I may be a Never Trumper with TDS but this is President Trump‘s finest hour!

@iamthe99 You should’ve actually read the DNI‘s report.
Even Tulsi Gabbard had to concede that Iran has been taken necessary steps to position itself to eventually weaponize and assemble a nuclear weapon.

@CedricH I did. And Trump simply said it was wrong.

"I don't care what she [Gabbard] says, I think they're pretty close to building one"

@iamthe99 Well, an I think he, and the Mossad are closer to the truth than a Putin and Bashar al Assad fangirl like Tulsi Gabbard. But even the DNI report (and the IAEA censure) reveal that Iran has gone far beyond a mere civil nuclear program which is all the evidence we need to dismantle it.

@CedricH The fact remains, Iran was not building a nuclear bomb, it was never going to use a nuclear weapon against Israel. That would be suicide and the regime knows it.

It is also a fact that Israel very much does have nuclear weapons and I guarantee they will be the ones to use them first, if it ever comes to it.

@iamthe99 Oh, gosh, I‘m glad there‘s someone here on Similar Worlds who claims he can read the Mullahs’ minds. You should work for the intelligence community, I bet they need someone with your remarkable clairvoyance!

@CedricH Well, even if I did, Trump is his own "intelligence" service, and whatever thought pops into that dementia-addled head of his is the gospel truth. He doesn't care what professionals say; he's decided Iran has nuclear weapons, therefore, it is so.

But, of course, this is just part of a plan to cancel the midterms. You heard it here first.

@iamthe99 No, I didn’t hear it here first. Robert Kagan, a man I greatly respect, wrote a piece in The Atlantic just yesterday in which he’s cautioning against Trump’s potential abuse of war time powers to consolidate his authoritarian tendencies at home. So I do take the risk seriously, but I wouldn’t go so far.

@CedricH I hope you're right, truly.

@iamthe99 Yeah… me too 😕. As an analytical matter I just know that this will be a comparatively short and seamless air and naval campaign at distance. If Trump used his powers to invade a country and to occupy it for a prolonged period, then he could actually be in a position to theoretically use some war time powers in 2026 and 2028. He would need to stage an invasion of Canada for that.

@iamthe99 How do you know this?

You'd have to assume any US President would say to the CIA find out if Iran has nuclear weapons or realistic capability to develop and report back to me. Reasonable question, yes?

@JonUK41 Well, the point is, if they had nuclear weapons it would already be too late for an intervention to rectify the proliferation.

So you‘re exactly right to mention „the realistic capability to develop [nuclear weapons]“. That‘s the crux of any kinetic operation to prevent a nation state from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

And there‘s no doubt at all, that Iran had successfully built the capability to finish the job whenever it seemed convenient to Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

@JonUK41 yes. And guess what? The intelligence agency did report back to Trump and say that they “continue to assess that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. And what did Trump say? “I don’t care what she says, I think they’re really close to building one”

@iamthe99 The CIA director is a he not a she.

More importantly how do you know the intelligence the CIA provided?

@JonUK41 I noticed that Tulsi Gabbard has now changed her mind and has decided that Iran can now produce a nuclear weapon within weeks. I maintain that Iran is not producing nuclear weapons, but even if it was the regime knows it would be suicide to use them against Israel. Either way, Israel’s attack on Iran is illegal, as it is justifying its attack as a response to a future threat

@iamthe99 Look, Tulsi is a conspiratorial nutter. Her prior assessment was false because she wanted it to be true. If you start with a political preference (Iran doesn’t weaponize their highly enriched fissile material) and then you go looking for hints and indications that may or may not corroborate this dubious assertion, you‘ll always find something to make your case. But that’s the very essence of an intelligence failure, because intelligence has to look at the facts first and derive a comprehensive assessment based on their findings. Not the other way around.

@CedricH well she’s lying one way or the other. Either Iran has been developing a nuclear weapon or it hasn’t. But let’s also remember that the narrative which has been sold to us since 2009 has always been “Iran is weeks away from building a nuclear weapon.”

@iamthe99 That is 100% accurate.

@iamthe99 To your point. The narrative was never wrong. Because Iran tried to play games. It’s difficult for a state to make a dash for a bomb with US ISR and Israeli Mossad capabilities. So what Iran tried to do is to inch ever closer to the bomb without overstepping the final threshold so they could make the dash for the bomb in under one week at a time and place of their choosing and create a fait accompli.

Besides, what this means is that military action against Iran should’ve been initiated as early as the late 2000s. But Washington - and Jerusalem - dawdled and procrastinated. Until a few days ago.

@CedricH This is all conjecture, and totally subjective. There is no concrete evidence that Iran is producing a nuclear weapon, and even less evidence that it would actually use it. I would be much more worried about Israel's nuclear weapons. But that's another story.

@iamthe99 Well maybe Trump threatened to fire her if she didn't change her mind.

As one of Nixon's henchmen said "when you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow" That applies to women too!

I can't imagine it would be difficult for Iran to develop a nuke. All it takes is money. But it would be suicide to use, they'd be hit back 10 times harder.

So question is why do you like Iran, despite their abysmal record on human rights?

@JonUK41 In other words, Trump knows full well that Iran has no nuclear weapons.

Iran's treatment of women has got nothing to do with Israel or this thread. But if you want to deflect, then how about admitting you were wrong about me "making a post" about illegal immigrants no longer working on American farms. You know you were wrong, you deleted your posts.

@iamthe99 Well, the existence of an advanced, military-grade nuclear program that goes far beyond any civilian utility is no conjecture and neither is Iran‘s ballistic missile program. They‘re well-documented and illegal realities. And they‘re enough to justify prophylactic measures.

If you choose to be worried about Israel‘s nuclear weapons feel free to do so. Israel has fought several intense wars since it acquired a nuclear deterrent and never used it once. But I can’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t be worried about. That’s up to you.

@CedricH

Yes indeed. But Israel has not had a desperate dictator in power, back by two ultranationalist warmongers who are propping up his government, and who have called for the annihilation of both Palestine and Iran.

Israel has never had someone who knows he is going to jail if he calls elections, and who is doing everything he can to stay in power. If he can sacrifice the lives of his own people to his own ends, would you really be happy with him having his hand on the Big Red Button?

@iamthe99 But by your own logic, why didn’t they press the button to annihilate Gaza yet? It would certainly mitigate Israeli losses that the IDF is currently sustaining in the urban warfare they‘re forced to conduct? This is a rhetorical question by the way.

@CedricH they don't need to nuke Gaza. They don't consider them as much of a threat as they do Iran. Besides, they consider Gaza their own territory anyway. Why nuke your own country?