The World Owes Its Thanks
By Tom Gilbreath
In 1981, Israel struck and destroyed an almost finished nuclear reactor in Sadam Hussein’s Iraq. The backlash was severe. The New York Times called it “inexcusable” and “short-sighted.” The Times turned out to be wrong on both counts. New Delhi Television wrote in 2023, “Many nations condemned Israel for the airstrike on the nuclear reactor. But after the first Gulf War in 1990-91, leaders retroactively supported the incredible operation as the Israeli attack prevented Iraq from eventually acquiring nuclear weapons.”
Hindsight really is 20/20. Ten years after Israel’s strike, the United States led 31 nations in a battle to stop Sadam’s takeover of the oil rich nation of Kuwait. As the Iraqi troops fled in defeat, they set the Kuwait oil fields on fire which some scientists wrongly warned might cause worldwide cooling. Despite the global risk, Sadam Hussein acted out of pure spite. Imagine if even one secret nuclear weapon had been available for him to use against US troops. Of course, if Sadam had been in the nuclear club and it were known, none of the 31 nations would have been willing to fight him. He would have kept Kuwait and, with it, outsized control of global energy prices.
Sadam never got nukes. Thank you, Israel.
On June 13, 2025, at 3:30 am local time in Iran, Israel struck that nation’s vast nuclear facilities. The Israelis took out Iran’s top military leaders and several of its principle nuclear scientists. In those and subsequent strikes, Israel destroyed or did serious harm to Iran’s nuclear facilities at locations across the country.
Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is built within a mountain. When Iranian dissidents made Israel and the United States intelligence aware of the Fordow plant in 2009, then-President Obama said, “The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.” That was an understatement, but true. You don’t build a huge nuclear enrichment plant inside a mountain if it is being built for peaceful purposes. You put it in a mountain if you want it secret and unassailable.
As of this writing, I don’t know how successful Israel was at diminishing Fordow’s capabilities. Even bunker-busters aren’t able, as far as we know, to get a bomb through a mountain. However, before the attack, military sources said that a strategic strike on Fordow might cause cave-ins, and that could cause significant damage.
Some criticized Israel because they think the recent attack could lead to wider war in the Middle East. It’s more likely that Israel postponed such a war. Iran had already made war with Israel as widespread as it could. Before he was overthrown, Iran used Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in their war on Israel. But now he’s gone. At Iran’s behest, Hezbollah had been waging a decades-long battle against Israel from the north. But, for now, Hezbollah has been defanged. The Houthis in Yemen are doing everything they can against Israel, but it isn’t much. The Shiite militias in Iraq hate Israel and are loyal to Iran, but they have little firepower.
Hamas is the only non-Shiite group in the Middle East consistently allied with Iran. That’s because Hamas will befriend anyone willing to give it weapons and money. But that alliance is now useless. Will Israel’s actions cause a wider war? Probably not. It was already as wide as Iran could make it.
Israel’s Sunni Muslim neighbors hate and fear Iran. They complained against Israel publicly, but privately, no one was more relieved. By causing a major delay in Iran’s nuclear program, the Jewish state is doing them a tremendous favor, and they know it. Israel is also doing the rest of the world a favor, especially the United States. Thank you, Israel.
