On this episode of Culture Brief, we break down the intense 12-day showdown between Israel and Iran—and the U.S. jumping in with surprise bombings with Operation Midnight Hammer (awesome name btw). Plus details on how the ceasefire came together, who brokered it (thanks, Qatar), and what it all means moving forward.
Plus, a rapid-fire check-in on more top headlines in politics, entertainment, sports, and pop-culture. And you’ll want to take part in a crucial debate: which casual dining chain reigns supreme? It’s geopolitical chaos, American headlines, and lighthearted banter—all through a Christian lens. Let’s get into it.
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Topics
- (00:43): Israel-Iran conflict breakdown
- (02:38): US bombs Iran’s nuclear facilities
- (06:29): Ceasefire agreement and diplomatic efforts
- (10:41): Operation Midnight Hammer: Detailed breakdown
- (18:37): Were the strikes constitutional?
- (22:13): Listener question: Were the strikes justified?
- (27:30): Biblical perspective on political conflicts
- (31:08): Listener mailbag and casual dining debate
- (34:45): Current events and sports updates
- (37:13): Upcoming political events and celebrity news
Resources
- Mailbag: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- DenisonForum.org/subscribe
- Dr. Jim Denison: Why is Iran the world’s most dangerous regime?
- Here’s how B-2 bomber pilots pull off grueling 33-hour flights
- B-2 bombers moving to Guam amid Middle East tensions, US officials say | Reuters
- How bunker-busters and B-2 stealth bombers struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program – ABC News
- Tuesday briefing: What you need to know about Trump’s declaration of peace between Israel and Iran | Iran | The Guardian
- Ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to hold as Trump vents frustration with both sides
- Trump successfully pressures Israel to scale back retaliation strike in Iran
- Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by Only a Few Months, U.S. Report Says – The New York Times
- Axios: Israeli officials see “significant” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities
- X: Net Approval: U.S. Airstrikes on Iran
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Senior Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah Tomasella:I’m Micah Tomasella.
Conner Jones: This is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. Micah, we have got a jam-packed show today. So why don’t you just give us a quick rundown of what we’re gonna be hitting on.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, Connor. So we’re gonna be talking about Israel, Iran, US strikes. And a ceasefire. We’re gonna dive deep into the mailbag and go over some questions and some comments that we’ve gotten from our awesome listeners. What is your favorite casual dining chain? Connor, New York City’s mayor’s race, and so much more.
So let’s jump into the brief.
Conner Jones: The brief.
Micah Tomasella: Alright. Israel, Iran, US strikes and. A ceasefire, a shaky ceasefire that we’re in right now. So we’re recording this episode on Wednesday, June 25th. This will be released on Thursday, June 26th. So this is the most up-to-date information that we have. So let’s set the stage.
So this is [00:01:00] the main story that we’re, we’re gonna be breaking down today. But let’s set the stage for what this is, and then I’ll pass it off to Connor. So they’re calling this the 12 Day Israel Iran War. People will call it different things, but in theory, if this ceasefire stays, it’ll be a 12 day war from June 13th to June 24th.
It started on June 13th when Israel launched a surprise, high intensity strike on Iran’s nuclear and military sites, naans four D and Isfahan. These weren’t just warning shots. Israeli war planes reportedly used deep penetration bombs and electronic warfare to bypass the Iranian defenses. Multiple top commanders were killed, including generals who had just taken the post that morning.
The message was loud and clear, Israel. Isn’t gonna be playing any kind of defense. They’re, they’re gonna take the offensive. So we broke this down a lot last week, but a lot has happened even since then with this story. So Iran hit back fast. Over the next week. They fired more than 400 drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel, and most were intercepted by the iron dome there in Israel and their aero systems, especially [00:02:00] with the help of the us.
But some still made it through. There was still some damage. So here’s where the human cost came on the Israeli side, 29 people were killed. 12 soldiers and 17 civilians so far, that number might be rising. They’re still searching through the rubble of some destroyed apartment buildings, and over 300 were injured, including dozens from rocket strikes that hit residential areas in Tel Aviv and Beersheba.
The attacks triggered mass evacuations. They were saying, you can’t gather together, you can’t go to work. You’ve gotta stay sheltered in place. Schools and airports shut down. It was the most direct, large scale attack on Israeli soil since the Yom Kippur war. Then the US got involved, which was kind of the big question that we broke down last week.
And that changed everything. Not just diplomatically though, but militarily. Under the code name Operation Midnight Hammer, which we have to admit, no matter if you agree with this or not, that’s a great name. American B two bombers and guided missiles were used to strike Iranian nuclear sites. US [00:03:00] officials say they crippled parts of Iran’s enrichment capacity and then they damaged underground centrifuge facilities.
Trump said the goal was to cripple Iran’s ability to escalate further. American forces also helped intercept missile attacks and reinforced US bases in the region. One close call came when an Iranian missile. Connor landed near a US base in Qatar, no American casualties, but the warning was loud enough.
Trump responded with a clear threat. Hit one of ours, we’ll hit back. The surprise came in Iran’s response for all the warnings I. Of the massive regional war, especially from maga, skeptics like Tucker Carlson. It didn’t happen. The dire predictions of thousands of US troops killed in the first week have not materialized, thank God.
Mm-hmm. Even Biden’s, former Middle East envoy, Brett McGirk, publicly praised the outcome. This was interesting. I was actually watching CNN that night. You’re thinking, wow, Micah, you’re. You’re watching cable news in the evening. Yeah, guys, I’m weird. By the end of the 12 days, Israel had destroyed [00:04:00] dozens of Iranian missile batteries, radar stations, command posts.
