By US Army Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright
(Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Including the minute when the US and Israel fired missiles and dropped bombs on the home of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his wife and other members of his family, killing over 40 members of the leadership of Iran, senior Iranian officials had maintained that Iran would never develop a nuclear bomb.
The Omani Foreign Minister, who was in discussions with Iran and the United States on February 27, 2026, only days before the U.S./Israeli attack on Iran, said Iran agreed to “never, ever have … nuclear material that will create a bomb.”
“There was no evidence that Iran was close to a nuclear weapon,” said Jeffery Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies after the U.S. attack on Iran.
Arms control experts have disputed Trump’s claim that Iran “soon” could have missiles capable of reaching the U.S., and they say there’s a lack of evidence that the country “attempted to rebuild” nuclear enrichment facilities damaged by U.S. strikes last year. The U.S. Intelligence Community said that Iran was NOT developing a nuclear weapon
Before the U.S./ Israeli June, 2025 attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, in March 2025, the U.S. Intelligence Agencies 31 page “threat assessment” states that “We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so.” (Page 26)
Lesson Learned: Nuclear Weapons Are A Deterrent to U.S. Attacks
The lesson that the Iranian government and the world have learned is that NOT developing a nuclear weapon will lead to the US and Israel assassinating the leadership of your country and bombing the hell out of the rest of the country. All you have to do is ask the Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans about the value of nuclear weapons to deter the United States from attacking them.
Will developing and testing nuclear weapons keep the United States from attacking? So far, the answer is YES. So that’s the foreign policy imperative of 2026: develop nuclear weapons or always be threatened by the United States. Obviously we don’t want anyone to have nuclear weapons, but as long as the U.S. and Israel do, countries that don’t are targets of U.S. aggression.
Venezuela, no nuclear weapons — the US attacked. Venezuela had no nuclear weapons, and its head of state, Nicolas Maduro, and the former Attorney General and President of the National Assembly, Maduro’s spouse Cilia Flores, were kidnapped and imprisoned in the U.S. on January 3, 2026, by the military of the United States, and the other leadership of the country was threatened with the same treatment.
Afghanistan, no nuclear weapons – the US attacked.
Iraq, no nuclear weapons – the US attacked.
Cuba, Nicaragua, Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Mexico?
Cuba has no nuclear weapons, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961, it has no means of strategic defense of the country, and its leadership is threatened daily by Trump.
Nicaragua has no nuclear weapons, and its leadership is threatened by the United States.
Canada, Greenland, Denmark, and Mexico have no nuclear weapons, and the threats from the U.S. come almost daily.
When is enough…enough?
When 72,000 are killed by US bombs in the genocide of Gaza–is that enough?
When the Head of State of another country is kidnapped and imprisoned in the U.S., is that enough?
When Israel dictates when the U.S. goes to war on a country that has not attacked the U.S. and has not developed nuclear weapons, is that enough?
When the U.S threatens a 70-year-old revolution 90 miles off the United States with decapitation and destruction—is that enough?
When the President of the United States orders the assassination of 125+ persons in boats allegedly transporting drugs and then pardons the former President of Honduras who was convicted by a federal court and sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug operations while President of his country, is that enough?
Is pardoning over 1,000 persons convicted of the 2020 rioting and destruction of the U.S. Capitol enough?
Is the policy for 100,000 non-criminal human beings to be locked up in horrific detention/prison facilities—is that enough?
And on and on! Is that enough?
In the words of religious friends, “Sweet Jesus, what will be enough?”
When does it end?
It ends at the White House when the people of the United States have had enough. It ends when the U.S. Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have had enough.
Have we had enough yet? On one level, it seems like NOT—but on other levels, we are reaching that point.
Will There Be Blowback from these Policies?
In one word: YES
Take action and say STOP THE WAR ON IRAN!
About the Author: Ann Wright served in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves for 29 years and retired as a Colonel. She was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years but resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. War on Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
From CODEPINK Substack via This RSS Feed.