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Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. President Trump orders B-2 bombers to strike Iran, crippling its nuclear ambitions. I want to recognize the pilots who flew those bombers, who flew those fighters, who flew those refuelers, warriors.
I want to recognize the sailors on those destroyers, in those subs, on those carriers, warriors. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, June 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.
Will Russia and China come to Iran's defense? And will the U.S. order boots on the ground? We want to see them stay as far away as possible. Let this one leg of the stool collapse. And we speak to an expert on Iran's military who says it will be more motivated than ever to strike back against the West. Make no mistake, they still want to wash away blood with blood. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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So, Cabot, after an intense few days of speculation, President Trump did move to intervene in Iran. What's the latest? Yeah, last we spoke, President Trump had said he'd make a final decision within two weeks.
Clearly, he did not need that much time. At midnight Friday, a group of American B-2 stealth bombers took off from the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. A number of those planes were noticed flying over the Pacific towards Guam, but it turns out those planes were a decoy for the main group of seven B-2s, which flew undetected 18 hours nonstop to Iran, refueling along the way.
Once they entered Iranian airspace, they were then joined by American fighter jets to defend against any surface-to-air missiles or other Iranian planes. But none would come. Within minutes, those bombers dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on the Fordow and the Tans facilities. Those are the crown jewels of the Iranian nuclear program. They were also buried deep underground. That's why those bunker-buster bombs were needed. Moments later, a third nuclear site was bombarded with Tomahawk missiles launched from a U.S. submarine in the region.
The Pentagon said those strikes inflicted, quote, extremely severe damage and that Iran's enrichment program was, quote, obliterated. But we are still waiting for final intel on just how much nuclear material may have been moved out of those facilities ahead of time and what the full assessment of the capabilities of those facilities will be.
Well, President Trump addressed the nation on Saturday night shortly after this mission was carried out. What did he say? Yeah, he gave a live address to the nation Saturday night from the White House, flanked by VP Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He called the operation a massive success. The U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime.
Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. President Trump went on to make clear to the Ayatollah that he was prepared to launch further strikes if they retaliated against the U.S. or did not agree to a peace deal. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.
Now, the administration may be celebrating the apparent success of these strikes, but they're making clear to the American people that they want to avoid a drawn-out war like we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan. As part of that message, Defense Secretary Hegseth emphasized on Sunday that the administration was not only looking to avoid a drawn-out war, but also a regime change. This mission was not and has not been about regime change. The president authorized a precision operation
to neutralize the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program and the collective self-defense of our troops and our ally Israel.
For his part, Vice President Vance went a step further on Meet the Press, saying the United States was not at war with Iran, only Iran's nuclear program. Now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America's national security objectives. So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing. We've got in. We've done the job of setting their nuclear program back. And according to Axios, the president told Prime Minister Netanyahu that he, quote, does not want to continue attacks on Iran.
He is ready to do so if the Iranians react against American forces, but he wants peace. Now, let's get to Iran's response. What have they said? Well, as expected, the regime quickly issued a threat to America saying, quote, the strikes will have everlasting consequences and that Tehran, quote, reserves all options to retaliate.
Now, as for what exactly that retaliation looks like, it's anyone's guess, but there do seem to be a few potential scenarios emerging. First, fearing further strikes from the U.S., Iran could stand down and agree to new peace talks now that Trump has shown he's willing to hit them on their turf. Obviously, that would be the best case scenario, but it seems unlikely. Second, it's possible the Ayatollah responds the way he did when Trump took out General Soleimani back in 2020.
In that instance, Iran launched a few missiles at American bases in the Middle East, but ultimately did not inflict any casualties. Most experts viewed that response at the time as more of a face-saving measure than a true attempt to retaliate. Iranian officials at the time called it a, quote, slap at the U.S. So they could take that approach again.
Third, they could launch an all-out barrage on American military bases in Iraq, Syria, and Kuwait. While those missiles have largely been shot down by Israel, the concern is that our bases don't have the same sort of advanced air defense system. So that option could be devastating and obviously result in significant escalation.
Now, beyond military retaliation, they have moved to clamp down on some of their oil exports. So what kind of effect will that have? Yeah, hours after these strikes, Iran's parliament did vote to close the Strait of Hormuz. That's the narrow strip of water between Iran and Oman, where a quarter of the world's oil passes through. Now, it's unclear whether the Iranians actually have a mechanism for enforcing such a closure. But if they did, it would have likely an enormous impact on global oil prices, including potentially those here in the U.S.,
For more on that, we spoke with Jonathan Shanzer, Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The people who are the most unhappy about this right now are the Chinese. They are the ones that are counting on Iranian shipments of oil. They're, I think, the largest customer for Iranian oil. And so they're unhappy. But of course, this is a commodity. It's a global commodity, which means you're going to start to see shocks.
And that's exactly what I would have expected from the Islamic Republic of Iran after attacks along the lines of what we saw last night by the United States. They want to try to make Americans feel pain at the pump.
