Hours after unilaterally bombing Iran, President Donald J. Trump said this:
Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
Like most everything the orange vulgarity says, it turns out that this isn't quite true.
From The New York Times:
A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months, according to officials familiar with the findings.
The strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, the officials said the early findings concluded.
And CNN:
The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it.
The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.
But The Dear Leader said "obliterated" as in "completely and totally"!
More from the Times:
Officials cautioned that the five-page classified report was only an initial assessment, and that others would follow as more information was collected and as Iran examined the three sites. One official said that the reports people in the administration had been shown were “mixed” but that more assessments were yet to be done.
But the Defense Intelligence Agency report indicates that the sites were not damaged as much as some administration officials had hoped, and that Iran retains control of almost all of its nuclear material, meaning if it decides to make a nuclear weapon it might still be able to do so relatively quickly.
So, not so obliterated, I guess.
Of course the administration disagreed with the DIA:
President Trump pushed back Wednesday on the findings of a preliminary classified U.S. report, insisting again that Iran’s nuclear program was obliterated despite the early intelligence suggesting U.S. strikes had set the program back only by a few months.
The Trump administration has rebuked the media for reporting on that early assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, which officials said found that U.S. strikes had sealed off entrances to two of three nuclear sites but not collapsed their underground buildings.
But again this administration is not known for its excessive transparency or honesty.
We report. You decide.
