U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#781

Post by hajile » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC

seydor wrote: post #491

cakealert wrote: post #465

Iran never had the deterrent North Korea had. And by being a theocracy they heavily skewed any threat calculus against themselves. What they were doing, inching towards nukes, was a horrible move. In their position, you either sprint covertly and not play at all. I suspect that after their nuclear program was discovered and set back they fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy and convinced themselves they could repurpo…

> by having a theocracy they Religion is just another ideology, and it s not like Islam has a specific position about nuclear energy

Iran's current situation is because their dictator DOES have a position about nuclear energy and nukes.

Energy is fine, but nukes are haram. This is THE reason they haven't built any nukes the last 40+ years.

Changing a religious decree of that nature requires a very big excuse which has never existed. Israel and the US threatening Iran's existence and threatening to kill millions of Muslims is the ONE thing I can think of that would allow Khamenei an "out" to actually build a nuke.

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#782

Post by bamboozled » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

mark_l_watson wrote: post #754

A liberal Israeli friend has told me on a few occasions that Iran is one of the safest places in the Middle East for Christians and Jews to live, work, and raise families as long as they don’t publicly protest against the Iranian government. I have no way of knowing if my friend is correct about this, but with the conflicting news broadcasts in the USA the situation is as confusing as hell. Off topic, but I have star…

As long they’re not women who don’t want to cover their head in rags , they’ll be fine ?

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#783

Post by deepsquirrelnet » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

totetsu wrote: post #543

And meanwhile the biggest threat to all our security, the climate crisis goes unaddressed.

Well, bombing a country after appointing a 22 year old heritage foundation intern as head of terrorism prevention seems like a good attempt at changing that.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-dhs-thomas-fugate-c...

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#784

Post by bamboozled » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:37 PM UTC

Stevvo wrote: post #667

Ciantic wrote: post #659

The only way out of this in the long term is via negotiations. The US and Israel were lucky that Iran built their Fordow plant only 50 meters underground. What will the US do when Iran rebuilds it far deeper? They have a coal mine going 1200 meters deep. Iran is technologically far more capable than North Korea, which ultimately succeeded in building the bomb. The US knows this and wouldn't have started this war if I…

There is another way out that may be more likely than negotiations; Iran will now obtain a nuclear weapon. Iran has had the capability to build one for as long as Netanyahu has been singing about it(20+ years). Now they have the motivation also.

If they had the capability , why was this a bad move and how does taking out their bomb making facilities more likely they can now just produce a bomb ?

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#785

Post by _tik_ » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #487

cakealert wrote: post #465

Iran never had the deterrent North Korea had. And by being a theocracy they heavily skewed any threat calculus against themselves. What they were doing, inching towards nukes, was a horrible move. In their position, you either sprint covertly and not play at all. I suspect that after their nuclear program was discovered and set back they fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy and convinced themselves they could repurpo…

It's not so much them being a theocracy IMHO. It's that they believe they have a religious duty to destroy the state of Israel. Put those Israeli shoes on. There's a state armed with ballistic missiles in easy range of you, they have the facilities necessary to enrich weapons grade Uranium, recently acquired more advanced centrifuges, they have the uranium already enriched far beyond what's necessary for civilian use…

Then how is that any different from what the USA has done. Bombing and destroying many countries in the name of spreading democracy?

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#786

Post by palmfacehn » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:39 PM UTC

blobbers wrote: post #321

Is it safe to blow up a nuclear plant? Doesn't that cause bad things to spread?

If you believe they are manufacturing a nuclear weapon, then it is less bad than the nuke detonating.

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#787

Post by thrance » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:41 PM UTC

noobermin wrote: post #776

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #633

That's an all around bad move for the US. Getting dragged into an Israeli war and probably having to carry the can for the next few years alone after getting into a mess not of our own making (well directly anyway). This is going to hit gas prices, the markets and US security considerations all in order to help keep the current Israeli leadership out of Israeli prisons. Bad move.

At least this comment is second top post. That's all this is, and the American media will cheerlead for it.

Gotta somehow manufacture consent for something indefensible.

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#788

Post by HEmanZ » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:43 PM UTC

drecho wrote: post #71

Some in the U.S. want peace. I guess no one else gives a shit and is just going to jettison us into a war for millennia.

Right wing propaganda is too strong here.

Last night I tried to explain to my MIL that Iran did not do 9/11 (after she claimed this was finally payback for that). She responded that I was wrong because I listen to the liberal media. It was like a cartoon, I felt like a crazy person. she was so convinced that if Iran got nuclear weapons they would immediately use them on US soil. When I pointed out that would be suicide for them, and accomplish absolutely nothing, she said they aren’t rational, they just want to end the world.

Her only news source is Fox, so that must be who’s peddling this nonsense.

There’s an optimist in me that says, maybe by some small miracle that given enough time in a cold-ish war current Iranian regime will get replaced by something democratic and stable. Probably a pipe dream the way things are going, but not impossible.

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#789

Post by slv77 » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

epolanski wrote: post #537

cakealert wrote: post #465

Iran never had the deterrent North Korea had. And by being a theocracy they heavily skewed any threat calculus against themselves. What they were doing, inching towards nukes, was a horrible move. In their position, you either sprint covertly and not play at all. I suspect that after their nuclear program was discovered and set back they fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy and convinced themselves they could repurpo…

> Iran never had the deterrent North Korea had. I feel very conflicted about what's happening. On one side it is clear that no country should give up their WMD projects. You lack that deterrent you get attacked, as simple as that. Libya, Syria, Iraq gave up their WMD projects eventually got bombed/attacked. > What happened today likely saved millions of Iranian lives. That's speculation. Since you name NK that's a cl…

North Korea had enough conventional artillery to level Seoul with an estimated 1M casualties. That was why Clinton decided against attacking North Korea as they moved towards building the bomb:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/north-koreas-artill...

Iran’s deterrent was/is through its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) along with its sizable missile inventory, anti-air capabilities and strategic threats to oil and gas exports.

Israel’s investment in missile defense and the outcome of the Oct 7th attacks severely weakened Iran’s deterrence to a conventional attack.

I think the lesson should be that any nation that has enough conventional leverage to deter an attack could choose to build nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons may complement, but can’t displace other capabilities.

The US has nuclear weapons but that didn’t deter Iran from launching direct attacks on US troops in the Middle East or sponsoring insurgents in Iraq. Nuclear weapons are also essential worthless against non nation-state actors such as Al-Qaeda.

Re: U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites

#790

Post by JKCalhoun » Sun, Jun 22, 2025, 1:49 PM UTC

BaudouinVH wrote: post #513

tptacek wrote: post #23

I think Netanyahu belongs in prison, and Trump, the less said the better, but: couldn't have happened to a nicer unauthorized weapons-grade uranium enrichment facility dug into the side of a mountain hours outside of population centers. If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading up on the GBU-57 "bunker buster" bomb, because it is some Merrie Melodies Acme brand munitions. It's deliberately as heavy as they c…

here is more about that bomb : https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-b#394257unker-buster-a...

Looks like your URL got munged. Try: https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-bunker-buster-an-exper...