A Short Summary of the 12-Day War - Dated June 29, 2025
On Friday, June 13, Israeli F-35 stealth bombers executed a surprise attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites. Simultaneously, Israeli intelligence agents within Iran assassinated many top military officials and nuclear scientists. About 70 Iranians were killed and another 350 were wounded. Israel has long considered the possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons an existential threat to the survival of Israel. The Radical Islamic leaders of Iran have frequently threatened to annihilate Israel. Their rhetoric, often expressed through organized pro-government demonstrations, has often featured slogans describing both Israel and the United States as satanic enemies of Iran and Islam.
The level to which Iran developed uranium enrichment even for peaceful use has therefore always been an existential concern to Israel. Immediately prior to the attack, Iran was engaged with the US Trump Administration in negotiating limits on uranium enrichment. The Israelis totally opposed any uranium enrichment for Iran, although the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ratified by 190 nations in 1968—and enforceable as International Law 1970—guarantees signatory nations, including Iran, the right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. According to the NPT: France, the UK, the US, China, and Russia (then the USSR) were allowed to keep nuclear weapons. Israel, India, and Pakistan nevertheless developed nuclear weapons, and North Korea cancelled its ratification of NPT. Ignoring NPT rights for Iran, could cause many NPT members to withdraw and develop their own nuclear weapons capabilities.
The United States did not officially take part in the June 13 attack on Iran’s nuclear development facilities but US Intelligence and Navy destroyers were used to defend against Iranian retaliatory missile attacks.
Massive Iranian missile attacks soon overwhelmed the capabilities of Israeli Iron Dome missile protection with hundreds of missiles, drones, and decoys. Israel is now running low on defensive missiles, and US resupply and manufacturing capabilities are reported to be limited.
Iranian missiles have done extensive damage around the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The Mediterranean Ports of Haifa and Ashdod have suffered critical damage. The Israeli Intelligence Service (Mossad) headquarters in Tel Aviv has also been severely damaged. The use of Israel’s only international airport, Ben Gurian International, about 12 miles SE of Tel Aviv is also threatened. Civilian dead in Israel is at least in the hundreds with many more wounded.
MIT professor and expert on missile and nuclear weapons, Ted Postol, recently said that the error radius of most Iranian missiles is about a half mile. Some of the newer Iranian hypersonic missiles, however, are not only near-unstoppable but more precise. Most reports indicate Iran still has an extensive supply of missiles and drones. Iran’s mountainous terrain makes missile storage and mobile launchers difficult to detect and strike.
Israel, however, has forbidden reports, photos, or films of Iranian missile damage to Israel. Little mention of it can be found on US media, which bases its reporting on Israeli government and media reports.
Considerable information, videos, and photos, however, have been able to evade Israeli censoring efforts. Although these alternative media sources are also usually censored by mainstream American and European media, the truth is getting through, and the opinion of many reliable sources indicates that Israel is losing the war due to the collapse of Iron Dome effectiveness and shortages of defensive missiles. This closely-held opinion is probably shared and corroborated by both US and Israeli intelligence sources. This is undoubtedly a cause of considerable anxiety among top Israeli leadership and why Trump felt the US had to intervene with US B-2 bombers and submarine missile attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 21 to save Israel.
Moreover, there was a danger that Israel might resort to nuclear weapons if the situation was not reversed. Israel is estimated to have between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads. This also undoubtedly influenced Trump to immediate intervention, The catastrophe of multi-national nuclear war is something that sane national leaders across the globe fear and oppose. This includes not only Trump but also the leaders of Russia and China.
The actual physical damage to Iranian nuclear production facilities is not fully knowable at this time and is therefore controversial. One issue is the possibility that enriched uranium was removed before the airstrike. However, the airstrike was successful enough in both physical and psychological impact to convince the Iranians that a cease-fire was highly desirable. The arrangement so far is that Iran will not attack Israel unless Israel attacks them. So far, the cease fire is holding but considered shaky.
The leading Warhawk Neocon in Congress seems to be South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. This has been true for the Ukraine War as well as the Iran War. Neocons basically favor the global dominance of a US empire using whatever means necessary to gain or sustain dominance, including bullying with financial and economic sanctions, regime changes, and proxy-wars, but avoiding direct confrontation with major global powers. This has been a disastrous and costly foreign policy model that Trump strongly opposed in his election campaigns—“no more forever wars.”
Most of the US media, including Fox, use the corrupt Ukrainian government as their primary source of information on the Ukraine War. This has been a disaster for the future of Ukraine and especially the Ukrainian people. It has also drained US military capabilities and robbed US taxpayers of a considerable portion of $175 billion. We should avoid a similar reliance on Israeli Mossad intelligence as our primary source for making critical military and foreign policy decisions.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you”—Psalm 122:6
“My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge….”—Hosea 4:6a
Mike Scruggs is the author of two books: The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You, and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East. 
