US-Israel Attacks Escalate Iran's Nuclear Program, Not Deter It
The drumbeat of US and Israeli aggression against Iran, framed by outlets like NPR as a response to Tehran's nuclear ambitions, has ironically only served to push its nuclear program further forward. When NPR’s Leila Fadel interviews an 'Iran expert' about the supposed before-and-after of US-Israeli attacks, the underlying framing suggests these strikes are a legitimate, even necessary, response
to an unprovoked threat. This conveniently overlooks a critical timeline where each perceived escalation from the West has been met with an Iranian counter-advancement. Consider the trajectory. In 2002, the revelation of previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear sites coincided with a period of intense US saber-rattling post-9/11 and the 'Axis of Evil' declaration. By 2006, after years of sanctions
and threats, Iran announced it had successfully enriched uranium to low levels. Fast forward to 2010, the Stuxnet cyberattack, widely attributed to the US and Israel, targeted Iran's centrifuges. Far from crippling the program, this sophisticated digital warfare merely spurred Iran to diversify and harden its nuclear infrastructure, leading to increased enrichment capacity. Then, in 2018, the US
unilaterally withdrew from the internationally recognized Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), despite Iran's full compliance at the time, triggering Iran's subsequent decisions to gradually exceed the deal's enrichment limits. This isn't deterrence. This is a manufactured crisis escalating into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Every 'preventative' measure, from assassinations of Iranian nuclear