Commentary
The Pentagon briefing this morning showed the stellar mission planning, deception, and operational security of “Midnight Hammer”. This strike mission was focused on destroying nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Few in the Trump Administration were read on to the plan. The Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff provided details at the Pentagon press conference on Sunday morning after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave opening comments.
General Caine said the mission, now revealed as “Operation Midnight Hammer,” represented the largest B-2 strike package in U.S. history, and involved, including decoy flights. Seventy-five precision guided weapons were dropped on the sites. General Caine said, “Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction”.
Most looked West, Strike Package came from the East
There is now a Donald J. Trump addendum to Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”. “While watching bombers in the west be careful about bombers coming from the east.” is what President Trump figuratively wrote with a smile and nod of approval from Sun Tzu. Operational deception is a core part of effective military operations. It helps ensure surprise while distracting the opponent. Most of the Saturday news cycle in the United States was obsessed with the flight of B-2s from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri heading toward Guam. There were probably plane counters who watched the take offs and just presumed all aircraft were headed for Guam. The Guam flight was not only a deception but a message to China – we are watching you. The six B-2s now in Guam can deliver 96 cruise missiles in one mission if China decides to use this situation to move on Taiwan.
In the first Gulf War a similar Deception Operation was used. As the drama of Desert Shield was about to turn into Desert Storm, a large U.S. Marine Force was deployed off the coast of Kuwait with the demonstrated ability of a Marine landing to hit the Iraqis from the beaches. The Iraqis committed lots of troops, artillery, and engineer units as they prepared beach obstacles and defenses. Media was flown out to the Navy Amphibious ships for media reports and visits with the Sailors and Marines. In the end, no landing was made, and the Ground War was mainly a large sweep around the right flank of the Iraqi Army units on the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Legacy media was outraged that the Marines did not land on the coast, denying the media of live action films of carnage on the beaches. The simple story was that the U.S. Military was displaying a capability, it was the Media that assumed the beach landing option was going to be exercised.
Forty Years of Iranian Terror and thirty years of Iranian nuclear work ended
President Trump made a decisive strike on specific nuclear facilities, not Iranian military sites or infrastructure. President Trump said, “There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days…Remember, there are many targets left.” President Trump said this Saturday night, Washington, D.C. time flanked by Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Hegseth. The President emphasized this was a focused, one-time strike – unless the Iranian regime responded with attacks on American citizens and interests. The following morning at the Pentagon Press Conference, Secretary Hegseth made it clear the American strike on the nuclear facilities was simply designed to end the Iranian nuclear program and had nothing to do with regime change. America was not at war with Iran.
The Iranian nuclear program has been debated since the 1990s despite many forms of negotiation with the West. In addition, Iran is the largest state sponsor of terror and thousands of Americans have been killed or wounded by Iranian terror attacks going back to the early 1980s. In Lebanon in April 1983, the U.S. Embassy was blown up and 63 lives were lost along with 120 injured. Later, in October of the same year, the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Lebanon was blown up, killing 307 and injuring 150. These attacks were funded, aided, and directed by Iran through Hezbollah. Over the years, thousands more were killed and wounded by Iranian State sponsored terrorism. In Iraq alone, at least 600 American Service members were killed because of Iran, and if the same figures are applied to wounded – approximately 5,000 Americans were wounded by Iran which includes loss of limb(s) and sight. Iran is at war with America whether the U.S. acknowledges it or not.
China is the big loser if the Iranian Regime falls
Iran has been a proxy of China and is China’s flagship ally for mayhem in the region and worldwide. In May 2021, China and Iran signed a comprehensive 25 year agreement that included economic, military, and cyber cooperation. Very likely, Iran has been providing cyber warfare support to China in the massive Salt Typhoon/Volt Typhoon cyber-attacks which have been raging for two years against American Critical Infrastructure.
The Iranian regime has become dependent on Chinese consumption of Iranian energy production. It appears that 90% of Iranian energy exports go to China. This oil is considered sanctioned and is illegally purchased by Chinese refineries. China focused on purchases of illicit Iranian oil starting in 2022 because they were able to receive it at substantial discounts and had it priced in Chinese renminbi, which further ensnares Iran in consumption of Chinese exports. Without Iran, China will lose its main proxy of regional influence and worldwide terror, as well as highly discounted Iranian oil, which makes up close to 50% of all the energy China imports. China has no viable alternative to Iranian oil nor Iran’s role as the major Chinese proxy. China stole South Korea’s Election on June 3, potentially endangering the U.S. right flank of deterrence against China. Now China’s right flank has crumpled.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization.
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