Twelve Day War
Twelve Day War
June 27,2025
Iran was been a troublemaker in the Mideast for half a century. Led by Islamic clerics, they chant “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” before legislative sessions. Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are all sponsored by Iran, flush with petrodollars.
Most of the Arab and Islamic world is reconciled to the existence of the State of Israel, but not Iran or her proxies. According to Iran, Israel must be annihilated.
Israel has a population about 1/10 that of Iran, but there is an old saying: “It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog.” When Hamas began their conflict with Israel October 7, 2023, I’m sure they expected Israeli retribution, but I don’t think they envisioned what we see today.
Gaza is controlled now by Israel, and what is left of Hamas is in tatters. Israel was warned about conflict with Hezbollah, a larger and better armed group than Hamas. Israel blew up top Hezbollah leadership with sabotaged beepers and phones and then eliminated Nasrallah, the founder. If Hezbollah moves on Israel, Israel will roll out the tanks, the howitzers and the air force and in a couple of weeks will own southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is staying quiet, for now.
Still, Iran was bent on joining the nuclear club, and by most accounts, was only weeks away from membership.
On June 13, 2025, things in Iran began to blow up. Nuclear installations were hit. Nuclear scientists and military leadership were incinerated while they slept. It turned out that the attacking drones originated from a base Israel had established on Iranian soil.
The initial strikes were followed by F-35 raids that continued the destruction. Of the three nuclear labs, two were largely above ground and vulnerable to F-35 strikes. The third installation, at Fordow, was built into the side of a mountain, with the centrifuge galleries hundreds of feet underground. Short of a commando raid, how to deal with Fordow?
Putting command and control in bunkers, steel reinforced concrete below ground, is an old story. Destroying these bunkers from the air is a recent one. What if you could develop a hardened bomb, very heavy, dropped from high altitude? A bomb that would burrow into the bunker and then detonate? No commando raid fighting their way in, setting their charges, fighting their way out and blowing the thing up. A stealthy bomber, undetectable by radar and ten miles up, drops its ordnance and flies home.
Israel doesn’t have the bunker busting capability, yet. The U.S. does. Would the order be given? The world waited for the other shoe to drop, if it would drop at all.
Last Saturday night, June 23, the other shoe dropped. B-2 “Spirit” bombers, based at Whiteman Air Force Base, in Missouri flew 7,000 miles each way to strike Fordow. A total of twelve MOPs (massive ordnance penetrator) were dropped.
Damage assessments are still coming in, but there is a high level of confidence on both the part of the IDF, the IAEA and the Pentagon that the Iranian nuclear program has been set back years. Iran may yet join the club, but not this year. Next year doesn’t look good either.
A ceasefire was agreed to a few days ago. The war, or at least this phase of the war is over.
Does the Iranian regime weather this catastrophe? That is uncertain. It seems that everywhere, Iran and her proxies are on their heels, if still standing at all.
Early celebration can be a mistake. An enemy can be most dangerous when cornered. However, if the result of the past two weeks is a weaker Iran, that is to the good. For Israel, for the U.S., for the whole world.