Iran suffered heavy losses compared to Israel. Over 600 killed, including senior commanders in its nuclear program. Did take a serious hit. It’s debated what it is, but it definitely took a serious hit. But Israel paid a price. Two dozens dead, hundreds wounded cities disrupted, and a population that’s living on edge.
Connor, before I jump into the ceasefire agreement, any thoughts on, on this breakdown? Anything I missed? Yeah
Conner Jones: it’s just, it was a lot. I mean, since we recorded last week, so much happening. I know. So thank you for breaking all that down. There was a lot of information, but the one thing I’m thinking about is also Iran’s missile attack.
They responded with where they tried to attack. Oh yeah. A US bass and Qatar. It was very limited and it was on purpose. And they warned the US ahead of time. They warned Qatar in the us. Yeah. They did not want to hit the US base. No, they did not wanna cause a casualty. ’cause they knew that would bring such big consequences.
It’s like they had to respond to show some face after being hit by the us. Secretly they had to do something. [00:05:00] And say something, but they were like, we don’t really want to, but we’re gonna shoot a few missiles towards. So yeah, a US base just to, just to show face. But we really would rather not injure any American soldiers because that would spill into a much bigger problem.
Micah Tomasella: Obviously Connor, that’s. That’s a great point. I mean, Iran’s missile capability was drained by more than 50% through several reports, and so their ability to fight a multi-front war fighting Israel is one thing. Going against the United States is, is an entirely different thing. But you know, I think about that type of response that Iran had where they dropped the same amount of missiles or shot the same amount of missiles at a US base, even though they warned Qatar and then warned.
The United States beforehand, they dropped the same amount of bombs that the US dropped on their nuclear facilities. As you know, retaliation. You can’t just attack us without anything happening. That’s only gonna work to be able to save face in a country like Iran, where the media landscape is so [00:06:00] controlled by the government.
Mm-hmm. And by the regime where they can completely control the narrative. Of what their response was to their people. I’m very thankful, even in a moment like this, to live in a free country. No matter what we all disagree on, we are able to access information from all sides and make our own judgment.
Iran gets to do that and then push the narrative to their people that they defended themselves in a strong way when all reality they did not at all.
Conner Jones: True. Yeah, that’s a great point.
Micah Tomasella: Yep. So the ceasefire, let’s talk about that. So Trump’s secret play here and then what’s, what’s gonna come next? So then outta nowhere, Trump dropped the hammer again.
But this time it was, you know, I’m saying hammer because of Operation Midnight Hammer. But he, he dropped a diplomacy hammer this time. So on June 23rd, he announced. A phased ceasefire agreement brokered through Qatar. What most people didn’t know at the time was that secret meetings had already been happening for days, so just like Operation Midnight Hammer, there was a lot of misdirection.
And how it was played out, and Connor’s about to break that [00:07:00] down. The diplomacy part, there was a lot of misdirection and a lot of things that people didn’t know about. So Trump’s senior team worked with the Qatari Prime minister, Israeli intelligence reps, and then the Iranian intermediaries meeting behind closed doors, specifically in Turkey, Iran refused to meet directly, but Qatar played the go between.
Passing proposals back and forth. So the deal went live hours after Trump posted on his social media website, truth, social Israel began winding down, airstrikes Iran, then halted missile launches. There were a few violations, a rocket here. We’re gonna bomb you there. But you know, that alone showed how seriously.
You know, the ceasefire did stick was that it was immediately tested and then, you know, we’re going on close to 48 hours at this point where the fighting has stopped. But as of June 25th, the day of recording, the truce is still holding though it’s shaky. You know, this is just a ceasefire. This is an an ironed out peace deal.
It could change to any moment. It seems to be a win for Trump and his supporters are letting everyone know it right now. But here’s the catch. Iran may be down, but it’s not done. [00:08:00] Experts believe Tehran still holds a sizable stockpile of enriched uranium, and it likely does have centrifuge is hidden from international inspectors.
So ones that we might know about, or maybe not all of them, were damaged after the US bomb. These facilities, we’re not really gonna know the answer on that just yet. There’s a real concern that this conflict only reinforced the regime’s belief that the only true security that, that they have lies in them making a bomb and making it quickly.
But at the very least, the US and Israel made it very difficult for them to take that into their own hands moving forward. So Trump. Is using this momentum to revive a long, stalled peace push in Gaza. So he’s trying to parlay this into a peace deal in Gaza. Earlier this year, the US floated a six week ceasefire deal that we talked about, that included hostage releases by Hamas, humanitarian aid to civilians and space for negotiations.
That proposal, unfortunately, has stalled and there’s been issues with all of that, with the hostages. Being released with those in Gaza, being able to [00:09:00] get access to food and to aid. It’s a tough situation there right now. It’s a very bad situation there. But now with Israel and Iran, temporarily off the battlefield, maybe Trump can kind of set up his eyes on this, on something here and and his team.
So now we wait. The airstrikes did bring time. It bought some time. The ceasefire brought leverage. The question is whether Iran. You know, whether this can actually lead to something lasting in Iran and Israel and in Gaza, or if this is just a brief pause before the next, you know, big issue. So
Conner Jones: there you go.
Yeah. Hopefully this is the first step towards some sort of piece. I don’t think Iran and Israel will ever sign a like. Peace agreement. Yeah, it’s definitely
Micah Tomasella: something, it’s definitely something to reset the region, you know, how we’ve been reading this could at least reset some terms, reset some things, realign some things in the Middle East.
