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In a Saturday evening address, President Donald Trump confirmed that the American military had attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran, with U.S. officials later providing the details: B-2 aircraft dropped 14 GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs, while a submarine fired a barrage of Tomahawk missiles.
It may take some time to ascertain Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely and fully obliterated.” What happens next is also uncertain. No doubt the U.S. is now involved in a way it wasn’t before, but whether this was a “one-and-done” operation or the beginning of an ongoing direct U.S. military role in the Iran-Israel conflict depends largely on how Iran responds, according to Javed Ali, an expert on Middle East affairs at the University of Michigan and a former senior official at the National Security Council.
“The strikes won’t necessarily pull U.S. into the conflict fully,” he writes, “unless Iran retaliates in such a way that necessitates further U.S. action. And that is what Iran’s supreme leader and his military generals will need to work out: Should Iran retaliate and, if so, is it prepared to deal with a heavier U.S. military response – especially when there is no end in sight to its current conflict with Israel?”
Seen in another light, the American attack on three nuclear sites was decades in the making. In a separate article, Jeffrey Fields, an expert on U.S. foreign policy at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, goes into the long history of bad blood between the two countries.
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Matt Williams
Senior International Editor
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US President Donald Trump addresses the nation on Iran strikes on June 21, 2025.
Carlos Barria/AFP via Getty Images
Javed Ali, University of Michigan
‘Bunker buster’ bombs and Tomahawk missiles struck three targets, with President Donald Trump saying that Iran’s nuclear program had been ‘completely and fully obliterated.’
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International
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Nakissa Jahanbani, Penn State
Tehran can utilize an army of proxy groups, intelligence operatives and cyberhackers as part of any retaliation for Israeli or US attacks.
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Environment + Energy
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Ben Livneh, University of Colorado Boulder
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Andres Clarens, University of Virginia
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Arts + Culture
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Pablo Moyano Fernández, Washington University in St. Louis
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Health + Medicine
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Cynthia H. Chuang, Penn State; Carol S. Weisman, Penn State
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Sarah Bauerle Bass, Temple University
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Science + Technology
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Pooja Shree Chettiar, Texas A&M University; Siddhesh Sabnis, Texas A&M University
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John Peterson, Purdue University
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Stephen L. Levy, Binghamton University, State University of New York
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Economy + Business
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Nancy Forster-Holt, University of Rhode Island
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Politics + Society
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Ray Brescia, Albany Law School
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