Get It All Out of the System
Don’t worry, guys: Iran’s gotten all the “Death to Israel”https://reason.com/”Death to America” out of their system.
Or so President Donald Trump contends.
Iran attacked a U.S. military base in Qatar on Monday; there were no casualties, and sources tell American outlets that both the Americans and the Qataris were notified ahead of time that the attack was coming. “Iran’s Supreme National Security Council released a statement earlier claiming the number of missiles fired at Qatar was equal to the number of bombs the U.S. used in its strike on Saturday,” per Axios, “signaling a desire to de-escalate.” To keep up appearances, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei threw a flag-burning pic up on X, but if that’s all the retaliation they’ve got planned, it all seems for show.
Trump agrees, and seems to have interpreted Monday’s events as a win. The attack on Al Udeid Air Base was, according to Trump, rather “weak,” but the good news is “they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system,’ and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE”—emphasis his. Trump then thanked Iran “for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.”
“Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same,” he continued. (“Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he finished.)
— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 23, 2025
Shortly after, he started declaring that Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire—something both sides slowly embraced, several hours (and strikes) after his initial announcement. Per Trump’s plan, which was apparently agreed to by both sides at one point, “Iran is to observe the ceasefire first, starting at 7:30am local time (04:00 GMT), with Israel following suit 12 hours later (16:00 GMT),” per Al Jazeera. But the hours-old ceasefire is not going well at all: Israel’s military claims Iran fired another barrage of missiles after the ceasefire had already gone into effect, and that they must retaliate. (There’s some evidence coming out that it may have been the result of countries mixing up timezones.)
Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear program might be back sooner than we think. “We have taken the necessary measures and are currently assessing the areas that were damaged,” said Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, in a statement carried by Mehr, Iran’s semiofficial state-sponsored news agency. “Preparations for recovery had already been anticipated, and our plan is to prevent any interruption in production or services.” (Remember, they still claim it’s for civilian nuclear energy.)
Doesn’t it all seem rather…ridiculous, for a war? The unilateral Trump declarations, the negging of the Persians, and the idea that Khamenei just needed to blow off some steam. Or it’s possible Trump’s anti-war bona fides really are there, and he’s masterminded a legitimately precise strike that’s set back Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities by many years, and now a ceasefire that will avoid further bloodshed. Or it’s possible that Iran believes itself to be in too deep, so it’s legitimately interested in coming to the negotiating table once again. Or it’s possible that Iran in the coming hours and days attacks much more than just Al Udeid, that Israel continues to pummel them, that the U.S. gets more deeply embroiled, and that none of these strikes targeted to cripple their nuclear program were effective because Iran was several steps ahead and had already moved the stockpile of enriched uranium. It’s just really hard to say right now.
Reason‘s Jack Nicastro got some incredible quotes from inside the White House Press Pool that kind of perfectly sums up the situation:
“They’ve been fighting so long and so hard that th
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