CNN reported on June 25 that a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment found that President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran did not destroy the core components of its nuclear program but only set it back a few months. On the morning of June 26, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pointed to numerous other assessments, including from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the CIA, that contradicted the preliminary findings and bolstered Trump’s case that Fordow and other nuclear facilities were “obliterated.” CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand’s track record of getting major stories involving Trump wrong, particularly on the discredited Steele dossier and Hunter Biden’s laptop, should make readers skeptical of her latest reporting.

Even if Bertrand’s story accurately captured the preliminary assessment of the damage, the strikes achieved major strategic objectives with minimal costs. Crucially, Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon was disrupted for at least the foreseeable future. Reports that the Iranian regime’s nuclear program was accelerating in recent months, including the IAEA’s repeated warnings over Iran’s uranium enrichment levels, made the last resort of military action necessary. The cornerstone of Iran’s foreign policy for the past 46 years has been the obliteration of Israel, and the Islamic Republic could not be allowed the means to execute a second Holocaust. The strikes significantly damaged the capacity for Iran to fulfill its maniacal mission in the short term, at least.