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Iran Launches Missiles At U.S. Bases in Qatar Matt Margolis

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/06/23/breaking-iran-launches-missiles-at-us-bases-in-qatar-n4941087?utm_source=breakingemail&utm_medium=email

In a move dripping with both desperation and stupidity, the mullahs in Tehran have apparently decided to test the resolve of President Donald J. Trump.

Reports indicate that Iran has launched a volley of seven ballistic missiles targeting American military bases in Iraq and Qatar. This is the predictable, impotent lashing out of a cornered regime, coming just days after the United States methodically dismantled Iran’s illicit nuclear infrastructure. The ayatollahs were given a clear choice between peace and annihilation, and it seems they have foolishly chosen the latter. For years, they grew accustomed to the weak-kneed appeasement of the Obama administration, which showered them with pallets of cash in the dead of night, and then, of course, that appeasement continued under the Biden administration.

They clearly forgot that those days are over. This isn’t Obama or Biden’s America anymore.

Witnesses on the ground reported seeing multiple explosions in the air, a clear sign that the robust missile defense systems President Trump had the foresight to deploy to the region are working exactly as intended.

This wasn’t a lucky guess; it was strategic planning. Trump and his team were anticipating this very move, ensuring our troops were protected. The president is scheduled to meet with his national security team this afternoon, and one can only imagine the menu of devastating options being prepared for his review.

Trump also warned the regime about retaliation Saturday night.

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Trump Hit Iran, So Will China Attack Taiwan? by Gordon G. Chang

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21699/iran-china-taiwan

[E]xpect Xi to up the pressure on Taiwan and others in coming weeks.

Xi fully backed Iran and its three main proxy terrorist groups — Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Houthis — against Israel, with Beijing providing economic, diplomatic, propaganda, intelligence and weapons support.

For a time, Beijing looked as if it was driving events with its sly proxy war conducted by Iran. Now, China’s Iranian proxy, and its proxies in turn, are being decimated, and Beijing cannot respond other than by cutting and running. The mighty People’s Republic of China is bugging out of the Middle East.

But China is not entirely out of the fight. In addition to the renewed air campaign against Taiwan, Beijing has upped the pressure against the Philippines in the South China Sea. On June 19, the same day China started its most recent air campaign against Taiwan, the Philippine Coast Guard announced that more than 50 of China’s maritime militia vessels moved close to Iroquois Reef in the South China Sea, a feature within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. A Philippine Coast Guard spokesman correctly called the Chinese action an “illegal swarming.”

China claims most of that crucial body of water, including features such as Iroquois, which are far from recognized Chinese shores.

This we learned on June 21: The United States is truly a great power — and China is not.

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What Happens If Iran’s Regime Collapses? Eli Lake

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/p/what-happens-if-irans-regime-collapses

Trump says it’s time to Make Iran Great Again. But what’s more likely if the mullahs fall: democracy or anarchy?

A lot has changed in the past 48 hours of this war.

Before American B-2 bombers struck Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz, the message from the White House was that regime change was off the table. Indeed, the chatter out of Washington and Jerusalem was that the White House was spooked by some of Israel’s messaging.

Defense minister Israel Katz instructed the military to destabilize Iran’s regime and threatened that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be permitted to exist” after an Iranian missile hit the Soroka Medical Center in the southern part of the country. Indeed, the operation’s name, “Rising Lion,” is a not-so-subtle nod to the Iranian flag under the Peacock dynasty, which ruled Iran until the Shah was ousted in the Islamic revolution in 1979. The son of the late Shah, Reza Pahlavi, is now calling for a national rebellion. “The Islamic Republic has come to its end and is collapsing. What has begun is irreversible,” he said in a video message from the United States, where he has lived since 1979.

Now, 10 days into the war Israel began against Iran’s nuclear program—the prospect of a regime collapse is very real. President Donald Trump on Sunday evening floated the idea in a post on Truth Social: “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”

This kind of talk has gone out of favor in Washington in recent years. The fall of dictatorships in Libya and Iraq led to confessional sectarian war. The fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt led briefly to a Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo before a military coup. But in Iran, a country that has experienced democratic uprisings five times since 2017, it now seems like a real possibility.

