Iran, Israel and the Constant Threat of Nuclear War
Steve Huntley
June 22, 2025
War, more war, and fear of an even wider war or possibly a World War III.
All that dominates and roils our political debate, news reports and social media discourse.
First, there’s the actual war. It began with Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear weapons project and Iran’s bombarding Israeli cities to kill and maim civilians.
Then there’s more war with the decision by President Trump to have America’s military step in to help end Tehran’s atom bomb ambitions by attacking three Iranian nuclear sites Saturday.
That combined air and naval campaign included dropping bunker-busting bombs on an Iranian atomic facility buried deep in the base of a mountain. So deep that the Israelis didn’t have a weapon capable of destroying it. That fact meant only U.S. military might could deliver a potential knockout blow to the ayatollahs’ nuclear ambitions.
Trump late Saturday night declared the strike a “spectacular military success.”
Finally, there are the protests from the antiwar left and the isolationist MAGA wing that see any foreign war as none of America’s business or, worse, a conflict that, if America gets involved, can end up being a trip wire maybe leading to World War III.
Informing that fear are a couple of truisms about warfare: No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. And “the fog of war” prevents a combatant from comprehending what its enemy is up to.
First the war itself.
The Israeli “Operation Rising Lion” attack ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to destroy Iran’s nuclear program should have surprised no one.
Oct. 7 made it inevitable.
The savage orgy of murder, rape, and hostage-taking by Hamas terrorists against Israel in 2023 put the Iranian nuclear program in the crosshairs of the Jewish state’s powerful military.
While the immediate objective was to defeat the sadistic monsters of Hamas, Israel’s leaders surely knew that down the road they would have to confront Iran. That nation’s ruling regime identifies the annihilation of the Jewish state as an essential national goal.
It remains to be determined if Tehran had a direct role in planning the Oct. 7 atrocity. The fanatical mullahs say not. But Iran has a long history of supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist terrorists with funds and intelligence sharing.
Furthermore, if it wasn’t involved in the actual plotting, Iran was aware of the Hamas attack plan and welcomed it, according to secret documents reported by the New York Times. When the atrocity happened, Tehran immediately celebrated it.
What’s also essential to understand about the fallout from Oct. 7 is that the surprise attack brought home once again the central reality that Jews and Israelis face a death threat every day.
With that came the shocking realization that any attack on Israel enjoys wide support in some influential intellectual circles in America and Europe. Far left-wing progressives are drunk on the “liberation” school of thought that justifies anything — any horror — against “settler colonists.”
The cheering for the Hamas bloodlust and accompanying intimidation of Jewish students on elite college campuses stunned Jews everywhere.
The obvious conclusion: When the stakes are down, only Israel can defend Jewish lives and avenge Jewish deaths.
The mutilated bodies, dead babies, and the terrified hostages at the mercy of Jew haters also made this clear: Israel can’t wait to be attacked by its worst enemies and then retaliate.
The description, worst enemy, certainly fits Iran. Time and time again, the regime in Tehran declares that Israel must be wiped off the map, its people must be destroyed in a second Holocaust.
The current war demonstrates what everyone has long suspected — the military superiority of Israeli forces. Israel seized control of the air space over Iran within 48 hours of the start of Rising Lion and can attack at will. Its intelligence targeted military commanders and scientists for death. Its defenses knock down most Iranian missiles aimed at Israel.
A nuclear bomb would be the only hope for Iran to wipe Israel off the map.
Unlike the current nuclear powers, Iran is led by religious zealots who celebrate martyrdom. To them death from a retaliatory strike leveling Tehran would be a small price to pay for destroying Israel. Recall the Sept. 11 Islamist fanatics who died flying jetliners into the Twin Towers in New York.
The Islamists see us as weak because we love life and they consider themselves strong because they love death.
Iran damns Israel as “the little Satan” while America is “the big Satan.”
And it has a long history of assaults against America. It started with the Islamic revolution in the taking of 66 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Over the years Iran orchestrated many fatal attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East. That record prompted Trump in 2020 to order the assassination of a top leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
During his first term and in his second Trump declared often Iran must not acquire the worst weapons.
Which brings us to Saturday’s American intervention to deliver a hoped-for knockout blow to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Only a couple of weeks ago some Israel supporters were nervous about Trump’s backing for negotiations to persuade Iran to abandon its pursuit of atomic weapons. Tehran is highly skilled at stretching out talks while working overtime to reach nuclear-power status.
