Power & Market

The 12 Day War was a Political Disaster for America and Israel

12 day war
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On June 13, 2025, the Israeli military launched a Pearl Harbor-style attack on Iran, killing multiple military officials, diplomats, and nuclear scientists who were key to the US-Iran nuclear talks. For the twelve days, Iran and Israel exchanged fire—with Israel claiming to completely dominate Iranian airspace, while Iranian missiles broke through the Iron Dome and hit multiple targets around Israel. The importance of these events cannot be understated because this “12 Day War” revealed the weaknesses of the Israeli defense systems, the power of Israeli lobbying groups in the United States, the neocon hijacking of the MAGA movement, Trump betraying his voting base, and a true shift from a unipolar world to a multipolar world.

The Israeli Disaster

The Israelis undermined American foreign policy in their sneak attack on June 12. They had claimed to kill Ali Shamkhani—a senior advisor to the Ayatollah who was set to meet with the American envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. It was supposed to be the sixth round of US-Iranian nuclear talks in Muscat, Oman, but it was canceled after the bombings. It wasn’t until June 25 that this negotiator was revealed to be alive, along with another leader who was also believed to be dead—Esmail Qaani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Forces. This operation, which the Israelis had named “Rising Lion,” had been a complete humiliation for them. The Iranians struck back—firing 550 missiles over the course of twelve days—with the Times of Israel reporting the destruction of a power station in southern Israel, an oil refinery in Haifa, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Israel had also spent an absurd amount of money during the course of the short conflict, spending $725 million a day with $285 million of that being spent on air defenses. But the biggest disaster for Israel, was the amount of backlash they had received from the American public, commentators, and members of the US Congress. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had openly asserted on X that Israel was responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy, saying: “There was once a great President that the American people loved. He opposed Israel’s nuclear program. And then he was assassinated.”

For a sitting member of the US Congress to openly condemn Israel for attempting to drag America into a war with Iran and accuse it of killing a US president is unprecedented and away from the norm of a pro-Israeli Congress. Senator Ted Cruz—after claiming to be “Israel’s number one defender”—had been embarrassed on Tucker Carlson’s show for not even knowing details on Iran as a country, and yet he wants regime change.

The American Disaster

In the course of twelve days, President Trump has lost an incredible amount of political capital by selling out his entire voting base on behalf of Israel and the neocons at Fox and the Congress. Many of his supporters and allies who have supported him since his first bid for president in 2015, have been thrown to the curb. Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are “kooks”; Rep. Thomas Massie is no longer a defender of the Constitution, but a loser who needs to be thrown out of office; their replacements? Mark Levin and Sean Hannity on Fox, Laura Loomer, Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, and Ben Shapiro are the real heart and soul of the MAGA movement. The Cato Institute released a study that revealed only 16 percent of Americans supported military involvement in this Israeli-Iranian conflict, with 60 percent wanting no involvement. Trump has betrayed his base and, if he does not correct his past actions, he will realistically lose the midterms in 2026; and he will deserve no less.

Other than the political disaster waiting for Trump in 2026, the United States as a whole had failed to achieve any meaningful outcome during this conflict. Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed sixteen cargo trucks on access roads leading up to the Fordow nuclear facility two days before the bombing. NBC had also reported that there is still around 400 kg of 60 percent enriched uranium unaccounted for, along with advanced centrifuges, according to former US intelligence official Eric Brewer. Despite this, Trump has claimed that the strikes had “completely obliterated” the nuclear program and prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, a bomb he claims they were weeks away from obtaining. But his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had stated differently, claiming on March 25: “The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and that supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”

President Trump later told reporters that she was “wrong” and that Iran was just “weeks away” from obtaining a nuke. Prime Minister Netanyahu had also claimed that Iran was only a year or less away from obtaining a nuclear bomb since 1992, also in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2009, 2012, 2014, and so on until 2025. Just as with Israel, the political fallout will be greater than any missile. After American bombers had struck the Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran, China, and Russia condemned the United States in the United Nations. This is important because it shows a clear shift from a unipolar world of unquestionable American power to a multipolar world where America can no longer do whatever it wants. By condemning the United States as an aggressor using the same international laws created by America after World War II, it gives legitimacy to upcoming hegemons like China; there should be no doubt that America is losing its superpower position due to blind neocon foreign policy.

IRGC and the Mullahs

The political establishment of Iran will face internal turmoil between the IRGC and the mullahs who run the country. Ray Takeyh, from the Council of Foreign Relations, believes that “balance of power within Iran in the aftermath of this will shift in the direction of the military, in direction of the Guard.”

Over the last two years, Iranian proxies have been dealt mortal blows—Hezbollah was severely weakened by the Israeli pager bombings, much of the political and military leadership of Hamas had been killed, and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, had been toppled and replaced by a pro-American, al-Qaeda president.

The mullahs—being from a priestly caste—have been incredibly patient and docile since the Israeli war on the Palestinians while these proxies that project Iranian power have been destroyed. If the IRGC does obtain more power in Iran, this will lead to a more aggressive foreign policy and heightened tensions between Iranian proxies and Israeli and American troops in the Middle East, especially since Iran needs time to rebuild its proxies.

Conclusion

Despite the chaos and nonsense coming from the different factions involved, neocons and enemies of peace and freedom in America have been revealed. Senator Ted Cruz, Mark Levin, and the whole of Fox News, as well as AIPAC, are finally getting called out after years of endless wars and propaganda. The establishment media has failed to convince the American people that a war with Iran is necessary because of the integrity of individuals like Judge Napolitano, Tom Woods, Pepe Escobar, and Tucker Carlson; the Iraq 2003 narrative was unable to gain traction among the public. The true losers of this “12 Day War” were the innocent civilians killed and the American taxpayers who will be paying for the spent Israeli air defenses.

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