Conner Jones: I could, I could picture this being a North Korea, South Korea thing, where it’s like they’re never really at peace, but like they’re. Able to exist next to each other. Yeah, because they’ve determined that’s probably best case scenario. Basically mutual yeah. Destruction is a possibility. So [00:10:00] they just don’t bother each other that much unless there’s a different Each other
Micah Tomasella: different, yeah.
Unless there’s just a complete ideological regime change in Iran. Probably the best case scenario for Israel and Iran is that they would just. Not like each other, hate each other, but from afar, leave each other alone. Regime change
Conner Jones: is something that a lot of people have talked about, was that a end goal of this whole thing?
And a lot of people were worried that the US was gonna try to install a new leader and cause regime change, mean Trump threatened it and then, then he pulled it back.
Micah Tomasella: Trump.
Conner Jones: He did, because a lot of people are not about that. That’s what we’ve done in past wars and in past countries. Yeah. And it’s rarely that big of a success.
So that’s a much more
Micah Tomasella: involved
Conner Jones: process too. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe the people rise up and install regime change on their own. That would be a very interesting thing to see, but we’ll just have to see how this all plays out. Anyways, let’s detail Operation Midnight Hammer, which I agree with you, Micah. Is a great name.
Whether you agree with the strike or not, it does sound like a book that you’d pull off an airport shelf. Yeah. To, to read on the plane. No doubt. Like just Operation Midnight Hammer. I know. I’m all into that. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, so the entire operation took a total of 37 [00:11:00] hours. It was green light, like you said a few days before, but it included 125 aircraft, 13 of those being the B two stealth bombers.
A submarine was involved as well that launched missiles and obviously a quite a bit of deception here. So like you said, the actual mission was to destroy those three Iranian nuclear facilities, naans, Isfahan, and the big one four do. That’s the one that is hundreds of feet underground, that they needed bunker buster bombs that only the US had that could only be flown by these B two stealth bombers.
And so that’s what Israel was dependent upon, and much of the world was hoping secretly, even if they weren’t saying so publicly. That Trump was going to employ to destroy that bunker. Anyways, seven of those B two bombers carried 14 of those bunker buster bombs, and they dropped them on the sites in a kind of a 25 minute window.
It was early morning hours, and I ran, it was like one to 2:30 AM over there, so it was in the middle of the night in the dark and struck them while they were all asleep. That was about 6:40 PM Eastern, so it was kind of right in [00:12:00] prime time here on Saturday night. Mm-hmm. So obviously got a lot of people to stop in their tracks, check out what was going on.
Trump was able to deliver his nationwide address that night. A lot of the country tuned in for that. At the same time as those B twos were dropping the bombs, we did have the submarine launch, two dozen tomahawk missiles that were assisting in the sharks to kind of like help take out some other elements of those facilities.
Prior to entering the Iranian airspace, the aircraft did cut off their communications to avoid detection. That’s one of the things about these B two bombers is man, they are stealth and they look like it too. Mm-hmm. Like they’re so cool looking and they’re also huge. Yes. And they also cost a billion dollars a piece.
The most expensive planes in the world.
Micah Tomasella: Billion dollar a pop. Yeah, so we only have 14, right?
Conner Jones: We have 20. We used to have 21 1 crash in 2008, big loss. And then a few others have been decommissioned ’cause they’ve had small damages that aren’t even worth the repairs. ’cause that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
So 14, we’re using this, we don’t know exactly how many there are still active, but. Obviously 14 at least. Actually
Micah Tomasella: I think most of them, at least most of them were, most of you know, because [00:13:00] half of them were used for the decoy and then half of them were, were used to carry out the mission.
Right.
Conner Jones: You are absolutely correct. Yeah. So again, these are just impressive aircraft, impressive pilots. They’re. The cream of the crop of the Air Force pilots that it is extremely hard to become a B two pilot or crew member. So that being said, secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said that the stealth aircraft got in and out and back without the world knowing at all.
Micah, that is just crazy to me that these aircraft just went across the world. Entered Iranian airspace, dropped these bombs and got out without unbelievable anybody knowing. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, also, just a testament to the Israeli Air Force going ahead for the 10 days prior and eliminating a bunch of the air defenses and radars and communications facilities in Iran.
They basically paved the way knowing that if they did that, maybe the US would enter, and that’s ultimately what happened. The mission details were closely held. By officials in the Pentagon, in the White House, and any troops that were on a need to know basis. Otherwise, nobody knew about this. This was top secret planning.
There were no leaks, which is a big deal, especially [00:14:00] after Signal Gate. I’m assuming Signal was not used to actually share any details of this operation this time around, because that could be a leaking spot, but there were no leaks. It was all held close and tight. Although Trump. Apparently caused some people a lot of nervousness because he kept saying things publicly that were potentially alerting the Iranians to something happening.
But he also did his part by coming out and saying he’s gonna make a decision in two weeks. And that made everybody think, okay, he’s not doing it now. He’s gonna wait. He’s gonna hold off hope for negotiations. And see what happens from there. Once it was fully approved, Trump approved on Wednesday. Then he gave the final approval on Saturday night, a few hours before when communications had to be shut off.
Then everything started to take place. The 13 total B twos took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, like you said, Micah, there were some that went for the strikes. They went east towards and over the Atlantic towards Iran to do the strikes with the moms, and then six of them went. West over the Pacific and those six were on [00:15:00] radar.
There were open source intelligence and flight trackers, including a lot of accounts that I follow that were showing this basically fleet of tankers and then these B twos. Going west and the Pentagon did that on purpose. They wanted the world to be duped and to believe that those were the six bombers that would be potentially used in a strike on Iran.
