To bolster diplomacy and deterrence make our enemies fear the bomber

Iran isn’t negotiating in good faith and President Trump warned that if it doesn’t, it faces "great danger." Adversaries cannot perceive the president's warning as a bluff— especially amid high-stakes U.S. efforts to deter Russia and China. To make our enemies believe Trump's willingness and the United States' ability to hit the hardest-to-reach weapons that the adversary regime values most, the administration should stoke fears of the American stealth bomber.

According to public estimates, Iran is days away from having a nuclear warhead. Any deal that permits Iran to keep a threshold nuclear program is worse than the Iran deal negotiated by then President Obama that President Trump rightly withdrew the United States from in 2018, especially after Iran's complicity in the brutal Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7th. The only acceptable outcome of a negotiation is the complete dismantlement of the program with U.S.-led international inspectors' unfettered access to provide constant verification of compliance—an outcome Iran and its patron, Russia, have hitherto blocked.

In recent weeks, the U.S. sent B-52 heavy bombers from the U.K.’s RAF Fairford Base, showcasing U.S. strength, global reach, and its potential added advantage when collaborating with allies in a strong signal to Iran. Now six of the nation’s stealth bombers, the B-2 Spirits, are on the tarmac at a joint U.K.-U.S. island military base on Diego Garcia. We don’t know what is in each of the two internal weapons bays per bomber. But each bomber can carry conventional, nuclear, precision-guided or gravity bombs including ones that are designed to destroy the most deeply buried and hardened targets—like the ones housing Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program. Instead of letting Iran string along useless talks while its military builds up, Trump should make it clear that he is really willing to green-light the Israelis to lead a military campaign to destroy the entire nuclear program and the U.S. would play a significant assist role with its stealth bombers. He should further make it clear that he is not impressed with Iran’s delay tactics and its unwillingness to declare it is willing to forgo its entire nuclear weapons program. This is a unique moment and has the potential to send a serious message about the resolve of this administration to deter major wars and to re-establish stability after four years of a cascade of destabilizing aggression across continents. Credible threats of force go hand in glove with successful diplomacy and it would be prudent for this administration to communicate this in a strategic deterrence communication campaign.

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Getting serious about the possibility of a military option will bolster the possibility of actual successful diplomacy towards dismantlement. That’s why it’s important for public officials to establish the benefit of a possible effort to assist in a military campaign: first, it would impose a deserved cost on the Iranian regime for its brutal aggression against U.S. allies and against U.S. forces; second, it would demonstrate that Trump—although willing to give diplomacy a chance—will not permit bad actors to pay lip service to negotiations while in reality buying time to build up a better military advantage; third, it will show that despite the need to improve and strengthen the military, the U.S. has the world’s most capable fighting force, and the bombers can take out hardened and buried military targets.

Those are messages others would receive, too, including Beijing who may be under the illusion that some of its most valuable military assets have sanctuary within the interior of China. 

Israel has already this year destroyed the last three of Iran’s Russian-made and provided S-300 air defense systems. But Iran will get more and will be stronger when it does and so Iran is uniquely vulnerable right now. If Trump agrees to work with the Israelis to destroy the program, it certainly does not necessarily mean that he would be willing to use military force against our foremost military adversary, China, should Xi Jinping decide to invade democratic Taiwan. Trump has remained ambiguous about how he would respond in that scenario. However, if Trump does agree to collaboratively take out Iran’s nuclear program, it would surely cause Xi to believe that Trump just might be willing to do the same thing with a coalition in defense of Taiwan. China has long fretted about American bombers. State-run Chinese propaganda outlets like the Global Times highlight the threat of American bombers more than other weapon systems. People's Liberation Army schools note the formidableness of American bombers, their stealth, combat effectiveness, and large payloads.

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The United States should use this moment, with six B-2s deployed to Diego Garcia staring down Iran to force the regime to negotiate, to boost the Iranians’ and the PLA’s fears and further complicate their calculations as they wonder about Trump’s resolve to prevent wars and win them if our adversaries insist on them. Furthermore, Chinese leaders should be reminded in stark terms that the next generation bomber, the B-21 Raider, will be even stealthier and able to take out the more difficult to reach and highly defended weapons far inside the Chinese mainland and in underground tunnels.

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Here are just a few powerful ways to communicate the possible impact of the stealth bomber that could further these aims: Trump should post a video demonstrating the extraordinary destructive power of the B-2 on social media just as he has done so with the effective U.S. anti-Houthi strikes. Hegseth could follow up with a posted image of the bomber with an array of the weapons it could carry. It would be brilliant if, in a statement, Hegseth could also mention that it could also carry maritime strike weapons or hypersonic strike weapons (a message for Xi); and last, we are only a couple of months away from the 250th anniversary of America’s independence and it would send a strong signal if there was a fly-over on the National Mall of the current and next generation aircraft including the B-21 bomber and F-47 fighter.

The American people often heard President Biden warn of the dangers and capabilities of our enemies' militaries. It’s time President Trump warned America’s enemies of ours.