Aware of that, Trump smartly gave Tehran a deadline — 60 days for negotiations to bring home an agreement to dismantle its atomic project.
Iran thumbed its nose at that. And, as Trump observed, on day 61 Israel launched its barrage of attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military structure.
Even under a constant Israeli military barrage, Iran refused to return to negotiations, saying it had nothing to discuss with the United States. That forced on Trump the decision to order the Air Force and Navy to deliver a crushing blow to the Iranian nuclear project.
Air Force B2 bombers dropped six 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs on the Fordow nuclear lab buried deep beneath an Iranian mountain. Navy submarines launched 30 cruise missiles at two other nuclear facilities.
The Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated,” Trump said.
Even before the U.S. strike, Trump had upped the ante by calling for the unconditional surrender of Iran.
Its ancient leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected that and threatened “irreparable damage” to America.
Which brings us to fears about an ever-widening war. As Trump considered his options, some progressives and prominent MAGA voices warned of the potential for things to go badly if the U.S. joined the fight.
If America gets involved, things will go badly, assert some progressives and prominent MAGA voices.
They fret about another forever war, like past conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, or, worse, an eruption of World War III.
Critics remind us of the claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that no one ever found. Then they note that Netanyahu has for years harped on and on about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
But all that is just part of the story.
The critics ignore the Israeli bombings, targeted assassinations and sabotage that slowed Tehran’s project.
Now with Operation Rising Lion, Netanyahu put Israeli lives, civilian as well as military, on the line in the current campaign. That’s powerful evidence of Israel’s convictions.
And only a week ago the International Atomic Energy Agency found Iran in noncompliance with a treaty aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. As a Wall Street Journal editorial noted, “In reply Iran announced a major expansion of its nuclear-breakout capability.”
As for past never-ending wars, remember that Vietnam, Iran, and Afghanistan were open-ended conflicts with American boots on the ground, no end-game plan and no notion of what victory would look like.
In contrast, Trump and Netanyahu have a clear, limited objective: Destroy Iran’s nuclear program. That’s not an open-ended commitment. No one advocates for American GIs fighting inside Iran. There’s no talk of nation building.
As for worries about an expanding conflict bringing in other nations, or about the prospects for World War III, here’s a question: Who else is going to jump into this war?
Arab nations have grown less openly hostile to Israel, as evidenced by several of them signing the Abraham Accords negotiated by the first Trump administration. They still might not much care for the Jewish state, but they also worry about Iran seeking hegemony over the Mideast.
What about the big world powers?
Russia has its hands full with the war in Ukraine. What was supposed to be an easy victory in weeks for the Kremlin in 2022 ran into Ukrainian patriotism, bravery, and war-making innovation. So that war drags on more than three years later.
As for China, from all appearances it is focused on the Pacific Ocean generally and specifically on gaining possession of Taiwan, perhaps by invasion.
There’s no evidence that Russia and China are eager to see another country join the atom bomb club. Iran acquiring such weapons would almost certainly prompt one or more Arab nations to seek their own bomb. And then where does it end?
So, the chances of a wider war seem remote.
Still, nothing is written in stone.
Anyone who’s ever read Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” or Christopher Clark’s “Sleepwalkers” knows how quickly and tragically things can go wrong. These books give vivid accounts of how European nations, through bad decisions, misunderstandings, erroneous preconceptions, and thoughtless bravado stumbled into the catastrophe of World War I.
Iran does get a say about what happens in the current conflict.
It could disrupt or close the Straits of Hormuz, a critical passageway in the world’s oil distribution network.
Or it could kill and maim through terrorist attacks by its proxies or by its Islamist terrorist allies.
Or the mullahs could order new attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East. Trump warned that any such behavior would bring a devastating U.S. response.
War carries risk.
International relations are always potentially dangerous. And the world is even more dangerous these days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the worst massacre of Jews since World War II and China’s increasingly aggressive designs. European nations are getting serious about rearming. America also is aiming to strengthen our military.
So, today’s volatile world might be vulnerable to the kind of miscalculations that Tuchman and Clark wrote about. Our leaders must always be careful in matters of war.
That said, who thinks we would be safer if nuclear warheads were to end up in the hands of martyrdom-inspired religious fanatics who believe they could transform the world by using such awful weapons?