And so everyone was like, okay. They’re headed to either Guam or the little island in the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia, which is a base that we’ve housed B twos at for strikes. Previously in Middle East Wars, and so that got a lot of people believing, okay, those are the, those are the bombers. And then even some officials came out and told Reuters that yes, we are sending them, those B two bombers are being relocated to the Pacific Island of Guam as the president considers potential military action against us.
I ran. So basically they were making it seem like they were just gonna be staged, ready to do a strike whenever the timing was right. And whenever they were green-lighted. Yeah. That duped the world, man. That duped, I ran duped. Everybody. Everybody was just really taken off by that. And because of that, the [00:16:00] strikes that actually happened came as a complete surprise to everyone, which is just, again, a, a big testament to the military pulling this off.
Including the pilots who did an incredibly difficult task. They flew 37 hours straight. They refueled with KC 1 35 air tankers across the Pacific for the decoys, but also the Atlantic for the actual bombers and dozens of those tanker planes were involved. How do they pull this off? I, I was like, how, how are they flying for 37 straight hours?
I did not know this. These B two bombers have little toilets. They have a little bunk and they’ve got a little microwave. So these guys are living in a little tiny plain apartment situation, but without like much space, I mean, it. Sounds very claustrophobic. I could not do it. So I’m just mm-hmm.
Amazed by these guys. God bless their bodies. Yeah. They train their bodies big time to be able to take on these 37 to 40 hours straight flights. And obviously all the tinkerers involved and all the crew members involved and the, the people who brought the weapons and the bombs, everything. Just amazing stuff.
Micah, what are your initial [00:17:00] thoughts on this whole operation?
Micah Tomasella: Man, just you highlighted all of ’em. I don’t really have much to add other than, you know, you just gotta tip your cap to the best military in the world. You know, if I’m ever gonna get flack for saying something like that, I mean, I just, I love this country and I think that we’re, we’re the best in so many things and I’m just so grateful for that.
And it’s also just given me like. Top Gun Maverick Vibes. I know that Connor probably was gonna say the same thing, just ’cause we’re such big Top Gun fans, but this is just, you know, these guys probably trained forever, never knew if they’d be able to do something like this. And so just if you’re thinking about the singular mission, really cool, very well executed.
God bless our troops.
Conner Jones: Yeah, no kidding. You may not even agree with the strike, but what you cannot deny is that. This was top of the top, yeah. Proficiency from the military and the Air Force and all involved from the Pentagon all the way down to everybody on the tarmax that was involved. There were a bunch of fighter jets too.
I didn’t even mention that. They escorted the B twos into Iranian airspace. So there were a bunch of pilots probably in F eighteens F [00:18:00] 16 and stuff ready to, to
Micah Tomasella: defend the B twos. Yeah, they were ready
Conner Jones: to just take fire basically and pull fire away from the B twos because the B two now one.
Micah Tomasella: Not one shot fired from the Iranians I one shot fire because they didn’t know they were there.
Conner Jones: They had no idea. Man, it’s just crazy testament to the technology too, man. Yeah. Stealth. Stealth stuff is just cool. F 30 fives, B twos, B ones, all of them. Yeah. US military is number one in the world. I was gonna make the Top Gun Maverick reference because I just thought this, this mission is very similar.
That’s the first thing I
Micah Tomasella: thought of. Yeah.
Conner Jones: Yeah. I mean, just this extremely small target. They gotta hit it just right. Get in and out. Of course, you know, didn’t have all the Hollywood production to it, but anyways. Were these strikes? Micah Constitutional? That’s a big question mark. A lot of people have been asking this week.
Okay. Yeah. Maybe they, they were a success. We, we got in and out without any damage, but can the president technically do this? I wanna just point this out ’cause I’ve seen both sides, and I’m not a legal expert, but I’ve been reading what a lot of legal experts have been saying. Yeah. Here’s what I’ve come to the conclusion of.
Article one of the Constitution says, Congress is the branch [00:19:00] that has the power to declare war. We’ve seen this before. Congress voted to declare war against Germany and Japan in the 1940s, and we’ve seen that since then. But Article two says, the President is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and that allows presidents essentially to initiate limited military actions.
Without prior congressional approval, especially when the action is defensive or preemptive US troops are not committed to prolonged ground combat or it’s a time sensitive and secretive planning process that is required for national security, such as what just happened. Was this time sensitive?
Probably checks the box. Was it secretive? Definitely checks the box, definitely. But the war powers resolution of 1973 basically allows the president. To order limited military operations as long as he notifies Congress within 48 hours of action and withdraws the forces within 60 days. So if troops are on the ground, they can only be there for a max of 60 days.
He’s gotta alert Congress. They apparently alerted the top Congress members as the strikes are about to take place. [00:20:00] And then they’re supposed to be having a briefing for all of Congress as a classified briefing on Thursday, which is today, Thursday, today, if you’re listeners on Thursday. Yeah, it was delayed from Tuesday.
Anyways. Intelligence and Pentagon officials are supposed to be briefed as well, and they, they all got briefed. But then the Democrats, you know, some of them have been calling for Trump to be impeached, which is kind of. Probably a losing battle over these strikes and supporters would say they would counter that by saying this did not amount to war, and that Trump acted within his executive authority to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
They also highlight that past presidents have conducted similar actions that go of Clinton and Kosovo, Obama and Libya, Biden and Syria presidents do this. Kind of often. So I think it’s a losing battle. That being said, I do think it fits within the Constitution, but again, I’m not a legal expert.
