"but also the strikes themselves were ineffective."

"Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson acknowledged that the country’s nuclear facilities were “badly damaged” by recent U.S. airstrikes, the Associated Press reported, though no additional details were provided."

Who to believe? One of AC bozo sources or the actual Iran government?

This just gets funnier each day.

Just to return to reality for a second, its probably true that some of the nuclear material at Fordow etc was moved elsewhere, but completely false that the centrifuges were moved. These are delicate instruments that take weeks or months to dismantle and move, and there were thousands of them at Fordow alone.

Sure there was a lot of above ground damage, but Iran moved all its important underground assets a week ago, there was reportedly only 400kg of enriched 60% unranium, maybe more lower grade but there were reportedly dozens of trucks that moved in to remove other assets, (satellite imagery available if you look) also Iran sealed up all the underground entrances to prevent any damage.
And the Iranian parliament voted to oust the IAEA.

Here's why there was a ceasefire despite all the tough talk.

Israel Is Running Low on Defensive Interceptors, Official Says June 18, 2025 (8 days ago)
http://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-is-running-low-on-defensive-interceptors-official-says-fd64163d
'A shortage of Arrow interceptors has set off a scramble to augment Israel’s defenses'

"Israel is running low on defensive Arrow interceptors, according to a U.S. official, raising concern about the country’s ability to counter long-range ballistic missiles from Iran if the conflict isn’t resolved soon."

Israel was on the verge of being completely trashed.
I heard by about day 8, that there was already half a trillion US dollars in damage.
And if Israel is running low then the US is running low.
And Ukraine wont be able to prevent Russia attacks either.
How much weaponry do you think China has stockpiled now.
They have this one factory that can produce the components for 5000 cruise missiles a day, and you morons want to fight them?

Hi mhaze,
I concede on the decoy planes point.
Margaret Brennan and Marco Rubio on Face the Nation
http://youtu.be/8ehOgu5cnTA

- You see how easy it is to add a link and put the matter to rest?

Discussion of the Iranian public being fractured though are wrong.
They rallied around the leadership after being threatened and attacked and given demands for unconditional surrender.

I've heard this at least half a dozen times now from numerous sources

Israel cannot dictate the future of the Middle East
http://youtu.be/UGDXZJ81HpI?si=g1y62yJSPgMvk8c2

So Armchair Critic you say, "I heard by about day 8, that there was already half a trillion US dollars in damage."

Hmm, I don't think you appreciate much money half-a-trillion US dollars is. The Iranians would have had to successfully fired 1000's and 1000's and 1000's and 1000's of missiles to do this much damage. Whole urban areas (towns/cities) in Israel would have to have been completely destroyed.

To give you a feel for how much half-a-trillion USD really is, consider this: The *whole* of Australia's housing stock (ie: every apartment/flat, townhouse, duplex, mcmansion, cottage, etc. collectively) is worth about 7-and-a-half trillion USD (to closest $0.5T). But Australia's population is more than 2 and a half times larger than Israel's.
To do half-a-T$ damage in Australia you could wipe out every residential building in Hobart, Darwin and Adelaide and you would still have to do more.

(As-an-aside: this should also show you just how powerful economically and militarily America really is:
-They spend more than half-a-trillion *each year* on their military.
-Their largest publicly listed company is Nvidia and is worth about 3 and 1/2 trill-usd. The top three companies: Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple total to about 10trill, ie. these three companies alone are worth considerably more than *all* residential buildings in Australia.
-The richest man, Elon Musk, is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of a trill (depending on stockmarket prices of the day). So Elon could buy, say Darwin and Hobart, give them away for free and he would still be incredibly rich.
Just to make this current, I just now had a look: the three americans- Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Elon Musk combined personal wealth decreased by over $10billion USD today- ie: their daily loss today is about 10,000 Australian houses (in board figures) but they would barely have noticed compared to their collective wealth of of more than $0.5T USD. Meanwhile: Jensen Huang, Larry Page and Sergey Brin's collective wealth increased today by about 10 billion but again they would barely notice because to them it's nothing compared to their total wealth.
)

"I concede on the decoy planes point."

Good but not really the point. There was never a doubt that your take on the B-2 attack was badly astray. But just recognising that is just the start. You need to understand that the people who fed you the lies/errors were utterly wrong and that ought to colour how you view the rest of their claims. They also fed you the story that the US military is "outdated and useless" which is clearly erroneous. They also fed you the line that the Iranians saw the coming attack but stood down at the instruction of Russia. All of which you should now realise is rubbish.

Its all very well to have several sources but if they are sources that continually fed you this type of crap, the only intelligent thing is to search elsewhere.

That is the lesson you need to learn.

"Discussion of the Iranian public being fractured though are wrong."

I didn't say that. I said the regime was fractured ie the leadership or at least what's left of it. (just one example of what is being talked about.... http://tiny.cc/3g2o001). As to the Iranian people, who knows. Its impossible to get a read on what the public is thinking in a totalitarian regime. Just because a crowd turns up to cheer for the regime doesn't tell us another about what the tens of millions who didn't cheer think.

You shouldn't get to worked up over calls for regime change or unconditional surrender. That was just US rhetoric to put the wind up Khamenei et al who took the bait and immediately went to ground. Trump has now said regime change isn't on his agenda.

_________________________________________________________________

Just as an aside, there are now stories of Qatar brokering a deal to end the Hamas war with four Arab nations jointing running Gaza, all hostages released and all Hamas leaders going into exile. Early days but a sign of just how badly Iran and its proxies have been defeated.

Hi AC,

"Discussion of the Iranian public being fractured though are wrong."

Everyone has a different perspective. I listened to the ABC reporting of the B2 raid: It could have been radio Palestine reporting on the bombing of the People's paradise of Iran by Great Satan America. Then there was the Greens with the view that if Iran wants to build an atomic weapon then that is their business and the US is out of line interfering. Extraordinary.

What is your take on why Russia has not come to Iran's aid?