Trump grapples for upper hand in debate over damage caused by US strikes on Iran

[Dulcinea]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday rejected an early intelligence assessment that U.S. strikes inflicted only a marginal setback on Iran’s nuclear program, insisting that his country’s spies did not have the full picture and defending his own swift conclusion that American bombs and missiles delivered a crushing blow.

“This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” Trump said as his administration scrambled to support his claims, made only hours after the attack, that Iranian nuclear facilities were “completely and fully obliterated.”

Trump said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military officials would hold an “interesting and irrefutable” news conference Thursday morning to “fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots” who carried out the mission.

He wrote on social media that “these Patriots were very upset” by “Fake News” reports about the limited impact of the strikes.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-iran-nuclear-strikes-intel-863369a112a14021cb59cbf985a1c74b

[Delarage]

1. What would help the pilots

Would be to have a Secretary of Defense who was qualified, not a drunken TV character. And a Commander-In-Chief who was not a draft-dodging, rapist con-man.