Micah Tomasella: Not a legal expert.
Neither am I. Connor, thank you for that breakdown. We did get an awesome, thought provoking kind of, I. It’s definitely not a simple question to answer from [00:21:00] one of our listeners. Wilson Wilson, thank you for sending this in, and we’re gonna kind of jump into this conversation To wrap up the discussion.
This came in as an Instagram DM to our Culture Brief podcast page. Follow us on Culture Brief Podcast. How do you feel Trump handled his speech, was the first question. And how do you guys feel about us bombing Iran? How do you feel about the US bombing Iran? And do you think we’re justified in helping Israel?
You go first, Connor?
Conner Jones: Yeah. First off, I do think Trump’s speech that he came out, he came out with Rubio, hegseth and Vance, and I think it sounded strong and had a flare of like confidence and strength, and I think it was short and sweet, just what it needed to be. As far as the, the next question, was it justified?
I think in hindsight, given the success of the mission and the fact that there were no US casualties, no shots fired other than us dropping the bombs. The damage done to new Iran’s nuclear facilities seems to be pretty good. Like they’ve, they’ve really damaged them. I, I don’t think, it’s hard to say that Trump maybe made a justified decision.[00:22:00]
That is not me fully saying that myself. I just, I’m trying to picture how a lot of people are processing this, but I would also just say a lot of people would. Claim there’s still concerns, yeah, for sure. Could this still boil over? We’re just expecting Iran to sit back, but they could still do things.
They’ve even called for sleeper cells in America to awaken up. So if, if Americans are killed here on our own soil or elsewhere in the world, will the finger be pointed back towards Trump? I don’t know, maybe. And was this the US’ place at all? This is technically a war that was initiated by Israel. They struck Iran first.
Is it the US’ spot to come in and support Israel in that way and do kind of their dirty work that they aren’t able to do themselves? They did a lot of the front load work, but then they needed someone to come in and finish up the job. And then, you know, I, I, I think a lot of people would say, yeah, it is justified.
’cause Iran has killed many Americans over the years. Who’s to say that if they had a nuke, they wouldn’t strike American facilities or especially Israel. They would very potentially try to hit Israel. But how many Americans would die in that? Or would they even ever try to strike [00:23:00] American soil itself? I don’t know.
According to Axios, there is a leak that happened that suggested that the actual bombings. Did not destroy the facilities as much as Trump has said so, and the New York Times had this report, classified report got leaked and Axios said that that leak infuriated the White House who’s rejecting it as fake news and accused the anonymous official who leaked it, of seeking to undermine Trump this morning, as we’re speaking now this morning, Israeli intelligence Services believe the strikes caused very significant damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
So that would help justify if it actually destroyed the facilities. Maybe it’s justified if it’s just some damage and they’re gonna still be able to build a nuke. In fact, they might be even more encouraged to do I don’t know, maybe it’s not. I will say that net approval of the strikes across America according to a CNN poll this week is negative 11 points.
Mm-hmm. For comparison, in 2014 when Obama was striking ISIS targets quite a bit, those airstrikes were approved at plus 58 points. So I don’t think this was [00:24:00] necessarily a. Popular decision. Maybe that’s because ISIS was seen as more of a threat to Americans themselves as opposed to Iran and people are maybe just done with Middle East Wars and we just don’t want to see this all over for sure.
But what do you think, Micah?
Micah Tomasella: Oh, Connor, this is definitely a tough one. So first of all, you know, his first question was on Trump’s speech. I would say it was short and sweet. Very Trump in what he said, but not very Trump because he actually stayed on point and on task. Like I tuned in to watch what he was gonna say.
And it wasn’t long at all. It was just a few minutes. So like I give him props for that man. He has been on a truth social. Bender though, in all hours of the night. Does he sleep Connor? I don’t think
Conner Jones: In fact, I think some people have said he sleeps three hours max a day.
Micah Tomasella: Like I just feel like he is at a blistering, unsustainable pace.
But this is how he’s always been, right? He just goes, goes, goes. He was the same way in his first term, so I give him props for the speech. ’cause I think he stayed on task. He just said very Trump things. But at the same time, he didn’t veer off into other issues, which sometimes when he gets really fired up, he.
[00:25:00] Doesn’t really drive his point home. He just talks about other things that actually have nothing to do with it. So I applaud him for just staying on task speech. There was no media there
Conner Jones: to ask questions so they didn’t get distracted for Yes, exactly.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Yeah. You get somebody from CNN in there to rile ’em up.
It might’ve gone a lot longer. I. Connor, I do think the strike on Iran can be justified from the American perspective and from the Israeli perspective, both in terms of standing with an ally and trying to prevent a hostile regime from getting nuclear weapons. Iran does have a long history of threatening Israel, the us, and it really did.
Seemed to set their nuclear program back even for a little while. So that matters. But at the same time, so for me, the question on justification, like if you’re just gonna ask me, is it justified? Yes. I think from the American perspective and supporting our main ally by a long shot in the Middle East is Israel.
Take the spiritual debate out of it, which we can talk about all that too, right? The. Dispensationalism argument, but just as far as supporting an ally, that is by far our best [00:26:00] proxy in such a difficult region. But also, you know, from the American perspective, I. They have been training for this specific mission.
I mean, like I was reading how they’ve been training for this mission for a long time. They develop these mop bombs for something like this. That’s why the Democratic Party has been kind of splintered on their reaction to this. I would say most have been against this, but at the same time you got some people coming out saying if any President Bush, Obama, Biden, Trump, were given this opportunity, all of the training, all of the years.
