Four plus days into Israel’s bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran, it’s obvious that Israel has achieved complete air superiority and is bombing Iranian targets at will. There’s ample evidence of successful precision strikes on a wide range of targets, from aircraft hangers and runways to oil storage facilities:
President Donald Trump continues to state that the American military will not be joining the conflict, despite Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s requests to do so.
That said, Teddy Roosevelt famously advised “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” and, right now, Uncle Sam seems to be crafting a mighty big stick within striking distance of Iran:
USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and her Carrier Strike Group appear to be heading now in the direction of the Middle East, which would place three aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy’s USS Carl Vinson and USS Nimitz as well as the Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales, off the coast of Iran. https://t.co/e1SVUxQ5RW
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 15, 2025
Maybe all that movement is indeed just to give President Trump “options” should the Iranians try something crazy. But if I had to guess, it seems like the groundwork for some sort of planned operation is being laid.
It may be that President Trump thinks that the the mullah’s current prostrate and distracted status may be the perfect time to settle the Houthi’s hash. Having already attacked American navy ships (absolute casus belli under international law), the time may be ripe to finally dismantle the Houthi threat.
Another possibility: One thing the otherwise extremely capable Israeli Air force lacks is a heavy bomber. The B-2 can carry the 30,000 lb GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which has a much better chance of pentrating the massive reinforced concrete bunkers for Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordow. Given the complete destruction of Iran’s air defenses, Trump could even covertly greenlight B-2 strikes on those sites without telling anyone except Israel’s high command, giving him “plausible deniability” that America is involved.
In completely unrelated news, there was an earthquake near the Fordow site that registered at 2.5 on the Richter scale…
Tags: aircraft carrier, B-2, earthquake, HMS Prince of Wales, Houthi, Iran, Israel, Jihad, Military, Navy, nuclear weapons, Suchomimus, Tehran, UK, USS Carl Vinson, USS Nimitz, video, Yemen
“Given the complete destruction of Iran’s air defenses, Trump could even covertly greenlight B-2 strikes on those sites without telling anyone except Israel’s high command, giving him “plausible deniability” that America is involved.”
That massive hole in the ground where the Fordow nuclear arsenal used to be was caused by a subsequent earthquake.
If Meccans had followed up Mohamed’s defeat at the Battle of Uhud in 625, Mohamadism could have been strangled in it’s cradle. Instead, the Muslims were given a reprieve that allowed them to regroup their forces and renew their conquests.
If Iran’s nuclear threat is not decisively eliminated, the mullah’s argument will be that Operation Rising Lion was intended to purge the Shiite ranks of of weak and irresolute believers so as to make Islam stronger.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the theocratic linchpin who authorizes which attacks will be directed against the West. If it can be demonstrated that his nuclear threat is impotent, both the military and civil society will recognize their vulnerability and sue for peace.
Khamenei has fled Tehran. The time is ripe to end the mullah’s rule and reclaim Persia’s cultural claim to peaceful trade and social tranquility. When Japan’s Emperor God was dethroned, the Japanese turned to commerce and built a rich and prosperous nation on the ruins of the old. Iranians will be free to do the same when their religious Supreme Leader capitulates.
Trump wasn’t brought in on the plan until the last minute. No sane country would trust Trump, Hegseth, or Gabbard with *any* defense secrets. Trump likely got a courtesy call a few days beforehand.
There’s no plausible deniability in dropping bunker-busters. They’re simply too big, and only we’ve got them. In fact, everyone’s favorite Ivy League, Deep State, nepo baby national security advisor Eldridge Colby is profoundly anti-Israel. He’s already blocked numerous requests from CENTCOM for munitions.
Israel and Ukraine developed the tactics for this operation. The Arab states gave Israel the green light and use of thei air space. Trump is just pretending that he was part of this all along (indeed, look at the shameful statements put out by US officials when news 1st broke).
Finally, Trump’s strategy is “scream hysterically and carry a toothpick”. He’s planning on the military to bear the burden of budget cuts (no one with a serious defense policy would pick pretty-boy Hegseth as SecDef). We’ve even been plundering the defense budget to pay for ICE raids ($1B re-allocated from military housing to ICE). But for Congress, DoD would be in even worse shape.
USGS reports no 2.5 magnitude earthquakes anywhere in Iran over the last 7 days in their 16:00 UTC update.
