Two Weeks That Changed America And The World

On Sunday, Clarice Feldman posted an article at The American Thinker about the last two weeks of the Trump administration. The successes of the Trump administration in the past two weeks include tariff negotiations, peace deals in various locations, lower inflation, closing the border, and deporting illegal aliens. The article chooses to concentrate on Iran and the Supreme Court.

The article reports:

Despite CNN and much of the legacy media misusing a leaked preliminary assessment (of “low confidence”) the bombing was of great value to both Israel and the United States. 

Israel’s use of the F-35 was an absolute success for the U.S. for the following reasons:

1. Combat-Proven Validation — Israeli F-35s successfully struck deep into Iranian territory without losses, proving the jet’s stealth and precision in real-world combat.

2. Global Surge in Demand — The success triggered a wave of interest, with countries like Romania, Greece, and Germany accelerating purchases, boosting U.S. defense exports.

3. Massive Economic Benefit — Lockheed Martin gains billions in new deals, creating thousands of American jobs and expanding the U.S. defense industrial base.

4. R&D and System Improvements — Israeli combat experience helped identify and fix performance issues, saving the U.S. billions in research and development.

5. Strategic and Tactical Edge — Insights from Israeli operations now inform U.S. Air Force tactics, improving readiness and increasing pilot survivability.

In short, this wasn’t just a success for Israel. It was also a major win for Lockheed Martin and the U.S. economy.

The article includes the Pentagon assessment of the raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities:

Pentagon Assessment Operation Midnight Hammer : Planned Over 15 Years #Iran

Chairman Joint Chiefs GEN Dan Caine @thejointstaff

 Strike at Fordow exploited two ventilation shafts

Days before, Iran tried to cover shafts with concrete cap

First US weapon removed concrete cap

Weapons 2, 3, 4, and 5 entered main shaft, traveling at 1000 feet per second  to Iran’s underground mission center

Weapon 6 “flex” capability

The “kill” mechanism was the combination of blast and overpressure on the target

Officer from DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) began the mission 15 years ago when the underground target was identified and the officer recognized the US did not have a weapon to counter it. 

Years of highly classified (likely special access program) development and testing followed.

Caine said he talked with the two DTRA officers who “lived this single target” for years. 

Post mission, they described hearts “ filled with pride to be a part of this.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It’s been a good two weeks.

Why They Got It Wrong

On Friday, Fred Fleitz posted an article at American Greatness about the intelligence failures regarding the Iranian nuclear program.

The article includes a brief biography of Fred Fleitz:

Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member. He was a member of the CIA Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center and served as a U.S. delegate to the IAEA Board of Governors.

Obviously he knows what he is talking about.

The article reports:

The recent Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment claiming that the U.S. bombing of Iran set the country’s nuclear weapons program back only a few months was irresponsible and probably intended to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy. This assessment was written to be leaked to the press and reflected a long pattern of politicized intelligence analysis to undermine Republican presidents.

The DIA assessment was not credible because a battle damage assessment of the bombing of Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites will be complicated and probably take weeks or months of intelligence collection and analysis by dozens of experts and other intelligence agencies. A low-confidence assessment, like the DIA analysis issued 24 hours after the bombings, was a fraud and an abuse of intelligence to produce a high-profile assessment that deliberately misrepresented the outcome of the U.S. attack and helped the president’s political adversaries use the bombings to hurt him politically. Not surprisingly, this assessment was quickly leaked to the press.

The DIA assessment followed similar efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies and the left to deny that Iran had a nuclear weapons program.

The article notes one of the reasons for previous misreporting:

Prior to 2007, the U.S. Intelligence Community had assessed that Iran had a nuclear weapons program. But in November 2007, fearing that President Bush might order an attack on Iran’s nuclear program, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was published by the National Intelligence Council that found Iran’s nuclear program was halted in 2003 and Iranian leaders had not made a decision to resume weaponization efforts and construct a nuclear weapon.

Our government agencies need to remember that the President is an elected official and that they are not!

The article concludes:

The DIA assessment is a wake-up call about the serious problem of politicized U.S. intelligence analysis. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has begun to address this problem by reassigning National Intelligence Council senior analysts for politicizing national intelligence estimates. Much more must be done to depoliticize American intelligence analysis and win back the confidence of President Trump.

Let’s go back to where patriotism was more important than political parties.

A More Accurate Assessment

On Thursday, Townhall posted an article about the damage done by America’s strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. There have been varying reports of the extent of the damage. This report comes from the UN Atomic Energy Watchdog Chief.

The article reports:

We’ve been subjected to fake news about the intelligence report showing that President Trump’s air strikes on Iran were ineffectual in crippling its nuclear capabilities. It’s what liberals clung to like grim death in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer, a precision strike from our B-2 Bomber fleet that pounded the terror state. Key nuclear facilities were struck, but the media would have us believe nothing happened. Please. No one knew this operation was going to happen. There were no leaks, but somehow, we need to all believe this low-confidence, top-secret report that was leaked to the press.

CNN pimped this fake news story. After getting raked over the coals by the Trump administration, they’re circling the wagons around the fake news reporter who peddled this garbage. This liberal narrative hit another snag: UN’s nuclear watchdog chief said the air strikes severely derailed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure (via Washington Free Beacon):

The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities set back the Islamic Republic’s program “significantly,” the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog organization said Tuesday.

“I think the Iranian nuclear program has been set back significantly, significantly,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi said in a Fox News interview. He noted that “it is clear that there is one Iran—before June 13, nuclear Iran—and one now,” describing the difference as “night and day.”

Just before the Tuesday afternoon interview, the IAEA revealed that it detected “extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran, including its uranium conversion and enrichment facilities.” That damage caused a radioactive release, according to the organization.

I don’t think you can drop that much explosive material anywhere without doing significant damage. I don’t know whether the CNN was simply misled or just didn’t want to give President Trump a victory. It is sad that our mainstream media has gotten so far off the mark.