Given the opportunity to drop this bomb and potentially wipe out a threat to Israel, to America, and to the world, that would at least be a difficult decision to make. I think that we can all agree on that. Oh yeah. But at the same time, Connor, I, I don’t think we’ll really know if it was the right decision.
So do I believe it’s justified? Yes. Do I believe it’s the right decision? I don’t know. I don’t know that yet. It might be
Conner Jones: too early to tell. We’ll just have to see if, if it boils over or if [00:27:00] there’s longer consequences years down the road.
Micah Tomasella: That’s why there’s so many conflicting reports we just don’t know.
So was it the right decision? Is this gonna lead to a larger regional war? Right now it’s looking like maybe not, but it very well could. Is this drawing in our biggest enemies into a fight against us, drawing us into a bigger war? Right now it doesn’t look like it, but. Are we just delaying the inevitable?
Did we just do this just to, to push off something that’s gonna happen anyway just by a year? You know what I mean? Yeah. So it just depends on your perspective on if this was. The right thing. Now, if we zoom out as believers, Connor, we, we can’t just react politically. We need to think biblically, and that’s where my mind’s been going to in this, we need discernment.
A mind that isn’t swayed just by headlines, by polls, by party lines. I am not a Democrat first. I am not a Republican first. I’m not even America first. Sorry guys. I’m a follower of Jesus. First and foremost, above everything else, I belong [00:28:00] to a kingdom that is eternal. No matter how great America is, I belong to the eternal kingdom.
I belong to Jesus. And so that’s just a reminder when we’re thinking through this and it must shape how we view every single thing. Our kingdom is anchored in the eternal nothing else, and I’m grateful for that. That doesn’t mean we can’t be passionate about this. That doesn’t mean that we can’t care deeply about this.
I know I do. I very much do. But it’s a good reminder when we’re overwhelmed or when we’re getting off track, who we belong to, what our kingdom actually is. So Philippians three 20 says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That verse resets everything for me when I’m thinking about this topic, it reminds me that my ultimate loyalty is not to country.
Not to a political leader, but to Christ. So while I understand why the strike happened, and I even agree with the tenets of it in, in a lot of ways, personally, I wanna make sure my heart stays grounded when I’m thinking and [00:29:00] processing through this topic. Not in fear, not in partisan politics, but in Jesus.
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t. Just a political conflict. It’s a part of a much bigger spiritual battle, which you actually highlighted, and which Jim Denison and our entire team at Denison Forum has done a really good job of focusing on, is that there’s a larger spiritual battle at play here, and that’s where I want to stay focused.
I.
Conner Jones: Yeah. And like you said, Dr. Jim Denison, he wrote this week in a great article. Yes, this is ultimately a spiritual war. Ephesians six, 12 through 13 says as much when we have spiritual wars, that we are against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, and we are to stand firm. And then verse 18 says, we should be praying at all times in the spirit.
So if you’re looking for some prayer points, here’s a few for you. Let’s first and foremost, pray for lasting peace in the Middle East, a true and just and lasting peace. And then let’s pray for believers in Iran. There’s a lot of Christians in Iran who are caught up in this and would obviously they want the gospel to spread and take wave.
This just horrible regime that has got so much going on with Sharia law and [00:30:00] everything to govern their country. So let’s pray for believers in Iran to boldly proclaim the mystery of the gospel. Let’s pray for the conversion of Iranian leaders. Let’s pray for spiritual awakening to advance across the Middle East, and let’s pray for Americans to place our hope ultimately in the God and Father of all.
Who is overall and through all and in all. Amen. Brother, this was a very big topic. This is probably the biggest thing we’ve had to discuss since we started this podcast. This is extreme consequences either way, based off of how an operation goes. Could this have spilled into war? Could it still? Yes. And so we’ve taken a lot of time to talk about this, so thank you all for listening with us as we’ve tried to inform you guys and process ourselves as well as help you guys process and think critically and biblically about how to approach this subject.
’cause there’s a lot of moving pieces here and a lot happening. Yeah. Yeah, this was a lot of great stuff. Thank you, Micah, for the details there. And hopefully you guys all come away more informed and we’ll just see what happens. I mean, last week we could not have told you exactly how that whole operation was gonna play out, but it played out the way it did and here we’re a week later talking about it.
Yes. So we don’t even [00:31:00] know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. I mean, more could just happen. There’s a NATO conference going on right now and Trump’s feeling big and strong there and he’s getting great conversations done there. But yeah, thank you guys and let’s jump real fast, Micah into the mailbag.
Okay guys, we want to continue to hear from you all. Thank you, Wilson, for sending in that question. If you have a question, send it in. Send us your thoughts at Culture [email protected] or shoot us a message on Instagram at Culture Brief Podcast. One other comment that we got this week, this was on a Spotify comment.
Josh said, gentlemen, I. You’ve got it all wrong, and he’s referencing our discussion last week on weed eating and the direction we go on that. Again, I cannot believe how many times we’ve talked about lawn stuff here. Anyways, he said, I speak with credibility from being on a college campus ground crew. The only correct way to walk when weed eating is’ in the direction that the trimmer rotates.
This increases the efficiency of the trimming and prevents debris from being thrown towards you. End of discussion, Josh, making it very clear what he thinks [00:32:00] there. Obviously he’s got some scientific data to back that up, go in the direction of the tremor.
Micah Tomasella: How long did he work on this college grounds crew?
You know what I mean? Anyway, thank you for your comment. Who knows, you know, who knows? It sounds like he’s coming out rebuking me you know, we’re just gonna move on.
