As I post this, President Trump is facing the toughest decision of his presidency. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has asked the U.S. to enter the fray of the Israel-Iran war. Trump is reluctantly considering a single-objective mission that is probably necessary to ensure the successful denial of Iran ever having nuclear weapons. All that Israel is accomplishing will fall short of the final blow that this U.S. mission would have on Iran’s nuclear weapons pursuit. The world’s deadliest terrorist sponsor must be stopped. Let’s look at what is at stake.
Israel’s attacks on Iran were inevitable. Iran has been blatant about wiping Israel off the map since it became an Islam theocracy in 1979. The rogue state is also bent on “death to America.” There is little doubt that Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, plans to use his military’s almost attained nuclear capability to annihilate Israel. He is also developing ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. with nuclear warheads.
Israel has amazingly destroyed much of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, nuclear enrichment support, other military infrastructure, ballistic missile launchers, and most of their air forces. This massive show of force will continue until everything within Israel’s capability to neutralize the Iranian threat has been accomplished. However, one critical facility is essentially out of Israel’s reach.
The Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility is the linchpin to Iran’s nuclear development program. It is an extremely hardened site hundreds of feet under ground. There is only one weapon in the world that could destroy this structure. It is called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a precision-guided 30,000-pound bomb nick-named the “bunker buster.” And it is part of the U.S. Air Force arsenal. It could not be deployed by Israel even if they had it, because the USAF B-2 stealth bomber is the only delivery system in the world that can do the job. This aircraft and bomb is what Netanyahu is asking of the U.S.
Trump has stated repeatedly that the U.S. would not become involved in the war as long as Iran did not attack any U.S. forces. However, the war is now at a crucial point. Israel could continue to set Iran back years in its race to nuclear capability. But the Fordow facility would be untouched and provide Iran a foundation from which to reinitiate the effort. Destroying Fordow would virtually ensure the end of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and probably the end of the Khamenei regime. This one-and-done U.S. mission would be the beginning of the end of the war, much like the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, except the MOP would cause few, if any, fatalities. It would almost assuredly drive Iran to surrender and ultimately save perhaps thousands of lives.
Israel has stated they have a number of contingencies that could deal with Fordow, but it would involve extremely dangerious and complex special forces ground operations with success not guaranteed.
The B-2 bunker buster mission would be in America’s best interest. It would take out the most dangerous threat to all of the Middle East, not just Israel. It would drive a stake into the heart of the the world’s leading terriorist sponsor. And it would potentially bring regime change to Iran’s people who have been under the oppressive control of a brutal, fanatical religious leader for almost a half-century.
I believe that, at this point, only an unconditional surrender by Iran, as Trump has demanded, would stop the President and his cabinet from giving the nod to Netanyahu’s request. Yes, it would come with some risks to America from international and domestic terrorism. And the Democrats would have a conniption. But, in my opinion, the results would be worth the risks. Watch the news!