And absolutely, that's what we're likely to see for at least the short term. But you've got to remember that this is also the financial lifeline for the regime. So the more they shut off the straight, the more they're depriving themselves and their allies. That is not going to play well. This is a little bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
And so, and by the way, that's consistent with everything that we've seen from the Islamic Republic. They could have stood down a long time ago and saved themselves this pain. And yet here we are. We also talked with Victoria Coates, a national security expert at Heritage, for her take on the response that we've seen so far from our allies and adversaries.
There are sort of a range of responses. You have a typically kind of tepid European response, the French saying that they're concerned there could be an escalation. Nobody likes the Iranian nuclear program. You're having a little bit more, I think, of a nervous reaction out of Russia and China. There are reports that President Putin is going to meet with the president of Iran tomorrow.
but they've really not been able to do anything to help. And then some of Iran's friends, like Pakistan and Russia and China, are considering a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the United States'
But at that point, this point rather, I consider that something of a badge of honor. And with all this talk of retaliation, it must be mentioned there is concern that Iran could respond by activating terror cells around the world. Remember, they're the number one state sponsor of terror. It's also possible these strikes could motivate radicals unaffiliated with the regime.
With that in mind, authorities in cities around the U.S. say they are on high alert for terror attacks. The NYPD, for example, is deploying additional resources to quote religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across the city. We saw similar statements from D.C., L.A., and elsewhere. Well, people have absolutely been on edge and have been for a few days now. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely.
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The United States' direct attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities has heightened concerns about Iran targeting Americans abroad and at home. Joining us to discuss is Senior Iran Program Director and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy's Binnum bin Taliblu. Binnum, thank you so much for coming on.
Pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me. Look, there's a lot of trepidation about the potential threat posed by Iran in terms of its ability to target Americans, whether that be in bases in the Middle East or here at home. Let's start with how much damage these attacks by first Israel and now the U.S. have actually done on Iran. How crippled are they?
Well, there's two different sets of attacks. There's Israel's larger strikes against Iran's military and missile infrastructure, which are significant, taking out almost two-thirds of the regime's long-range strike capabilities and launchers. We're waiting to see how many more ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic has in the tank.
but thus far they're still fighting they're still firing and you have news of israeli aerial operations going further into iran's center and even into iran's east to target the regime's long-range strike capabilities now israel has struck many of iran's nuclear facilities as well but the u.s came in in a very historic strike went after three facilities including the subterranean hardened underground ford fuel enrichment plant which is under 300 feet of concrete
We're still waiting for a proper battle damage assessment. We've had U.S. military officials say this was severely set back. That might be a conservative estimate or it might be a more liberal estimate depending on that battle damage assessment. But make no mistake, military force has been meaningfully introduced into the equation. Some could say for the first time directly on Iranian territory.
when it comes to the U.S. and stopping Iran's nuclear program. And politically, that is impactful just as much as a massive ordnance penetrator. Now, the U.S. did take steps to fortify ourselves defensively over the last week. What actions do you know that we've actually already taken? And what else do we need to do in terms of better fortifying our various strategic locations in the Middle East?
The U.S. hasn't put much meat on the bone when it comes to saying explicitly what it did when it comes to these fortifications. But base hardening is a thing you've seen the U.S. learn to do, particularly as Iran's long-range strike capabilities evolve, get more precise, get to be more battlefield relevant.
But most importantly, there is the introduction of missile and air defense assets into the region, making sure that anywhere, not just in the Middle East, but anywhere U.S. persons are deployed, that they are protected with whatever tier air and missile defense that is required. I would say also, prior to this crisis even being triggered, you saw the downsizing of some of the U.S. diplomatic facilities in the region. Basically, this is a logistical move
designed to make sure that these facilities are less of a target that can be used by the regime to spill blood. We've been watching closely to see how Russia and China would respond. What's the latest in terms of signs that they're taking any action to support Iran or not?
Thus far, the actions taken to support Iran are not meaningful. They really exist on paper. This could change in the coming days. Hopefully, the U.S. is able to deter a wider entry of other great powers and European competitors into this conflict, thus far as it has been able to deter Iran from widening it. But make no mistake, even though Iran is part of this axis of aggressors or axis of authoritarians,
These folks are not liberal Democrats. They do not care for one another. They share the same goals of trying to revise the regional balance of working towards a more anti-American and illiberal world order. But they're not going to spend that much capital bailing another one of them out when they themselves are stuck in the mud. There's a big fear of terrorist attacks targeting Americans, whether abroad or here at home. How realistic is that threat?
While the Islamic Republic does have a transnational terrorist apparatus on the U.S. homeland, this apparatus has been evolving. But in America, for a little over a decade and a half, the Islamic Republic has been looking to work through cutouts, particularly transnational criminal syndicates that mask
how and who it's working with to be able to use criminal networks and basically gangs to go after folks on U.S. soil. Remember, the U.S., the Iranians have tried to kill on U.S. soil the Saudi ambassador by working with Mexican drug cartels, and they tried to go after others by even using a Canadian biker gang. So the regime is looking to work with these transnational criminal networks. Let's hope all this heightened vigilance will keep Americans safe. Benham, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
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