quote: Iran’s Nuclear Program: Bombing Is the only Strategy? We need to be honest with ourselves: There is no magic solution to Iran’s nuclear challenge, with or without another strike on Pickaxe Mountain. Today, Iran is not enriching uranium. That is arguably the most significant achievement of Operation Rising Lion. But we should not confuse disrupting Iran’s nuclear program with eliminating its nuclear capabilities. No military strike can destroy Iran’s nuclear knowledge, erase decades of accumulated expertise, or eliminate its ability to rebuild. Iran has been enriching uranium for nearly a quarter of a century. Even a successful strike on Pickaxe Mountain would not eliminate that knowledge, or Tehran’s motivation to preserve its nuclear option. Moreover, beyond the enriched uranium already in Iran’s possession, Tehran retains materials and technical capabilities that could potentially allow it to produce additional centrifuges and resume enrichment to weapons-grade levels, including at facilities outside the known nuclear infrastructure. And there is another fundamental problem: For more than 15 months, international inspectors have lacked access to Iran’s nuclear facilities. As a result, our understanding of what is happening inside Iran increasingly depends on intelligence assessments, which, however sophisticated, have inherent limitations. This brings us back to the fundamental strategic question: Can military force alone prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons if its leadership ultimately decides to pursue them? So far, the answer appears to be no. Military operations can delay, disrupt, and degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But delaying a nuclear program is not the same as preventing a nuclear weapon. If the objective is not simply to buy more time but to establish a sustainable barrier between Iran and a nuclear bomb, shouldn't we be asking whether a verifiable diplomatic agreement, backed by credible enforcement mechanisms, offers a more durable solution than another round of airstrikes? The real question is not whether we can bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities again. It is what happens the day after, and whether we will be any closer to resolving the nuclear challenge. #iran | To this point … even the last year’s strikes against Fordow & Natanz required an enabling capability in the form of ventilation shafts that led from surface down into the underground facilities below for the MOP to be as effective as it was. The military is working to develop a “next generation penetrator” bomb to succeed the current MOP and potentially hit targets even more deeply buried — but that munition does not appear ready for deployment. And remains unclear if the current version could penetrate deep enough to destroy whatever may be underground at Pickaxe: https://t.co/EoDUbMFkvG