The Hibakusha, Japanese and other A- & H- Bomb survivors. have it right. Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist. Nuclear weapons are inherently genocidal and omnicidal. For our survival and humanity’s future we must work nonviolently to win the elimination of all nuclear weapons as provided for in Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will not prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons. It again exposes the unsustainable and hypocritical double standard that some nations, including Israel, have the right to possess and threaten the use of nuclear weapons, while other nations must remain vulnerable. The attack hastens nuclear weapons proliferation and risks a wider and more dangerous war.
Despite President Trump’s claims of total success, both the Pentagon, and the International Atomic Energy Agency state that they do not know if:
- The Iranian government had removed its near weapons grade enriched uranium from the Fordow. Isfahan, or Nantanz nuclear sites before the bombings,
- The materials will remain accessible should Iran now seek to develop a nuclear arsenal, or
- What if any radioactive fallout has occurred.
As with the 1953 CIA led coup that overthrew Iran’s democratic Mosaddeq government, the negative impact of Trump’s attacks will be long lasting. Following in the tradition of
- The 1953 coup,
- U.S. support for Iraq in its calamitous 1980s war to overthrow the Iranian government, and
- President Trump’s withdrawal from 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement,
Trump’s attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure came a day before scheduled negotiations. This all reinforces the lesson that the U.S. cannot be trusted, and the loss of trust in the U.S. word and commitments, will not be limited to Iran. It is being learned or relearned by the nations and people of the world, with negative consequences for the U.S. people for decades to come.
We do not know how Iran will retaliate. It has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies transit and whose closure will have massive impact on the U.S. and world economies. With U.S. troops and bases deployed across the Middle East, they are within range of Iranian missiles and if attacked could draw the U.S. into another Middle East forever war. With Iran’s foreign minister traveling to Moscow, the multi-dimensional Iranian, Russian, Chinese-North Korean alignment may be strengthened and lead to future nuclear collaboration between Teheran and Moscow.
The bombings were grossly unconstitutional and should be grounds for an impeachment. Only Congress has the legal right to declare war.
The bombings were gross violations of international law. They undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the increasingly fragile post WW II United Nations charter. A world in which there is no respect for law and diplomacy opens the way to international chaos, autocracies, wars, and devastating human suffering.
The attacks will spur nuclear weapons proliferation. Knowledge about how to build a nuclear weapon has not been eliminated, and the attacks will likely redouble Iranian will to build a nuclear weapon, at the very least to defend its independence. Other nations will take the lesson that their sovereignty and independence require having a retaliatory nuclear arsenal, as was the case in North Korea.
Seeking to impose regime change is a fool’s errand. This is a lesson that should have been learned by the U.S from the deadly debacles of the Afghan, Libyan, and Iraq wars. For better or worse, the right of national self-determination belongs to a nation’s people, not to a neo-colonial foreign power. Should a secular or military government in Iran replace the Islamic state, the lesson they take from this war may be that nuclear weapons are essential to preserving Iranian independence.
Even as we must rally to prevent a widening war and press for nuclear disarmament and abolition, we must not be diverted from the urgent work of stopping Israel’s brutal genocide in Gaza, its attacks across the West Bank, a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, and work for a just and sustainable Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Common security is the only path and foundation for Israeli Palestinian and Middle East peace and security.
No War with Iran!
Work for a Just, Peaceful, and Nuclear Weapons Free World
June 23, 2025