MORNING GLORY: President Trump, Iran and Napoleon’s still-relevant maxim

Fox News  |  Hugh Hewitt

President Donald Trump faces a critical strategic decision regarding Iran's deeply buried nuclear weapons development facilities, where half-measures risk a catastrophic foreign policy failure. The Islamic Republic is actively constructing an ultra-deep nuclear site inside Pickaxe Mountain, a facility designed to withstand even the heaviest conventional American bunker-buster munitions.

This underground expansion follows the previous U.S. destruction of Iran's Fordow facility using heavy ordnance, highlighting the regime's persistent pursuit of weapons of mass destruction despite severe economic sanctions and hyperinflation. Led by Revolutionary Guards Commander-in-Chief Ahmed Vahidi, the theocratic leadership operates under an apocalyptic Twelver theological framework that prioritises ideological mission over regime survival. Abandoning this confrontation now could result in a severe foreign policy debacle comparable to the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, meaning the administration must sustain maximum pressure to prevent a nuclear-armed Tehran from permanently destabilising the Middle East.

Comment

The excavation of the Pickaxe Mountain facility at depths exceeding those of Fordow directly challenges the physical penetration limits of the United States Air Force's GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. With the Zagros Mountains providing natural granite shielding, kinetic strikes by B-2 Spirit bombers cannot guarantee the destruction of Iran's deeply buried centrifuge cascades. Consequently, the limitations of the GBU-57 payload force Washington to rely on cyber operations like Stuxnet-style disruptions or prolonged economic interdiction to delay Tehran's breakout timeline.

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