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Steve Huntley is a retired Chicago journalist living in Austin, Texas, who spent most of his career, almost three decades, with the Chicago Sun-Times, where he was a feature writer, metro reporter, night city editor, metropolitan editor, editorial page editor and a columnist for the opinion pages. Before that he was a reporter and editor with United Press International (UPI) in the South and Chicago, and Chicago bureau chief and a senior editor in Washington with U.S. News & World Report. Northwestern University Press has issued soft cover and eBook editions of Knocking Down Barriers: My Fight for Black America by Truman K. Gibson Jr. with Steve Huntley, a memoir of a Chicagoan who was a member of President Roosevelt’s World War II Black Cabinet working to desegregate the military.
Comments 35
No man better than Steve Huntley to calmly access the turbulent events of a crucial moment in our history.
As precise was the judgment and follow-through of President Trump and his team. Well done!
As Jonathan Swift wrote, “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” So far the Jihad wing of the Democrat Party, Pelosi and the Congressional Democrats, Bernie the Red and the dying media are all yowling like baboons against President Trump and Western Civilization.
If the USA or any other country as a matter of fact had the equivalent number, i.e., 3.4 million, of civilians raped, tortured, slaughtered, and kidnapped as Israel had on October 7, their 9/11, what do you think the response would have been? We can now judge our President by the always “disloyal” opposition of “yowling baboons” as Pat would say, no disrespect to the baboons, and breathe a sigh of relief that the number one active source of stated terrorism in the universe has been neutered for the time being.
the “yowling baboons” are always yowling. Glad that we have Steve Huntley to help sort things out. His column this Sunday morning is like a good cup of Midwestern common sense
JK
True that.
The danger of a wider war is real, the danger of a world war is remote. If a wider war does occur, it will not now be a nuclear war thanks to last night.
WWII was a series of local, unconnected, border wars that combined into a world-wide war with the entry of the U.S. after 12/7/41. Russia can’t even finish off Ukraine and is in no condition for a wider war no matter how weak and feckless most of Europe is. North Korea’s goal is to continue to exist; it wants no part in this. China is in no position to conduct an operation as large and as high risk as assaulting Taiwan, it’s abilities to assist Iran are limited and they certainly aren’t going to war for them. Iran’s proxies are silent [Iran did nothing to help them against Israel] and Iranian sleeper-cells are as yet TBD.
The example of President Clinton vis-a-vis North Korea – inaction lead to a new nuclear power, was probably a major factor in President Trump’s decision. The fallout and how to manage it is, as yet, TBD. I hope [and believe] it’s been thought out.
I voted for no new wars. I am an old man, no one will draft me, but those younger getting dragged into a fight with the death cult worries me. Seems like Iran has no one stepping up to back them…which is good, so far. If this needs to be done, make it so horrible that Iran no longer wants to fight. God help us and bless the peace makers and war fighters. p.s. Let’s find the jihadists that came in under the corpse and get them to GITMO or their demon god.
Well thought out Robert. I am old too, but I was a week away from being drafted in 1969, so I enlisted in the Air Force. I spent 13 months in the jungle.
This isn’t a new war. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for a war the Mullahs declared on us when they took our embassy in 1978.
If the Iranian leaders desire that they die for Allah, oblige them. Give them what they want as long as no American lives are threatened. There is no reasoning with fanatics.
Thank you for writing this. So many do not know or understand history… and all the “mistakes” made over the past 100+ years. I’m not one who dives deep into history, but I believe that I have a better understanding than many, as I’m sure that if one doesn’t know history, you are more likely to be blinded by rhetoric and talking heads who don’t go deep into detail. I’ll continue to pray for the President and his advisors.
Amen, Linda.
Well put Mr. Huntley!
For far too long, America and Israel have been harassed and harried by the Islamic state of Iran. Every time you turn around it’s a killing spree here a killing spree there. If it’s not the Houthis, its Hamas; all funded by Iran. Every time we use the engagement route, we get our efforts thrown back at us. Time to take off the gloves and give the bully a bloody nose.
Thank Barack Hussein Obama for his appeasement of Iran. The weak nuclear agreement entered into by the Obama administration led us to this moment. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They are a terrorist nation bent on the destruction of Israel. Steve Huntley is spot on.
Well, Barack Hussein heard you! And what do you know, he’s right away come out of his hideout blaming Trump for the surprise bombing!!!
-Nambi
The hatred and zealotry toward us hasn’t abated after 46 years and scores of additional hostages. Appeasement hasn’t worked.
