The taboo has fallen: the US is at war with Iran. What until yesterday was only a remote possibility has become reality in a matter of hours. Donald Trump did what no American president had ever dared: attack Iran directly. Not by proxy, not through allies, but with American B-2 stealth bombers that dropped their bunker-buster bombs on the nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
“We have completed our highly successful attack on Iran’s three nuclear sites”, Trump wrote on Truth Social last night. “A full load of BOMBS was dropped on the main site, Fordow.” The president addressed the nation at 4:00 a.m. ET, in what he called a “historic moment for the United States, Israel and the world.”
From Israel to the USA at War: The Unstoppable Escalation
It all started with Israel's Operation Rising Lion on June 13. Benjamin Netanyahu had struck first, ignoring Trump's diplomatic attempts (real or presumed). As we told you in this article, what was supposed to be an Israeli surgical strike turned into something much bigger. Iran responded with hundreds of missiles against Israel. Israel responded. Iran threatened American bases. And then Trump made his choice.
The turning point came with the general's briefing on June 8 Dan Caine, Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to White House sources, Trump became convinced that the Iranian nuclear threat was real and imminent. “Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a matter of months,” the president explained. Diplomacy had failed, the Geneva negotiations had failed, Khamenei continued to enrich uranium.
The US at war with the ghost bombers
The American operation has a surgical precision that only the B-2 Spirits can guarantee. These stealth bombers, practically invisible to radar, can carry the 57-ton GBU-14 bunker-buster bombs, the only ones capable of penetrating the fortifications of Fordow. The site, built 300 meters under a mountain, was considered impregnable. And now damage assessments are already underway.
The attack also hit Christmas, the historic heart of the Iranian nuclear program already devastated by the Stuxnet virus in 2010, and Isfahan, research and production center. Trump confirmed that “all aircraft are now out of Iranian airspace” and that the operation was “a complete success”.
The human toll is once again high. Iranian media reports over 200 civilian casualties, while Israel also continues to strike: today the death of other nuclear scientists, including Isar Tabatabai-Qamsheh, killed in his home together with his wife.
Iran's Reaction to the US: "Every American Is a Target"
Tehran’s response was not long in coming. State television broadcast an unequivocal message: “Every military base and every American citizen in the region is now a target.” With 40.000 American troops deployed in the Middle East, the threat is far from symbolic.
The Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei had already warned that “any American military entry will be met with irreparable damage”. Now that entry has taken place, the ball is in Iran's court. Tehran's options are limited but devastating: from blocking the Strait of Hormuz (which would bring oil to $200 a barrel) to activating sleeper cells in the Gulf countries.
The Next Scenarios with the US at War: Three Roads to the Abyss
Scenario 1: The regional war. Iran activates all its proxies: Hezbollah from Lebanon, Houthis from Yemen, Shiite militias from Iraq. Israel and the United States find themselves fighting on seven fronts simultaneously. This is the scenario that Netanyahu has always feared and at the same time desired: the definitive war against the Shiite axis.
Scenario 2: The nuclear escalation. Iran formally leaves the Non-Proliferation Treaty and announces that it is building the bomb. Trump and Netanyahu decide to strike again, this time to permanently erase all traces of the Iranian nuclear program. But Iran may have secret sites that the intelligence community does not know about. And this is without considering the possible involvement of other BRICS countries.
Scenario 3: The internal collapse. American bombing could trigger a popular uprising against the Ayatollahs' regime. This is Washington's most optimistic scenario, but also the most unpredictable. An Iran in civil war with thousands of weapons potentially scattered across the territory is not necessarily good news for the world.
Trump and the most dangerous game
I won't beat around the bush: the president who promised to "keep America out of war" finds himself having unleashed what could become World War III. But Trump has a precise logic: Better a short and devastating war now than a nuclear war in ten years. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s simple,” he said.
The problem is that Iran thinks differently. And when a nuclear power decides that another country cannot have the same ambitions as it, no matter what happens, the result is rarely peace.
The world has just taken a step beyond the point of no return. And this time, no one knows where the fall will stop.