Conner Jones: Okay? Okay, Micah, I, I think you had a question about fast dining or casual dining, something, right? Yes.
Micah Tomasella: Okay, so we’re gonna do a little, just a little poll question.
For all of you. So you’ll see this poll blasted out and then we’ll report the results next week. But I just found this really interesting. I saw somebody else do a poll on this, but I kind of changed up the restaurant. So Connor, which is your favorite casual dining chain audience, the faithful listeners of Culture Brief Podcast.
What is your favorite casual dining chain? I picked the most popular ones across the country that are located pretty much everywhere, so hopefully everybody. Kind of can have a, an opinion on this matter no matter where you live. So again, the question is, which is your [00:33:00] favorite casual dining chain? Olive Garden, Applebee’s, Chili’s, cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse, the Cheesecake Factory.
I’ll say it one more time. Olive Garden. Applebee’s, Chili’s, cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse, and the Cheesecake Factor. I’ll go ahead and jump in. By far, my favorite is Chili’s. If you know me personally, you know, me and my wife love Chili’s. We always have. We always will. Don’t sleep on the chips and salsa.
Don’t sleep on the on the chips and skillet queso. And they got a lot of really great bundle deals for lunch and dinner. You can get outta there. Both of you eat. Have a good entree. Have a soda for under 20 bucks for two people in this economy. Head on down to Chili’s.
Conner Jones: Okay. Yeah. Chili’s is not good. Their salsa is literally flavorless.
It’s just red. I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s so bad. I knew this would upset Connor. Chili’s is so bad. I knew that would upset Connor if this is me. I don’t love any of these places. I don’t like chain restaurants. I like places that have more flavor and flavor to no. You act like you have such an elevated palette, but I was, if I was gonna [00:34:00] go to one of these places, I’m choosing Club Bees, Applebee’s, all the way.
It’s cheap. You can go there. They got reverse happy hour, get some cheap, maybe just warm cookies. You come at me for chilies. Then you pick Apple to if Applebees. Applebee’s is even cheaper than Chili’s. So if I’m gonna go to one of ’em, I’m at least gonna go there and know that what I’m getting is not good food.
Oh. Oh my goodness. I’m something of Chili’s. Anyways, you guys can vote on Spotify if you’re listening there, or go to our Instagram and I’ll post a poll later this week.
Micah Tomasella: Please. We want lots of votes on this. We want a, say again. Olive Garden, Applebee’s, Chili’s, cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse, or the Cheesecake Factory.
Conner Jones: I think I know which one’s gonna win. Everybody loves one of these restaurants, but we’ll reserve that for next week.
Micah Tomasella: Okay, Michael, which one is your favorite? Yep. Got
Conner Jones: it. Let’s pop into our check-in here ’cause we’ve got several things to update you guys on. Okay. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, Micah, how much you followed at the Karen Reed trial up in Boston.
Big deal. A lot of people were following this on socials, but also there was a documentary that came out earlier this year I watched that found the case to be very interesting. Karen Reed was acquitted of all the major charges relating to the death of her [00:35:00] boyfriend, who was a Boston police officer. His name is John O’Keefe.
He was found. Dead in the snow, essentially, and it peeled off into this massive case that potentially involves corruption and coverup from the police department. And now that, that’s obviously being more seen as the possibility now that Karen Reed’s been acquitted. ’cause yeah, they were saying that she killed him.
Anyways, uhoh, we’ll see if this spills out into more because. It’s something like out of a book or a TV series essentially. But she’s acquitted. She’s now been to trial twice and has acquitted anyways. Wow. A lot of people were asking about that. I had several people in person say, Hey, will you guys mention that on the show?
And I was like, yeah, it is interesting. So there’s that. LSU won the College World Series. They beat DBU in the round one, and I feel better about that knowing that they ended up going on to win. Yeah, they were by far the best team in the, in the series. And also did you see in game two, they won two games out of three.
Against Coastal Carolina Game two, though the coach of Coastal Carolina was literally ejected from the game in the first inning.
Micah Tomasella: Bad move. Bad move that coach would need to [00:36:00] commit, in my opinion, a heinous act of violence and you watch back. That’s not what happened. In order to be kicked out in game two of a three game series in the College World Series, like the entire season, the entire championship hinges on this moment.
This to me looks like. An umpire who was, I don’t know, just a little bit too full of himself. I think that that was absolutely uncalled for.
Conner Jones: Yeah, definitely bizarre. Anyways, congratulations to the Tigers. Go Tigers.
Micah Tomasella: Go Tigers. Okay. Yeah, so the Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA champions. They won game seven. The Pacers put up an awesome fight.
Tyrese Halliburton is a great story, but again, like we talked about, OKC has built a team from the ground up. Sam Presti is an incredibly impressive general manager who completely rebuilt that team and invigorated that city. Good for the thunder. We’re happy for them. I predicted Indiana to win in six.
Connor predicted OKC to win in five. So Connor was more right. I just need to stop making these [00:37:00] picks with my heart and actually use my head ’cause I just wanted the Pacers to win.
Conner Jones: You picked wrong with the Stanley Cup and this I did. Did. I will say I think it would’ve potentially gone Indiana’s way had Halliburton not ruptured his got down in the first quarter with that injury.
Yeah. That was
Micah Tomasella: really sad. Exactly.
Conner Jones: Okay guys, we got a few things for y’all to tune into and we’ll keep you guys updated on these things, but one is the big, beautiful bill, July 4th is the self-imposed deadline. To pass Trump’s bill that he once passed with all of his legislation in there, they set themselves up for July 4th deadline.
