I still suspect/fear that an apex predator needs the challenge of another peer to remain engaged and growing in capability, etc. Perhaps that is our real original sin? Do we build that into our vision?

NC, yes, and Jerusalem is also considered a holy city by many, but not too many Shiites. The Golden Rule seems to mean something different in Islam than elsewhere.

I think there have been far too many Shiite “presponses” for that to be much of a deterrent.

One thing I used to see mentioned by pundits, but haven’t yet this week (!!) is that the location “built close to the holy city of Qom” was meant as a deterrent to action that might damage the city and alienate other Islamic countries (as if they needed more incentives).

Wikipedia, Qom article: “However, attacking a nuclear facility so close to a city considered so holy in Shia Islam brings concern of a potential risk of a Shiite religious response.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qom

PS – just caught up with miguel on the next post who did note the Qom factor!

https://thenewneo.com/2025/06/16/the-uns-role-in-israels-attack-on-iran/#comment-2807097

Agreed.

CNN, of all places, has an interesting article on the near impenetrable Fordow facilty:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/middleeast/iran-fordow-nuclear-site-latam-hnk-intl

“Col. Richard Kemp: ‘Israel can inflict significant damage to Fordow’;
“Former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan speaks with Arutz Sheva about the achievements of Operation Rising Lion so far.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/410174

While Israel doesn’t have and has nothing to launch the 30,000 lb GBU-57 MOP, it does have many other “bunker busters” that it can employ.

1) Israel has quite a few BLU-109 JDAMs, a 2,000 lb penetrator that can be launched from their F-15s, F-16s, and F-35s. This is the weapon that took out the head of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah in his bunker last September.

2) Israeli F-15Is can launch the 4,000 lb GBU-28. Israel ordered 100 of them from the United States, and at least 55 are known to have been delivered.

3) The F-15I can also carry the 5,000 lb GBU-72, which is said to be about twice as capable as the GBU-28.

The F-15E/I/EX is quite a remarkable aircraft. Besides being the second-best air-to-air fighter in the world (behind the F-22), it can carry more air-to-ground payload than a B-17. Unfortunately, Israel only has 21 F-15Is, though it does have 50 F-15EXs on order.

Nothing non-nuclear will beat a B-2 carrying a pair of MOPs, however.

I can’t.

neo is a fine writer. She gets in, she gets out, you know immediately what her main point is, you can follow her reasoning, she supports it with interesting specifics, and she avoids flabby abstract language.

Of course, that takes work, experience and revising.

Chat summarized the entire text at the link.

https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/establishment-for-a-better-future-the-historic-need-of-our-time/

I still don’t see much there there. Which comes out well in Chat’s executive summary.

The main takeaway is that America should have a plan, a vision for making a better world, and not just react reflexively to problems. And Trump’s dealmaking is a reasonable approach.

Dyer took 6000 words to say that. As a writer who respects a reader’s time I find the essay a disgrace.

I do have one question: did Chat summarize just the excerpt I posted or the entire post?