In the wake of the U.S. airstrikes against Iran last month, President Donald Trump called the operation a “spectacular military success” that “completely totally obliterated” the country’s nuclear facilities. Many of his relentless critics soon accused the White House of exaggerating.

CNN reported in late June that the bombings “did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.” The New York Times carried a similar report at about the same time. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also came out of hiding to say the strikes didn’t “accomplish anything significant.”

Take the ayatollah’s word for what it’s worth, given that one prominent Iranian official in recent weeks has contradicted that “all is well” narrative and indicated that the country’s nuclear ambitions were indeed disrupted by the American action.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi “has admitted that ‘excessive and serious’ damage was done to the country’s nuclear sites in the recent U.S. and Israeli bombings.” the BBC reported.

In an interview last week with Brett Baier of Fox News, Araghchi said Iran’s nuclear program “is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride.”

Araghchi also told CBS News this month that the facilities at Fordow, an enrichment site buried deep under a mountain, was “seriously and heavily damaged.” It was perhaps the prime target for U.S. pilots carrying out the attack.

U.S. intelligence analysts no doubt are still assessing the damage inflicted during the June 22 attacks nearly a month later. Whether Iran gives up its nuclear weapons program in favor of something more benign remains to be seen. Trump noted this week that the United States could hit Iran’s nuclear targets again “if necessary,” while an Iranian official said the nation is willing to talk but only if it can “rebuild trust.”

But what we do know is that the U.S. bombings, along with Israeli attacks on Iran and its terror surrogates, exposed the nation as something less than the lethal and dangerous military force it was feared to be. Iran had no air defenses to speak of and was relegated to lobbing ineffective missiles at Israel and engaging in cyberattacks. Its anti-American friends sat on the sidelines. It now operates from a position of strategic weakness.

Yes, Trump may have been hyperbolic in describing the success of the American air attacks. But more than a month after the mission, it appears his assessment was far closer to the truth than those offered by critics claiming the Iranian nuclear program would be back up and humming by September.

— From Tribune News Service