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‘You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About’: Rubio Wipes the Floor With Brennan Over Iranian Nukes Sarah Anderson

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/06/22/must-watch-rubio-wipes-the-floor-with-brennan-again-this-time-over-iranian-nukes-n4941059

There are some things I’d never do in life. I’d never challenge Usain Bolt to a race. I’d never have a conversation with Clarence Thomas and pretend to know more about the law than he does. I’d never volunteer to tackle Derrick Henry, and I’d never try to tell Peyton Manning how to throw a football. And I’d certainly never try to outsmart Secretary of State Marco Rubio on something like foreign intelligence.  

But Margaret Brennan doesn’t seem to know how to stay in her lane. I guess she enjoys embarrassing herself on national television? That’s the only thing I can come up with. 

Rubio made the media rounds on Sunday morning, and among his appearances was a spot on “Face the Nation.” As you can imagine, Donald Trump’s decision to beautifully bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities was the topic of discussion. Brennan seemed to fancy herself some sort of foreign intelligence expert, and as you can also imagine, Rubio made her look like an absolute moron.  

The interview started with Brennan asking about Iran’s capabilities to retaliate against the United States.  

Rubio responded by saying that Iran should choose peace, but that the United States is prepared for anything the regime could throw our way. He also doubled down on the fact that this was not an attack on the country but simply a move to eliminate their nuclear capabilities. He concluded: 

So this mission was a very precise mission. It had three objectives, three nuclear sites. It was not attack on Iran. It was not an attack on the Iranian people. This wasn’t a regime change move. This was designed to degrade and/or destroy three nuclear sites related to their nuclear weaponization ambitions, and that was delivered on yesterday. What happens next will now depend on what Iran chooses to do next. If they choose the path of diplomacy, we’re ready. We can do a deal that’s good for them, the Iranian people and good for the world. If they choose another route, then there will be consequences for that.

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The Lie of Cultural Appropriation It’s not about respect for other cultures or justice for the oppressed. It’s about power and revolution. by Mark Tapson

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-lie-of-cultural-appropriation/

In the early ‘90s, I was a percussionist in an Afro-Brazilian drumming-and-dance troupe in the vibrant Brazilian community of San Francisco. A handful of performers from Bahia, the most Africanized part of Brazil, had brought to the Bay Area at that time an exciting form of music called samba-reggae, which was briefly popularized among American audiences via the Paul Simon album The Rhythm of the Saints and Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” video, both of which featured the samba-reggae group Olodum.

I loved the drumming and threw myself into this scene obsessively. The Bahian performers appreciated my enthusiasm for the music and embraced me so unreservedly that when the drummers ultimately moved on to Miami, their dancer and choreographer who stayed behind worked with me to create an award-winning samba-reggae troupe, whose drummers I led. We even performed with Olodum when they participated in the annual San Francisco Carnaval parade.

In today’s climate of divisive identity politics imposed by the Left, I – a white guy from Arkansas – would never be allowed to rise to that level of involvement and prominence performing the music of Afro-Brazilians. Instead, I would be met with open resistance and drummed out (if you’ll pardon the pun) over accusations of “cultural appropriation” – the ridiculous and racist concept that whites have no right to adopt or even flirt with the aesthetics and practices of non-Western cultures. The false assumption is that whites – especially white males – belong to a civilization that historically has been uniquely exploitative, oppressive, and racially supremacist, and so the purported victims should reclaim their stolen dignity by forbidding today’s whites access to appreciating other cultural expressions – whether it be music, cuisine or even hairstyles:

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What Trump’s Critics Still Don’t Understand About Iran Trump’s Iran policy confounds critics because it’s not about war or appeasement—it’s about weakening Iran without revealing the playbook. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/22/what-trumps-critics-still-dont-understand-about-iran/

Note:  I wrote this column a few hours before the United States bombed and (according to President Trump) “completely and totally obliterated” the hardened Iranian nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.  Were those bombings, as some think, destabilizing actions?  Or were they, as others believe,  righteous and effective steps towards peace?

Righteous they certainly were. Whether they were also effective in luring Iran back into the community of nations is a matter that only time will tell.  In order for that to happen, as I argue below, Iran’s commitment to murderous, intolerant Islamism must be “completely and totally obliterated” along with its ability to export terror.  That is a matter that the Iranian people must decide.  For myself, I am in favor of making Iran Persia, i.e., a modern, secular state, again.

Donald Trump has betrayed his base by joining hands with the neo-cons in their belligerent support of war with Iran!

Donald Trump has betrayed Israel by trying to engage Iran in negotiations instead of bombing them now!

Which is it?

Neither.

