Victory Really Sucks

On the American Left, winning isn't everything—it's less than nothing

Knock, knock, who’s there? Devastation’s in the air…

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Shortly after the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) issued a preliminary assessment stating that the damage done was minimal and that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons development program had only been set back by a few months. The assessment was classified Top Secret and graded low confidence. For those unfamiliar with the jargon of the intelligence community, low confidence is intel speak for We really don’t know—but here’s a guess!

That DIA assessment was promptly leaked to the media.

There are several things to be said about this. First, the DIA is just one of eighteen US intelligence agencies, it has no expertise in the area of nuclear proliferation, and it based its assessment on scanty second-hand intelligence. Second, though supporters of President Trump might be strongly inclined to think that the DIA was acting in bad faith, drawing up a b.s. assessment and then leaking it, it’s more likely to have been cranked out as a matter of bureaucratic routine. Third, whoever leaked the assessment might be some Deep State holdover from the previous administration, but it could also be a MAGA restrainer type who feels that President Trump went back on his word to eschew “forever wars.” Whatever the case may be, the person or persons who leaked a top-secret intelligence assessment to the media need to be ferreted out and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law—you know, to encourage the others.

The media, the Democrats, and the Resistance—overlapping categories—were of course delighted with this early evidence of the failure of an American military mission. They’d already concluded that it was an unconstitutional act, worthy of impeachment, and on top of that the Trump Administration’s gross incompetence now stood exposed.

Even before the DIA assessment was leaked, Democrats could hardly contain their fake indignation. The inimitable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was demanding Trump’s impeachment before the dust had settled in Iran. “He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,” she moaned. “I think certainly for the 40,000 troops in at least six countries in the Middle East—we have a lot of bases in the Middle East—those troops are now at greater risk,” said Senator Mark Kelly. One wonders why the Senator thinks those troops are there. In fairness it should be added that a few congressional Democrats voiced support for the attack, but theirs was a decidedly minority opinion.

With The New York Times and CNN in the lead, the media ballyhooed the supposedly devastating DIA assessment. But their stories were curiously short of detail when they weren’t engaging in misdirection. CNN, for instance, noted that “The impact to all three sites—Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—was largely restricted to aboveground structures, which were severely damaged.” This seemed designed to give the impression that the “aboveground structures” were of minor importance.

Of the fourteen GBU-57 MOPs that were delivered to Iran by the USAF, twelve hit the Fordow fuel-enrichment plant. Each MOP weighs in at over 30,000 pounds. Yet the NYT and CNN would have you believe that no damage was done to the underground facilities at Fordow. That’s the thrust of their reporting—and it’s absolutely preposterous.

David Albright and Spencer Faragasso of the Institute for Science and International Security much know more about Iran’s nuclear weapons program than anybody in the media, the Democratic Party or the Resistance, and their assessment of the strike is in sharp contrast to the DIA assessment and the media’s interpretation of it:

Overall, Israel's and U.S. attacks have effectively destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program. It will be a long time before Iran comes anywhere near the capability it had before the attack. That being said, there are residuals such as stocks of 60 percent, 20 percent, and 3-5 percent enriched uranium and the centrifuges manufactured but not yet installed at Natanz or Fordow. These non-destroyed parts pose a threat as they can be used in the future to produce weapon-grade uranium.

Complicating any effort to turn weapon-grade uranium into nuclear explosives have been extensive attacks against Iran’s facilities and personnel to make the nuclear weapon itself. Its infrastructure to build the nuclear weapon has been severely damaged. The time Iran would need to build even a non-missile deliverable nuclear weapon has increased significantly.

The media’s reporting made much of Trump’s fulsome claim that the targets had been “obliterated”—as if that characteristic specimen of Trumpian rhetoric was some heinous attempt at gaslighting. They much preferred to portray the mission as a failure. But as the facts emerge, it’s becoming clear that the President’s claim is closer to the truth than the media/Democrat/Resistance narrative. The key components of Iran’s nuclear program have been destroyed or heavily damaged by the US and Israeli attacks, such that it would take years to reconstitute the program. Even Iran has admitted that the damage done was severe. The definition of all that is: mission accomplished.

Even if, as seems likely, Iran still has a stock of enriched uranium hidden away somewhere, the infrastructure necessary to produce a nuclear weapon has been smashed up. Moreover, the Islamic Republic has been comprehensively defanged. Since October 7, 2023, its surrogates in the region—Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah—have been neutralized. Iran itself is effectively disarmed. It cannot defend itself against US and Israeli airstrikes; its military high command has been decimated. The regime’s military and state security apparatus have been penetrated and corrupted by Israeli intelligence. Iran could conceivably engineer terrorist strikes inside Israel and the United States, but that would bring down instant and massive retaliation on the heads of the ayatollahs.

Thanks to America and Israel, the leading state sponsor of terror has been slapped down. The world is the safer for that. And the American Left is really, really mad about it.