Trump still weighing strike on Iran nuclear facility

The world is still waiting to find out if Donald Trump will order the United States Air Force to help Israel take out the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran

Aside from breaking a campaign promise to not get the U.S. involved in any more wars, there are other concerns about bombing Fordow

Like, are the bombs big enough to do the job? The Fordow nuclear enrichment facility is buried under a mountain

The main hall is around 260 feet deep, but other parts of the structure could be close to 300 feet deep

And for years, the consensus was only a massive ordnance penetrator was big enough to take out the site

Well, multiple mops, really. But only the United States has the weapon, so only the United States could drop it

Now, aside from the diplomatic uncertainty of what that action could bring for the United States and its interests abroad

there is apparently some tactical uncertainty as well. According to The Guardian President Trump is not convinced a series of mobs dropped on Fordow will be enough to take out the site In order for it to hit the target any sort of GPS jamming or spoofing has to be taken out and there needs to be air superiority

Israel's Air Force is pretty much flying with impunity over Iran right now, but that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a risk to a B-2 and its crew

There are some within the DoD who think the only way to take out Fordow is to soften up the ground first with some mops and then drop a tactical nuclear weapon on the site to ensure its destruction

President Trump is not considering this option, nor is he being briefed on it, according to the Guardian's reporting anyway

Of course, striking Fordow also brings back the idea of known unknowns and unknown unknowns

as Donald Rumsfeld described the situation before the U.S. attacked Iraq after 9-11

We know Putin told Trump not to strike Iran because it could destabilize the region

We know Trump responded by telling Putin to basically worry about Ukraine first We know Iran says it would respond if the U got involved and we know that likely means attacking U bases and personnel in the region

which is why the United States is pulling some of its personnel out of the region

We know Israel already took out dozens of launchers, missiles, and storage sites

but we don't know how many of those are left. and we know Iran is one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism around the world

but we don't know how the regime might use those ties if the U.S. gets involved in offensive

operations. We know one tactic Iran is likely to employ and would not take nuclear weapons

is shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. It's between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

and it's one of the most strategically important maritime choke points in the entire world

25% of the world's oil supply flows through this strait every year

And at its narrowest point right about here it only about 20 miles wide So remember the Houthis in Yemen right there Well the Iranian regime is who gave the Houthis those weapons So employing those tactics and weapons closer to home is definitely possible

but apparently so is diplomacy. Publicly, the United States, Israel, and Iran are all saying

nuts to a ceasefire at this point, but some open source intelligence trackers discovered a number

of Iranian planes flying to the airport in Muscat, Oman. One of those planes is the one that

usually carries the president of Oman. All of those planes recently landed at the airport in

Muscat, like we said. Maybe it's government defectors. Maybe Iran is just trying to move

the planes so they don't get bombed. But it's also possible some Iranian dignitaries are trying to

reach out to the United States and Israel using Oman as a mediator. Will it work? We don't know

President Trump said this week he doesn't want to make a decision about striking Iran until the last

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