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.

Now Netanyahu has 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.

Furthermore, Trump and Netanyahu have a clear objective: Destroy Iran’s nuclear program or get Tehran through negotiations to dismantle it. That’s not an open-ended commitment. 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.

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