ON June 22, 2025, US President Trump announced: “The US military carried out a massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime. The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

Trump’s “Operation Midnight Hammer” was not so much as to prevent Iran from acquiring nukes but to give in to Netanyahu and the powerful Israel Zionist lobby to pull America into this war with Iran on their behalf.

On June 23, Iran retaliated with missile strikes on the US base in Qatar. Reportedly, Iran alerted Trump prior to this ‘tit-for-tat’ assault giving Americans time to vacate the base, thus no American casualties were inflicted. This evidently was to telegraph to Trump that Khamenei’s intention was not to go to war with America but to retaliate for the June 22 US bombings quenching Iran’s thirst for revenge. Khamenei was not showing weakness — it was strategic choice.

Fake ceasefire

Then Trump announced a ceasefire. This was immediately contradicted by Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who declared: “As Iran repeatedly made clear: Israel launched war on Iran, not the other way around. As of now, (8:46 p.m. June 23, 2025) there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations. However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 a.m. Teheran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards. The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later.”

Then on June 24, the New York Times published a leaked report from America’s intelligence community that the bombing may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months. Apparently, Iran, anticipating the attack, moved out to safety its cache of enriched uranium days prior to the B2 bombings. With a few repairs here and there, Iran could be back on track.

Trump, Hegseth and Rubio have gone ballistic over the leak catching them on their lies. Their overreaction suggests the accuracy of the disclosures. All this hullaballoo therefore is for nothing, changed nothing, collapsing Trump’s delusional narrative of the total obliteration of Iran’s nuclear capability.

Trump’s victory: A premature ejaculation

It is now apparent that there were no ceasefire negotiations between Iran and Israel. Trump, the consummate deal-maker negotiated a ceasefire by himself, with himself — and unilaterally declared a ceasefire. There are no written documents that lay out the conditions — just another one of his “art of a deal” gimmicks. It seems clear that Trump badly wants an exit from Iran that will make him look good — even branding the attack grandiosely as the “12-day war” — basking in the accolades of the MAGA, portraying him as a hero worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump wants out of this war mindful of his reputation as the self-proclaimed “No-war Peace President” that could tarnish his legacy — whatever is left of it.

Meanwhile, President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed that (Israel) suffered “a severe and historic punishment,” in effect declaring Iran’s victory. Netanyahu on the other hand whose standing in Israel is now higher not so much for Israel’s flagrant unprovoked attacked but more importantly for sucking Trump and America into this war, wanted this ceasefire desperately.

With Trump opting out of the war, Israel won’t have the wherewithal for what is evolving into a war of attrition. And the missiles are once again hurtling into each other’s territories, eliciting a quirky outburst from the Donald, “I’m not happy with Israel... we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”

Word is out that Israel badly wants a ceasefire. For one, Israel is not prepared for a war of attrition while Iran is. Israel is running out of weaponry; their Iron Dome and David Sling missile defenses are depleted. Its economy is stagnant, investments are drying up and these recent events are triggering mass exodus, citizens desperate to flee on the so-called “escape flotilla” and “rescue flights.” The Israeli government recently issued “... a decision effectively barring them from leaving” (Middle East Eye, June 27, 2025). Netanyahu wanted to put an end to the war, and prevent further destruction in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other major cities that are becoming more and more like the devastated Gaza. He went to Trump, and Trump did it.

Replay of Iraq and Afghanistan

Trump suffers from historical illiteracy as he doesn’t read nor appreciate events that are not centered on him; thus, he is incapable of grasping nuances of the past that are worth remembering. He is probably whom George Santayana was referring to in his oft-repeated aphorism about those condemned to repeat the past. What Trump did after the bombing was reminiscent of George “Dubya” Bush’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 — purportedly marking the end of major combat operations in Iraq; except that the Iraq war went on for another eight years, costing hundred thousands of lives and wasting America’s treasure, before its final defeat and withdrawal in 2011. Trump in his arrogance did Bush one better by abruptly declaring the current Iran-Israel war over after 12 days — while both countries continue to rain missiles on each other’s citizens. To use an idiom in a game of golf Trump so loves — “he lacks follow through.”

As should have been predictable, Trump lives up to the name given to him — TACO for “Trump always chickens out.” His precipitate declaration of the end of the war and a ceasefire could ironically be interpreted as his surrender — not Iran’s. What turns out to be Trump’s bragging rights was a complete fiasco.

So, what now?

This war is not over. Trump vowed that he will bomb Iran again if it restarts enriching uranium to weapons grade. He will not even permit Iran to have a nuclear capability for civilian use. Aside from this proviso, America has no clear objectives in this war. But Israel has.

For Netanyahu, this is not just about Iran and Israel. This is about the Jewish state that does not simply want hegemony but dominance over the entire region — and a non-nuclear Middle East except for Israel, God’s chosen people. With the Arab-Muslin-Palestinian-Jews universe to contend with, this Iran-Israel war will not end until Gaza is resolved. Israel is dangerously working towards ethnic cleansing within its border belying a two-state solution in Palestine.

And since the Zionist-Israeli lobby has co-opted America’s foreign policy in the Middle East, the US is complicit not only in this war but conflict with the whole Muslim world. And if history is to be a guide, particularly America’s less than stellar record in the past 80 years, America will be mired for months, if not years, and eventually loses. And Allah forbid, with Israel as the puppet master, this war could spread to those theaters where other actors are now intently watching — Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jung-un.

Trump and Netanyahu have to go — in a regime change!