Oh boy. Here’s what Donald Trump and his battalion of sycophants and inept politicos have not told us about Iran’s nuclear capabilities:
Buried underneath the underground nuclear site that Trump says he “obliterated” last June are some “18 to 20 scuba-tank-like canisters, each of which contains up to 55 pounds of highly enriched uranium, the main material for making a nuclear weapon.”
They are there for the taking, only to do so America or Israel would have to undertake a risky commando operation that surely would result in numerous casualties.
America and Israel can bomb Iran back into the Stone Age but those uranium canisters would still be available to Iran or whomever digs them out.
The end game for this war with Iran was to fully disable its ability to produce nuclear weapons. But as W.J. Hennigan and Massimo Calabresi pointed out in The New York Times, “If President Trump ends the war without getting control of the canisters, Iran will almost certainly speed toward going nuclear. Grabbing it, on the other hand, would entail huge risk and the inevitable deployment of American or Israeli ground forces (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/opinion/trump-iran-nuclear-weapons-enriched-uranium-war.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share).
Capturing Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro was child’s play compared to the task facing Trump and Bibi Netanyahu. They have disrupted the global economy, initiated a regional conflict with casualties across multiple countries, and bottled up seafaring trade, air travel and oil production, all for naught if they fail to secure the uranium before the shooting stops.
Prior military ventures with few American casualties have emboldened Trump’s feeling of invincibility. The question now is, does he have the fortitude to deploy ground troops that almost certainly will have members killed or injured? Is he ready to accept responsibility if the mission fails? Or has a high casualty rate?
Israel is facing an existential threat. Netanyahu cannot risk leaving enriched uranium available to Iran or any other entity. Israel must be all-in on securing those canisters.
Netanyahu will shortly find out if he has a true combat partner in Trump or a no risk fair-weather warrior.