“We cannot change the hearts of these people of the South but we can make war so terrible… make them so sick of war that generations will pass before they ever again appeal to it.”- William Sherman
Steve,
Apparently, so many simply haven’t learned that if you ignore history, you’re bound to repeat it. Appeasement has NEVER worked…ever. European countries tried and failed until the bombs began falling in the UK. Hitler marched wherever he wanted until he was stopped by a well organized army headed by a master strategist, Eisenhower. Just like Ike, Trump holds his card close to his chest, blusters at times to mislead, and with his team, orchestrates a perfect campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities, while everyone is looking the other way! Masterful! Fanatics like the Mullahs don’t care about humanity or their own people, and wouldn’t hesistate drop a nuke on Israel as soon as it was ready. Fallout be damned, the little satan destroyed! If they got that capability, how long before they went after our other allies in the middle east? Nope, the heaving lifting had to be done by us, and our president formulated a plan and stuck to it. Now we see if Iran wants to continue to duke it out with us or Israel, or come to the table. Stay tuned….
Great article Steve, and thank you for succinctly describing the situation at hand. Just wanted to mention that the once great Chicago Tribune stated today that they would prefer a president who sticks to his word…guess they missed the “WITHIN two weeks” part of Trump’s statement. Just get in line to bash anything our President does. Really pitiful.
The possibility of this turning into a world war on the WWI template is beyond remote. There aren’t a series of interlocking alliances obligating countries to protect each other and NO ONE is coming to the Mullahs’ rescue, not even the Chinese or Russians.
One retaliation Mr. Huntley has overlooked is the possibility of sleeper cells here in the US. We’ve been told for decades that they’re amongst us, waiting to be activated. Then there’s Joe Biden open borders, where we have NO idea who came across the last four years. If I was the Mullahs, I would’ve started sending agents here, especially after October 7. Hopefully, the FBI has been surveilling them in between shifts of watching dissenting parents at school boards or devout, old school catholics. I think Trump’s reminder to Khamenei that he knows where he lives is a warning to not try anything here in the US. He may lead an apocalyptic cult of Islam, but I doubt he has any intentions of meeting his 72 virgins anytime soon.
There is one more possibility that Mr. Huntley hasn’t brought up. The Israelis have been bombing predominantly nuke and military targets, including the heads of the Air Force and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. They haven’t hit the Mullahs, and they’re avoiding civilian targets. No doubt, the Mossad has agents there pushing for another Arab Spring like the one Obama ignored in Iran while he was busy aiding the Muslim Brotherhood get rid of friendly dictator Mubarak in Egypt. With the military leadership decapitated, the Iranian people may see the opportunity to finally get rid of the Mullahs that took Iran from an advancing modern society to a 7th century theocracy.
By denying the world’s most dangerous nation nuclear weapons — a country that preaches “Death to America” — President Trump is worthy only of commendation, not condemnation. His actions promote peace. The risk-reward equation is one-sided.
Even so, some reflexively argue the President committed an “impeachable” offense, declared “war,” or broke the law by failing to get Congressional approval. They are wrong on multiple levels.
The critics hang their hat on the War Powers Resolution (WPR), a law passed by Congress in 1973 over President Nixon’s veto. Because it restricts a President’s “commander-in-chief” power, many scholars argue it is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has never ruled whether it is, or is not, Constitutional.
But even assuming the WPR is Constitutional, and further assuming it’s applicable here, President Trump fully complied with it. Under the WPR, a president may deploy forces without Congressional approval for up to 60 days.
Here, one could argue President Trump did not deploy forces, since it was a limited, precise aerial strike with no troops on the ground. But even if the WPR does apply, the forces were “withdrawn” in minutes, far less than 60 days, meaning the President fully complied.
Moreover, as a practical matter, all of Trump’s predecessors — including Obama — have engaged actual troops in far away places without seeking or obtaining Congressional permission.
All said, you can debate whether you agree with President Trump’s actions, but not whether he acted legally.
The Democrats know this, but they’re setting the stage for the next faux impeachment because they think that they’ll win the midterms in a landslide. Right now they’re complaining that he only briefed certain congressional Republicans about the strike, but not any Democrats. As if he’ll let the Party of Tipping Illegals Off That ICE is Coming, get information they can forward to their Iranian allies.
Also, a friend sent this – good:
“Obama, Biden, & Hilary declared war on Trump in 2016 without Congressional approval.
They used forces from the Justice Department including the FBI, and the Federal & State Judiciaries. And the war has lasted almost a decade. “
Great column Mr. Huntley. I think the bombings were necessary to prevent World War 3; and the annihilation of Israel and possibly the rest of the Mid east.
