6/12, when I received the following text message from my son at 6:12pm: "Holy shit I can't believe this is happening." Needless to say, that prompted me to immediately turn on the TV. There it was. Someone was finally trying to put an end to Iran getting nuclear weapons. Not surprisingly, that someone was the tiny country of Israel. Israel has approximately 10 million people and is the size of New Jersey. Iran, on the other hand, has over 92 million people, and is more than twice the size of Texas. A fair fight? No. Iran didn't stand a chance.
I say "finally" someone was trying to end Iran's nuclear program, because I started writing about the issue the very first year of the blog. In a post of 11/26/09 (written on 09/26/09, and simply called "Iranian Nukes"), I pointed out that Obama had announced that Iran had built a secret, and undisclosed, nuclear facility deep into a mountainside. At the UN General Assembly meeting in September, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu accurately assessed the situation when he told the world that the struggle against Iran pits "civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death." It could not be any more clear.
I ended that early blog post with this observation: "We in the West are fools! After six years (of negotiating with Iran) we still believe in more talking, more negotiating - even though those six years accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING." At the turn of this century the U.S. did not have any direct contact with Iran; not since the Iranians held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days - ending on the day Ronald Reagan took office. But the Europeans, with the U.S. behind the scenes, were negotiating with Iran. And it's been the same for the last 20 to 25 years. Iran feigns interest in making a deal, all the while continuing to develop their nuclear enrichment.
No one should waste their time telling me about the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Obama's famous Iran nuke deal. That agreement (Obama did not have a sufficient number of votes in the Senate to make it a binding treaty) was signed onto by the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Russia, China, and of course, Iran. Many will remember the deal made by then President Clinton with North Korea regarding their desire to have nuclear weapons. We know how well that worked out. To evil dictators who abuse their own citizens, and who murder their own citizens, the words on a piece of paper mean nothing.
Nevertheless, President Trump wanted to give diplomacy a chance - for 60 days. On June 4, the Times of Israel reported that Ayatollah Khamenei said Trump's proposal was "100% against" the ideals of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The New York Times reported that "Iran has roughly doubled its stockpile of near bomb-grade uranium over the past three months even while negotiating with the Trump administration over a deal to limit its nuclear program, according to a confidential report that the United Nations nuclear inspection agency has begun circulating to capitals around the world." On June 7, the Times reported that Iran was able to produce a sufficient amount of bomb grade uranium for 10 weapons.
On June 8, the Jerusalem Post reported on a Wall Street Journal article stating that "Iran orders thousands of tons of ballistic missile ingredients from China" Apparently enough to produce about 800 missiles. Also on June 8, the Jerusalem Post reported that "Iran carried out implosion tests for nuclear weapons development, IAEA reports." It was on April 12 that Trump announce he was giving Iran 60 days to come to an agreement with the U.S. Trump had repeatedly said for years and years that "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon." Now, it turns out that every U.S. president in this century has said the same thing - Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. But none of them did anything to stop Iran.
On June 12, Trump was asked about a possible Israeli attack on Iran. Trump: "I don't want to say imminent, but it looks like it's something that could very well happen." Of course, Trump had advance notice. Israel waited until the 61st day to attack Iran. Early on, Israel was successful in targeting Iran's top military leaders and top nuclear scientists.
Back in 2009, I advocated for a joint force of the U.S., the U.K., France and Israel, taking out Iran's developing nuclear program. But we know that the Europeans are worthless. We know that every other president this century only gave lip service to denying Iran's ability to get nukes. And, since this started on June 12, I have alternated between being quite upset with some of Trump's comments, to again having faith in him. Because some of the earlier comments suggested he was willing to let Israel go it alone. That very first blog post I wrote about "Iranian Nukes" was followed up shortly thereafter with "Iranian Nukes, Part II," written on February 21, 2010. Not believing that sanctions would deter Iran, and not believing that any enforceable deal could could be made, I ended that post with this: "But if I am correct, it will ultimately take military action to prevent Iran from getting nukes."
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