Words & Phrases we can 'totally and completely obliterate' -- Jennifer Rubin

[erronis]

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/words-and-phrases-we-can-totally

Trump’s falsehoods endanger national security.

The “tell” in Donald Trump’s lie about the results of the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites was “completely and totally.” It is one thing to claim (falsely) that we “obliterated” the Iranian program, but “completely and totally obliterate”? After all, “obliterate” means “to remove utterly.” Did we truly “completely and totally remove utterly” Iran’s nuclear threat? Well, no. We did not.

For one thing, approximately 880 pounds of 60% enriched uranium is “missing.” The Iranians had apparently moved the stockpile stored underground at the Isfahan facility. Moreover, even the most optimistic talk from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggests the program was set back only a couple of years. The U.S. assessment suggested we bought only a few months. The Trump team spent days frantically trying to deny that, even attempting to divert attention from its misrepresentation by attacking Fox News Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin, perhaps the only real reporter left there.

Moreover, we did not even try to hit all underground facilities. “The US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites [Isfahan] last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the US’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday,” CNN reported. You cannot “obliterate” what you never try to hit. Worse, the Iranians have now learned that the way to protect their sites is to go as far underground as Isfahan.

To add insult to Trump’s bruised ego, the Washington Post reported, “The United States obtained intercepted communication between senior Iranian officials discussing this month’s military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and remarking that the attack was less devastating than they had expected, said four people familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government.” Ouch.

The Iranians are not the only ones underwhelmed. “I just don’t think the president was telling the truth when he said the program was obliterated,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said after a belated briefing. If Iran, as he said, retains “significant remaining capability,” then we didn’t “obliterate” (let alone “completely and totally obliterate”) Iran’s nuclear program.

. . .

So, let’s stop using “obliterate” (and exercise extreme skepticism when Trump dresses up lies with adjectives such as “completely and totally”) when the truth is: “The military successfully completed its specified mission, setting back Iran’s program some undermined amount of time but not destroying Iran’s capacity or will to rebuild it. In fact, in dressing up limited action as unalloyed success, Trump might have incentivized Iran to sprint to manufacture a nuclear weapon.”

You can see why Trump and his flunkies prefer to lie.

[Blues Heron]

1. Trump is a dirty liar, his gaslighting never stops