Yes Sir, spot on.
The success of the strike makes me wonder if Kim Jong Un (AKA Little Rocket Man) is in his garden right now digging like crazy, hoping to come out somewhere in Kansas.
As far as Iran retaliation?
In 2001 it only took 19 committed radical Islamists with box cutters, to stop this country’s airplanes and terrify every major city for a decade. Still taking your shoes off in the airport 24 years later?
One small “suitcase nuke” in Detroit or any other major city, or even a few trucks of trained Radicals, that slipped across the border last year with AKs, on a crowded Interstate, to grind the USA to another halt.
Relying on an 85 years old Religious leader, hoping to die a martyrs death, is not someone I want to trust to be honest and fair in negotiations.
But maybe that’s just me?
My wife says this is different because it is not regime change.
I offered to buy her a subscription here so she could comment, but she has a business on the North Shore here etc. But she’s getting a subscription.
In the same vein as she, this is different. This is America First.
Trump, games peace, not war.
Thank you Mr Huntley!
Trump’s action against Iran was conducted with the approval of the Saudis, Egypt, and all of the other Muslim countries who also hate Iran. Russia is bleeding their rubles in the Ukraine. China likes to sell us cheap stuff. Neither of them want anything to do with Iran. Trump found the right moment and took it. As I said, nothing was done here without the approval of the Saudis and every other Muslim country in that region. The price of oil might spike, but not too much. We’ll still be able to buy cheap stuff from China. The question now as the Fourth of July approaches is whether the sleeper cells Biden allowed into this country activate to create mayhem at large celebrations. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s Congress you must get approval from to start a war. Not other countries. Iran will respond and attack us. Then vice versa. Sounds like a war to me.
I’m somewhat dismayed that Steve chooses to cite the critics about the WMDs that were never found, at least as far as the media is concerned, or the ongoing claims of when Iran might be nuclear-weapon capable despite over 30 years of publicly and not-so-publicly known efforts, mainly by Israel, to damage their nuclear capabilities.
It doesn’t take a PhD in chemistry to take a relatively harmless compound and turn it into a dangerous one, that’s why many decongestants are now behind the counter or under lock and key at your neighborhood pharmacist, because druggies can set up a lab to convert them into things like crack in a kitchen.
Similarly, most nerve gasses are organophosphates, and so are most insecticides. Did they make insecticides in Iraq, do they make them in Iran? The answer to both questions is yes.
As long as you aren’t concerned about safety, a lab to convert 500 gallons of insecticide into enough nerve gas to kill much of the world would probably not be hard to set up. As to hiding them, Iraq is about the size of California. Give someone a few weeks and nearly unlimited resources to hide 500 gallons of something somewhere in California and I doubt the Army, FBI and CIA combined would find it in months.
The constitution states only Congress can declare war. Isn’t attacking another sovereign country an act of war?
Thomas. The problem is every POTUS since FDR has ignored that “little” detail.
Very well stated. We have no proof of destruction of the weapons zed radioactive material.
Where is the proof?
Mr. Thomas Rudd. Three comments? Are you kidding?
This board is not your playpen. You’re taking advantage of us. You’re most welcome to submit your own column to john@johnkassnews.com. and then others will comment. I would advise one. Not three.
Do you want them to take advantage of you?
I get it that y0u’re passionate. But this constant incessant and aggressive comment spree could very we cost you your privileges here.
Sincerely
John S. Kass
in the No Chumbolone Zone
I was responding to 3 writers/comments. I didn’t realize or know the rules to responding to your column. So if I write 1 response to you or someone else, what happens if they/you responds to mine. Am I ‘allowed’ to respond. It’s obvious this is an echo chamber and clique that am not part of.
I have a feeling it’s not how many times I respond to a column or comment but what I say.
I may take you up on your offer and write a column.
BTW: no one takes advantage of me. Like you I was born and raised in Chicago.
Never apologize.
Never surrender
Clarity. What the best writers always do. Thanks, Steve.. and some other luminous writers here.
You are a fool, Mr. Huntley. Iran doesn’t need a nuclear enrichment program. Any of Iran’s nuclear-powered allies (Russia, China, North Korea) could spare a few dozen nukes from their stockpiles. Ordinary Americans have zero strategic interest in supporting Netanyahu’s Gaza genocide or Middle East dominance. Only the greedy D. C. types addicted to AIPAC’s influence keep Americans at risk for nothing!