For one thing, with every day that passes, Israel takes more chess pieces off the board of Iran’s military power, both in matériel and personnel. As of a couple of days ago, it was estimated that Israel had destroyed about 1000 of Iran’s 3500 to 4000 missiles. Add the 400-plus that Iran has lobbed at Israel’s cities, and you can see where this game of attrition is heading.

If one major goal is to extirpate Iran’s nuclear capability, then every day Israeli F-15s take flight is another milestone on the path to that goal. A weaker Iran is also a more pliant Iran.

It has been amusing to watch the chattering class suddenly become experts on the GBU-57 “bunker buster” bomb. Only the United States has them, and only the United States has bombers capable of delivering the 30,000-pound “Massive Ordnance Penetrators.” If you flip through the news, you will see scores, if not hundreds, of stories that repeat the same talking points.

At first, it was said that only the GBU-57 could destroy hardened sites such as the Fordow atomic bomb-making—officially, the “fuel enrichment”—site, buried hundreds of feet into a mountain.

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Ten Iranian Questions What Trump’s Strike Means for Iran, the Middle East, and American Power. By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/23/ten-iranian-questions/

1. What are we to make of Saturday night’s destruction of the three Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan?

Trump and the U.S. military took a great risk and succeeded in astounding fashion. Operationally, the destruction of the nuclear sites seems to have gone perfectly, in contrast to a long history of America’s Middle East debacles from the failed 1980 Carter rescue mission to the 2021 flight from Kabul.

The long-overdue message to Iran is that there are finally consequences for a half-century effort of killing Americans, promising death to the U.S. and Israel, and attempting to murder a U.S. president.

It’s also surreal to see leftist critics now say that Trump deviated from past presidents’ heroic, peaceful efforts to negotiate an end to the Iranian nuclear threat, when suddenly, after assuming office, Trump was apprised that Iran was weeks away from getting a bomb.

So, how did that happen after all those heroic diplomatic efforts? Why was the Iranian bomb program not ended during the Biden administration’s last four years? And who but Barack Obama opened the floodgates of Iranian revenue to fund these monstrous programs?

How strange the legal criticisms of the left are. In 2011, repeatedly bombing and killing hundreds of Libyan civilians and setting off a decade of chaos and mayhem were constitutionally okay, but a one-mission taking out a rogue nation’s nuclear facilities that threatened world peace and likely killed few, if any, civilians was unconstitutional and amoral?

Note well: Obama bombed, with B-2s no less, Libya again on his last full day in office in 2017—to finish off his disastrous five-year-long Susan Rice/Samantha Power/Hillary Clinton (“We came, we saw, he died”)/Ben Rhodes-directed destruction of Libya.

In the end, critics on the left and right are flummoxed and left sputtering only, “Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon”—even as every prior president had failed to slow Iran’s progression to a bomb—until Trump alone just did.

Intelligence-wise, it was quite stunning how there were no leaks but lots of successful misdirection and deceptions, such as redeploying the B-2s to Guam. It also made sense to strike early in Trump’s two-week window of warning, as otherwise, each day of quiet worked against the element of surprise.

It was not exactly rah-rah, Yanqui recklessness, but rather almost inevitable. Trump had warned the Iranians on numerous occasions. They never got the message. They were apparently listening to the American Left’s smears of Trump as a “TACO” (“Trump Always Chickens Out”)—a silly slur phrase that just died Saturday night.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Nicole Gelinas, E. J. McMahon New York City’s Drop Dead Year A new film vividly revisits Gotham’s 1975 nadir.

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.city-journal.org/article/drop-dead-city-documentary-new-york-city-fiscal-crisis

This year marks a half-century since the acute phase of New York City’s fiscal crisis. It began in February 1975, when a default by a state-backed housing authority alarmed the bankers who regularly lent to the city, prompting closer scrutiny of New York’s own finances. In April, the banks stopped extending credit to cover the city’s chronic deficits. That led to a state takeover of city finances in June and, finally, a federal guarantee of the state rescue plan in December.

The crisis still sparks both ideological and practical debate: Was it the banks’ fault—for lending too much, or for cutting off credit? Or was it the city’s fault, for borrowing beyond its means? Did the reforms that followed usher in an era of harmful austerity or broad-based prosperity? Was the outcome a bailout, a punishment, or both?