The aboveground (research) centrifuges at Natanz have been wiped out, but no one is claiming the underground (production) Iranian centrifuges have been impacted. There is speculation that the underground centrifuges at Natanz and Fordow were damaged by strikes on their electrical supply, but most analysts believe that the Iranians have insulated their underground centrifuges from the grid after Stuxnet.
The Israelis believe they have destroyed 120 of Iran’s TELs. This leaves Iran at least 240 operational TELs, according to the Israelis.
Iranian resistance sources say the Iranian Supreme Leader was transferred with his family, including his son Mojtaba, to a bunker in Lavizān, a north-eastern neighborhood of Tehran.
The Israelis have no problem disclosing their plans/defense secrets to “Trump, Hegseth, or Gabbard”. They have a serious problem disclosing defense secrets to the U.S. IC and Pentagon. Funktacular should refresh his memory on the subject of Asif William Rahman, your typical CIA lizard, who exposed the Israeli’s October attack plans.
Russians have lots of KAB series bunker busters and the Iranians have mounted them on their larger missiles. They are much smaller than the U.S. MOP, but the Russians have nuclear bunker busters to attack really deep bunkers.
We have not “been plundering the defense budget to pay for ICE raids ($1B re-allocated from military housing to ICE).” There was a $3.8 billion contract let to build an immigrant detention camp in Fort Bliss, Texas, but it was cancelled two days after issue. ICE is drawing on FEMA appropriations for immigrant detention facilities until funds from H.R. 1968 become available.
Israel is winning, but the Iranians have not yet given up. The IRGC has approximately 125,000 effectives and a 300,000 reserve. With lots of officers and a suicidal culture. It will take a lot of strikes to degrade them to the point where they give up.
Hillary’s sidekick, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, introduced legislation today which will prevent President Trump from using military force against Iran without Congress’s authorization. You can be certain that all the Democrats and their fellow brain dead Libertarian quislings will vote for this legislation.
Kaine introduced the same legislation in 2020 to hobble Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran. That measure passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, but the quislings could not override Trump’s veto.
“The IRGC has approximately 125,000 effectives and a 300,000 reserve. With lots of officers and a suicidal culture. It will take a lot of strikes to degrade them to the point where they give up.”
The decapitation strike targeted Hossein Salami – Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC and the principle agents involved in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and included Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi, Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Dr. Abdolhamid Minouchehr, who were IRRG cat’s paws.
Cutting off the snake’s head translates into wrecking their C&C while destroying their Brain Trust.
Those assets that you mentioned are crippled in the absence of recognizable leadership and will prove to be as ineffective against Israel as they were against Iraq.
Seems to me that attacking Iran with basically the same premise as the attack on Iraq would fracture the president support sufficiently to make him vulnerable to impeachment and removal.
Curious as to the thoughts around here.
“Cutting off the snake’s head translates into wrecking their C&C while destroying their Brain Trust.”
Possibly true regarding the recently departed nuclear scientists, who may well have had unique knowledge.
Most likely false in their ideologically driven officer corps. Iran has an extensive, standardized military education system for all ranks patterned after our own system. They have lots of ready replacements at every level, in every service branch, who have been understudying the dearly departed. They all spend years learning how to sing in unison from the Ayatollah’s sheet music.
Iran is not Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda or ISIS. Their military is far more damage tolerant.
OSINTdefender misspelled “2 Aircraft Carriers and a flat-topped vessel with a ski-jump like protrusion, which carries a handful of F-35B’s…and cannot deploy to a potential combat zone without a US escort, the Royal Navy’s roster of surface combatants having now dwindled to a mere 12 ships.”
Although not officially “certified” to deliver the GBU-57, it could be done by B-52’s as well. And with Iran’s air defenses now non-existent, the BUFFs could get in on that mission.
The sudden flurry of US activity is puzzling, but could it perhaps be that we believe that the Mullahs want to go out in a blaze of glory by using the last of their missiles to attack not just Israel, but US and other Middle East state assets as well?
“They have lots of ready replacements at every level, in every service branch, who have been understudying the dearly departed.”
Salami’s “understudy” and replacement will enjoy his promotion for perhaps one week before being added to the growing list of Revolutionary Guard oficers who the IDF has decapitated.
