Prof. Ted Postol: How Iran War Bankrupted the US & Israeli Military

Iran's critical infrastructure, including its nuclear facilities, is largely underground and well-designed with multiple access points, rendering it highly resilient and largely invulnerable to conventional air strikes.

The critical infrastructure that Iran needs to continue fighting the war is all underground, and there's no evidence that the underground structures are in any way vulnerable to these above-ground attacks. Damage to entranceways, yes, but these structures have been very well designed so that if you damage one entrance way, there's another available.

Iran's IR6 advanced centrifuges are significantly more efficient than commonly assumed. Under IAEA surveillance, Iran demonstrated the ability to produce 34 kg of 60% enriched uranium in just 30 days using 20% enriched feedstock with a coupled cascade, indicating a much higher separative work unit (SWU) output per centrifuge.

They started out with 20% enriched uranium... and within 30 days, within one month, they produced 34 kg of 60% enriched uranium. Each of these centrifuges were able to produce... about twice as high as what generally people talk about... about 12 or 13 separated work units.

Given its current stockpiles of 5%, 20%, and 60% enriched uranium, Iran possesses the capacity to produce 11-12 nuclear weapons within approximately 18 weeks and potentially 20 or more within four to five years if it decides to weaponize.

You can already produce about 11 atomic bombs in about 18 weeks from the 60% enriched atomic bomb. So, you're looking at a country that in, you know, years could could be, could have up to 20 or so atomic bombs.

US-supplied missile defense systems, such as Patriot Pack 3 and Iron Dome interceptors, have proven largely ineffective against Iranian ballistic missiles. Israel has strategically blundered by depleting its Iron Dome interceptors against missiles they had no chance of intercepting.

The Patriot Pack 3es, they they've had almost no intercept capability against the ballistic missiles. So, the fact that they're running out is really irrelevant... The Iron Dome interceptors, which also are useless against the ballistic missiles from Iran, but they are capable against drones. And the problem is that they've depleted most of their Iron Dome interceptors shooting at missiles they have no chance of intercepting. They made a strategic blunder there.

US political and military leaders, exemplified by figures like Michael McFaul and the CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, often lack fundamental knowledge, rely on flawed intelligence, and exhibit indifference to critical facts or alternative perspectives, leading to ill-conceived foreign policy.

I don't get the sense that the people in the White House understand this or they're denying it or there's nobody who talk... these people live in a bubble... I had a conversation with this president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist last week. This woman understood nothing. And not only did she understand nothing, she didn't care.

The ongoing conflict and associated disruptions, particularly in oil, fertilizer, and high-tech chip supply chains, are driving the world towards a gigantic economic disaster, including potential famines, with severe repercussions for the US population, 60% of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck.

I think we're looking potentially at famines down the line because of all the losses of fertilizers that we're seeing. We're looking at tremendous impacts on the manufacturing capability... because of the lack of special materials like helium... 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.