So we’ll see if they can actually meet that they’re supposed to vote. There’s a lot of debating and back and forth happening in the halls of Congress right now trying to change language. So we’ll keep you guys posted on that
Micah Tomasella: and definitely want to give more detail as that. As that comes, it’s just, it’s been kind of the same update for the last month.
’cause we have talked about this bill quite a bit, but we definitely want to dive into it, especially if it. Does pass by the deadline, or if it doesn’t, we’ll kind of get into the weeds a little bit of you guys, or like what the sticking points are. But it just keeps changing. It’s not worth diving into fully [00:38:00] yet, but literally they’re saying you’re not going home for the July 4th holiday.
You’re not getting a break until this bill passes. So you know a lot at stake here. So let’s see what happens. Okay, we’ve got the New York City mayoral race. So Zoran mandani shocked the political world. By winning the long shot bid to be the Democratic nominee in the mayoral election in November where he is projected to win.
However, if you read a lot of these stories today about this 33-year-old socialist who won. The mayoral spot in New York City. Technically he did not. It’s just, you know, a Democrat going up against a Republican. He’s now the front runner and, and an independent in New York City. Okay. The Democrat’s probably gonna win, and Momani beat out Andrew Cuomo, who was the former New York governor who was backed by establishment Democrats, centrist Democrats, and big donors, and represented.
You know, a lot of what the, the Democratic Party is kind of starting to shift to, but Cuomo had a lot of his own skeletons in the closet. But Mom, [00:39:00] Donny was supported by a OC Bernie Sanders, and he’s pushing a bold, upfront socialist agenda.
Conner Jones: I liked what this one political reporter said on Twitter last night, Sally Goldberg.
She said Cuomo had a universal name id. A $25 million PAC backing him in tons of institutional endorsements. Of course, the just background of being the governor and Menani is a 33-year-old socialist. The magnitude of this election cannot be overstated.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. It’s actually unbelievable. There’s a lot of shock waves.
This is gonna send through the Democratic party as they’re, as they’re searching for an identity. Mm-hmm. Some people might be in the Republican party right now trying to find their own identity too, because they don’t like the way that it’s headed under Trump. So there’s this concept of. The Democrats are like, all right, what’s our play?
How do we beat Trump or MAGA in 2028? Do we swing way far left or do we try to come to the center? I. My guess is, you know, I don’t know, it’s, it’s a tough call ’cause New York City is not gonna represent how most Americans feel. No. So it’s interesting to see what strategy [00:40:00] will come out of this before the Democrats, but I
Conner Jones: think most Americans feel the cost of living is still really high.
And so that’s what he spoke to. And I also think he’s young and he used the internet and social media and TikTok and Twitter and everything to do this campaign. He did. And that reached voters. He ran a good campaign. Some Democrats, no doubt may want to take a page outta that book and get away from establishment style and commercials and stuff.
And. Do this. I mean, this is potentially how Trump won, get on podcasts, be on social, all of that. Also, his policies are just interesting. I mean, he’s venturing into communist territory with, he wants to do $10 billion in new taxes. From corporations and wealthy to support government run grocery stores, rent freezes, and free buses.
Oh yeah. That’s popular to a lot of people who think cost of living is really high, but
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. But that’s got Soviet Union written all over it. Goodness gracious. Yeah. They’re not
Conner Jones: contemplating the actual effects of how that’s gonna happen, anyways. We’ll keep tabs on that. That election is in November, and if he becomes mayor, it’s gonna be interesting.
Another thing happening this weekend. Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, richest couple in the world, or third richest, maybe second, third. They’re getting married in Venice. It’s got a lot of protests going on. Anyways, it’s gonna be a [00:41:00] who’s who of who’s there, so I’m sure we’ll see Lots of images on social media this weekend with Leo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Kim Kardashian, Oprah.
Orlando Bloom, Ivanka Trump, all these celebrities, big politicians, big business people, they’re all gonna be there. Micah, get this. The estimates suggest that this wedding may cost between 64 and $76 million.
Micah Tomasella: Trump change for Bezos. Man. Chump change for Bezos. Man, what an unbelievable story because you know, there’s, you know, like you said, there are a lot of protests happening there of how it’s just like taking over the entire city.
But yeah, I mean, this has been a big story just for a wedding, but you know what? You spend that much money on it, I guess you’re probably hoping. That it’s a big story. Okay, last thing. Cooper flagged to the Mavs with the number one pick. So the Dallas Mavericks, we talked about this before, got the number one pick in the NBA draft.
We’re again recording on Wednesday morning, June 25th. The draft will happen tonight, so when this episode releases, everybody knows where the picks will fall. It’s a foregone conclusion that the Mavericks are going to draft Cooper flag. But this is a big [00:42:00] turnaround, a big glimmer of hope for the Dallas Mavericks who mm-hmm.
Nico Harrison and the entire organization were dragged through the mud after they traded a generational superstar and broke all of our hearts in Luca Donit. So the NBA draft is tonight, will know the results. By the time, and even the episode, even Kyrie released,
Conner Jones: already resigned. Now he’s back. He’s gonna stick with the Mavs too.
He, he exactly did Playing with Flag. A lot of people do exactly. And Kevin Durant now in Houston. So we got all these big stars hanging out in Texas. Yep. Anyways. Yep. Guys, thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode of The Culture Brief dentist and Forum podcast. All the articles, any social posts that we mentioned, everything will be linked in the show notes.
If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe, rate, review, and share with a friend, and go vote on our polls, and we will see you next Thursday. See you soon.
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