Similar boasts about Iraq’s Republican Guard were made prior to Desert Storm. Yet when the fight commenced, Iraq’s elite fighting force was offering their surrender to Western newspaper reporters in the absence of readily available US troops.
In any case, defeat in detail of Iran’s military forces is not a priority; elimination of their nuclear threat is. This goal must be pursued unflinchingly and Iran’s ground forces can do little to prevent it.
“In any case, defeat in detail of Iran’s military forces is not a priority; elimination of their nuclear threat is. This goal must be pursued unflinchingly and Iran’s ground forces can do little to prevent it.”
As long as Iran’s military and paramilitary forces exist under the current regime and ideology, the Iranian nuclear threat also exists. We have no evidence that Iranian military morale has been compromised, especially IRGC morale. They have lots of officers willing to step up and cause us trouble, including nuclear trouble.
Conflating Iran with Iraq is particularly ill advised. Need I remind you that Saddam Hussein’s defeated officer corps led a savage 20 year insurgency against U.S. forces; long after President Bush announced the completion of OIF combat operations? Why would you dismiss “defeat in detail of Iran’s military forces”?
“Need I remind you that Saddam Hussein’s defeated officer corps led a savage 20 year insurgency against U.S. forces; long after President Bush announced the completion of OIF combat operations? Why would you dismiss “defeat in detail of Iran’s military forces”?”
Unlike Iraq, we will not have boots on the ground in Iran.
It will be amusing to watch Iran’s paramilitary forces assemble a thermonuclear device from the shattered ruins of Fordow though.
It’s been a bad year for your hero, comrade, The Two State solution has been firmly rejected, the Assad regime defeated and Iran’s governing architecture lies in shattered ruins.
Everywhere you look in the Middle East, Russia’s allies have suffered irreversible loss. This calls Putin’s reputation as an evil genius into question. Clearly, these many reversals reveal him to be no real genius although his profound wickedness is not in question.
IDF news release: For the second time in 5 days— the IDF has eliminated Iran’s War-Time Chief of Staff, the regime’s top military commander.
Ali Shadmani, Iran’s senior-most military official and Khamenei’s closest military advisor, was killed in an IAF strike in central Tehran, following precise intelligence.
…and another “understudy” bites the dust. Ali Shadmani did not last long enough for his predecessor’s body to reach room temperature before joining him in Hell Moar winning!
“Unlike Iraq, we will not have boots on the ground in Iran.”
So whose boots will be on the ground? Israel’s? No boots on the ground, no end to the Iranian nuclear program.
It will be amusing to watch Iran’s paramilitary forces assemble a thermonuclear device from the shattered ruins of Fordow though.
Fordow hasn’t been damaged, yet. Learn the difference between a fission device, which the Iranians are on the verge of constructing, and and fusion (thermonuclear) device, which they are not attempting. You will appear much smarter than you actually are.
“It’s been a bad year for your hero, comrade, The Two State solution has been firmly rejected, the Assad regime defeated and Iran’s governing architecture lies in shattered ruins.”
30,000 dead Christians, Druze, and Alawites concur with your assessment that the Assad regime has been defeated. Over a six month period, your ISIS heroes have killed more Syrians than the Assad regime killed during over 10 years. This was what Putin was trying to explain to you, but you were too ignorant to understand.
Iran has damaged or destroyed 20,000 buildings in Israel thus far, according to filings with Israeli property tax authorities. “Ruins” are accumulating on both sides. There is no evidence to claim that “Iran’s governing architecture lies in shattered ruins”. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air and Space Force is pumping out rockets & drones continuously. In fact, WaPo says Israel has only 10 days worth of interceptor missiles left, which is why Iranian missiles are starting to get through Iron Dome. The Israelis are trying to conserve interceptor missiles. The Iranians, on the other hand, do not appear to be approaching exhaustion of their SSM and drone inventories.
Clearly, the Israeli decapitation strikes did not have their desired effect. The Iranians haven’t dissolved in a panic. Time for a new strategy, and it is likely to be very expensive.
As much as I’d hope some well placed bunker busters would wreck the Fordow complex (I read somewhere it would take 2 or more), the only way to be really sure, I think, is a raid. It would have to be a large scale operation well behind enemy lines. The possibility of heavy casualties seems likely for the friendliest.
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