Ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls US strikes on Iran a ‘shot in the arm' for American credibility
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States and Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities are a significant moment for the Middle East and a sign of bolstered American credibility on the global stage.
Rice joined 'Special Report' on Thursday after the United States struck three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, praising the American military and Israeli forces for their accomplishments.
'We will eventually know precisely how much the Iranian program was damaged, but I think all of the evidence is that it was substantially, significantly damaged to the place that, for a while at least, it will be hard to build a nuclear weapon,' she said.
Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites were hit early Sunday morning by US B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles as part of Operation Midnight Hammer.
The B-2 bombers flew for 37 hours non-stop from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to drop 12 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Fordow and two on Natanz.
4 A poster of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is displayed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hold a news conference at the Pentagon on June 26, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Getty Images
More than two dozen cruise missiles were also launched at Isfahan from a US submarine.
Top Trump administration officials have maintained the 'obliteration' of Iran's nuclear program in the days following the strikes despite questions regarding the whereabouts of the Islamic Republic's highly enriched uranium.
'President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history. And it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12 Day War,' said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Thursday press briefing at the Pentagon.
4 Ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Fox News
4 President Donald Trump gestures after arriving on Air Force One, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md.
AP
'There's been a lot of discussion about what happened and what didn't happen. Step back for a second. Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities.'
Rice told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that she believes the US strikes set Iran's nuclear program back significantly.
She criticized a leaked, 'low-confidence' preliminary intelligence assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency — which claimed President Donald Trump's strikes did not destroy key components of Iran's nuclear facilities — as 'irresponsible.'
4 The Pentagon released jaw-dropping footage showcasing how the 30,000-pound heavy-duty bunker buster bombs that were used against Iran successfully demolished fortified targets deep underground.
Department of Defense
'When you look at what the Israelis were able to do to Hezbollah, what they were able to do to Hamas — the significant efforts against the Iranian military establishment, against scientists. This really is a now-crippled Iran, and a crippled Iran is good for the region,' the Stanford professor explained.
The Trump administration is pushing for diplomatic talks with the Iranians following Operation Midnight Hammer, but Rice argued she has no doubts that the Iranian regime isn't interested in peace, given its 'legitimacy' is based on destroying Israel.
'We've had 46 years of the Iranians destabilizing the region, killing Americans. We've had 46 years of their proxies holding terror against Israel, against Iraq, against the people of the Middle East. So, no, they don't want peace,' she said.
The former Bush official added that the US strikes were a 'shot in the arm for American credibility' on the global stage following former President Joe Biden's 'disastrous' withdrawal from Afghanistan.
'Credibility is not something that you establish one day and then you sort of dial it in and say it's done. We have to keep establishing that the United States is going to try and shape the international system, not just be a victim of it,' Rice said. 'But what's happened in the last couple of days is very, very good for American credibility.'
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USA Today
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The number of manufacturing establishments in the U.S. increased by more than 11% between the first quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2023, according to a 2024 report from Deloitte. Despite the growth, manufacturing jobs have remained essentially flat since 2019, discounting a pandemic-era dip. That's partially due to automation; factories today need fewer workers. But nearly half of manufacturers say attracting and retaining talent has been a major challenge, according to a first-quarter survey from the National Association of Manufacturers. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows there were 381,000 manufacturing job openings as of April. By 2033, manufacturing could have 1.9 million unfilled jobs – roughly half of open positions – due to a skills and applicant gap, according to Deloitte. 'We absolutely do not have enough people ready to take these jobs,' said Rachel Sederberg, senior economist at Lightcast. 'That is going to be a very significant challenge if more and more manufacturing – or more and more of anything – comes back to the U.S.' One issue is that manufacturing workers are aging out of the workforce. Just over one-third of manufacturing employees in the U.S. are 55 or older and nearing retirement, according to a recent report from Lightcast, which is expected to make the shortage even more acute. And attracting new talent to backfill these positions hasn't been easy. As factories turn to more automation, manufacturers say they're having trouble finding talent with the right skillset to manage the more advanced technology. 'Not every manufacturing job today requires a degree, but every single manufacturing job today requires skills,' said Carolyn Lee, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute, a nonprofit focused on workforce development and education within the industry. Lee said obtaining those skills can take anywhere from a day or two for a forklift certification to up to four years of education and apprenticeship programs for maintenance technicians, one of the most in-demand manufacturing jobs today. There are some signs of renewed interest in trade jobs. Enrollment in public two-year institutions that focus on vocational programs was up 14% year-over-year in 2024, outpacing the 3% growth in public four-year schools, according to a May 12 Wells Fargo report. But Lightcast found there are still not enough students learning relevant skills to keep up with job demand. For instance, there were just 400 machinist program completions in Texas in 2023 compared to roughly 16,000 related job openings in the state. Research suggests manufacturing's reputation as dirty and dangerous has made the industry less appealing to younger Americans, especially amid a period of low unemployment. The Deloitte report says 'a different set of expectations' among millennial and Generation Z workers, many of whom were pushed to go to college instead of working in the trades, has made it difficult for manufacturers to attract and retain workers. 'The consensus among American manufacturers is this generation of Americans just don't want these jobs anymore," said Qian of Northwestern. Fear of lower wages may also be keeping workers away. Manufacturing work today can pay well, and some research finds it tends to pay better than other sectors that don't require college degrees. But as of 2018, the average hourly earnings for manufacturing employees fall short of average overall employee earnings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What kind of jobs would more manufacturing create? There's a reason so many American companies rely on factories abroad; operating in the U.S. tends to be more expensive. For one, labor costs are higher. Take the average annual machine operator salary, which is nearly $45,000 in the U.S. compared to $15,000 in China and less than $5,000 in Vietnam, according to the Reshoring Institute, a nonprofit that supports expanded U.S. manufacturing. And tariffs are expected to hike production costs for many domestic manufacturers, since companies will need to pay more for inputs shipped in from other countries. That could leave manufacturers increasingly turning toward automation to trim costs. 'If you need to pay anyone you employ as a factory worker an average of $36 an hour with benefits, then you are inclined to hire very few of them and instead buy automated equipment and robots,' said Farok Contractor, a professor at Rutgers' management and global business department. Winton of Winton Machine said she's already seeing an increased demand for automation from her company, which designs and produces factory automation for manufacturers in HVAC, aerospace, construction and other industries. Winton still expects to see jobs created if manufacturing gets a boost through tariffs. She just believes automation will allow fewer, high-quality positions as opposed to a large influx of manual labor. Already, manufacturing is relying on more college-educated workers; nearly 32% of civilian manufacturing workers had at least a bachelor's degree in 2023, up from 22% in 2006, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey data. 'I need the people to build all the parts and pieces and the engineers to design and the software to build this factory automation,' Winton said. 'I think we have the people. Do we have the skillset? That's the question.'