This year marks a half-century since the acute phase of New York City’s fiscal crisis. It began in February 1975, when a default by a state-backed housing authority alarmed the bankers who regularly lent to the city, prompting closer scrutiny of New York’s own finances. In April, the banks stopped extending credit to cover the city’s chronic deficits. That led to a state takeover of city finances in June and, finally, a federal guarantee of the state rescue plan in December.

The crisis still sparks both ideological and practical debate: Was it the banks’ fault—for lending too much, or for cutting off credit? Or was it the city’s fault, for borrowing beyond its means? Did the reforms that followed usher in an era of harmful austerity or broad-based prosperity? Was the outcome a bailout, a punishment, or both

We’ve both recently attended a screening of a new documentary on the crisis, Drop Dead City. The title comes from the famous Daily News headline paraphrasing President Gerald Ford’s initial refusal to rescue New York in October 1975: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” As with many famous quotes, Ford never used those exact words—though what he did say was close enough. Directed by Michael Rohatyn and Peter Yost, Drop Dead City blends newly unearthed archival footage with clips and fresh interviews featuring key figures from 1975, including union leaders and financiers.

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President Trump Speaks with Bold Action We couldn’t afford to continue this theater of diplomacy. by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/president-trump-speaks-with-bold-action/

Last Saturday, Israel’s operation to eliminate the existential threat of a nuclear armed, genocidal regime reached a spectacular culmination with President Trump’s massive strike against three of Iran’s most important nuclear weapons facilities. The strikes settled the debate over whether Trump would, or should continue to pursue a diplomatic resolution to 46 years of the mullahs’ aggression and the West’s serial appeasement. Trump settled the debate with powerful, decisive action of a sort that our country has avoided for nearly five decades of “diplomatic engagement” and “preemptive cringing” that rationalized our failure of nerve.

But the existential danger of the Iranian theocrats’ nuclear ambitions has never been in question. That didn’t matter to a few Republican “no foreign entanglements” and “endless neocon wars” Congressmen and advisors, who have rejected the existence of the threat, mainly by saying Iran is not capable of, nor interested in possessing nuclear weapons. But that claim has been preposterously false. Just recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported, “Iran carried out multiple implosion tests, a key military skill necessary for developing the atomic bomb. Implosion tests do not have civilian nuclear uses.”

Additionally, according to The Straits Times, “At least until Israel’s attacks, Iran was enriching uranium up to 69 percent purity and had enough material at that level for nine weapons if enriched further, according to the IAEA yardstick. That means Iran’s so-called ‘breakout time’––the time it would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb––was close to zero, likely a matter of days or little more than a week, analysts say.”

Another argument from some Republicans of an isolationist bent deployed the neocon strawman of “forever wars” that do not directly serve our national interests and security, are poorly managed, and needlessly cost American lives and resources. But the conflicts these critics have in mind––the Afghanistan War, the second Gulf War against Iraq, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the Obama-Clinton NATO adventurism in Libya––are false analogies with Israel’s campaign to eliminate the threat of an apocalyptic, messianic genocidal regime that is the world’s most lethal state sponsor of terrorism, now on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons.

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Trump Keeps His Promise on Iran. The World Is Safer for It.

Posted By on June 23rd, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The president warned that he wouldn’t tolerate a nuclear Iran. He meant what he said.

President Trump promised he would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Last night, with seven B-2 bombers and a dozen 30,000-pound bombs, he made good on that vow. The world is better off for it.

Trump announced Saturday evening that the U.S. had completed a “spectacularly successful” strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites at Natanz, Esfahan, and Fordow. The last of those is a heavily fortified facility buried some 300 feet deep in a mountain in Iran’s Qom Province. Although Israel has bunker busting bombs, none have the size and destructive power of the most advanced American bombs, with the capability of destroying or severely damaging the site.

In a moment of political decisiveness and courage, Trump deployed those bombs, despite strenuous objections from the “restrainers” in his administration and parts of the MAGA coalition.

“There’s no military that could’ve done what we did,” Trump said during a brief speech to the nation Saturday night. He is correct. As Niall Ferguson and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant recently noted in these pages, Fordow was essentially impervious to assault. There was one bomb that could cut through its defenses: America’s GBU 57A/B Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP). And there was only one plane built to deliver that bomb: the American B-2 Spirit.

“With a single exertion of its unmatched military strength,” Ferguson and Gallant wrote, “the United States can shorten the war, prevent wider escalation, and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability. It can also send a signal to those other authoritarian powers who have been Iran’s enablers that American deterrence is back.”

That is exactly what this White House has done.