Posted on 06/18/2025 5:52:56 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A conversation with leading American physicist and nuclear weapons expert David Albright about what Israel’s campaign has achieved so far and whether U.S. military assistance is needed
The United States is the only country in the world with the ability to destroy the Fordow nuclear facility quickly from the air, something we could accomplish by dropping a couple 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on the most important and heavily protected piece of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Such a strike would potentially reset the entirety of international arms control.
Since the early 1970s, the world has depended on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the U.N. Security Council to maintain a global system that regulates the spread and development of nuclear weapons technology, placing American adversaries like China and Russia at the apex of the arms control system and creating layers of bureaucracy and diplomacy that would-be proliferators have learned to exploit. Pakistan, India, and North Korea have all built nuclear arsenals in defiance of the NPT. Until this week, Iran was very close to joining them.
The global arms control regime never considered Fordow—or, for that matter, Yongbyon, the site of North Korea’s nuclear breakthroughs in the mid-’90s—to be sufficiently serious a threat to global peace to warrant military action. Interestingly enough, the three most recent instances of a country using force to stop an in-progress nuclear program—namely, the Israeli attacks on Iraq, Syria, and Iran—were launched by a state that isn’t a signatory to the NPT. So far the United States has declined to attack North Korean and Iranian nuclear sites. If Donald Trump were to reverse course and bomb Fordow, he would reorient all of global nonproliferation around American strategic judgment and leadership. A successful U.S. attack on Fordow would establish a precedent...
(Excerpt) Read more at tabletmag.com ...
‘Can Israel End Iran’s Nuclear Program?’
I hope so!
Yes, they can as long as they have no meaningful air defenses systems functioning against Israeli fighter technology. Israel could also use a stealth heavy bomber.
Israeli airforce is ranked 129th in its airforce compared to other nations.
If the unconditional surrender occurs first, the nuke sites can be destroyed at leisure.
They did it in Iraq and Syria.
Why bother to bomb it? Get rid of the regime and let the new transition govt bring in the nuclear commission to dismantle it.
And Egypt.
It doesn’t matter if some bomb the big bunker. The tolla is gone and a new government can take care of it . such bomber people.
It seems that everyone believes that a bunker buster bomb or the new MOP would destroy that facility. I do not think that anyone except Iran knows how deep that facility is underground. Does anyone outside of Iran know how deep it is?
Israel could also use a stealth heavy bomber.
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Israel has no stealth heavy bombers.
I’m thinking along those lines, too. Even if one, or a couple of bombs were dropped, a ground inspection would still have to occur, to confirm, wouldn’t it? And if a ground inspection is unimpeded, why drop bombs? And is there danger of scattering a bunch of radiation by bombing? I don’t know, I’m asking..
“I don’t know, I’m asking..”
Nor do I. ;-)
It seems that a lot of this is speculation by people who don’t know any more than you or I.
MIT professor and actual arms professoonal was on a program today explaining how in no way in hell even the largest bomb we have wouldnt do the job. That is, if it is as deep as they indicate. It comes down largely to deflection and depth.
Its all pure speculation by uninformed incompetent individuals are pushing.
He’s an idiot. You secure the area, bring in Israeli special forces. Set up a drill rig and put a steel cased 14’’ hole down there (easy for experience drillers), lower down a tactical nuke, cap with concrete, light fuse and step away as it says on a pack of black-cat firecrackers. There wouldn’t be anything left down there to ‘salvage’.
Israel could also use a stealth heavy bomber.
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Israel has no stealth heavy bombers.
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Wonder what a lease would run.
And the extensive pilot training. And the numerous refueling tankers to refuel them from distant and secure locations.
And you attended which university and acheived a PHD?
Ah, appeal to authority. I win.
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