Haaretz: “The Iranian Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that the large number of U.S. military bases in the region will make it hard for the American forces to entirely evade Iran’s expected retaliatory strike.”

From a statement: “Washington has positioned itself directly on the frontlines.”

Matthew Duss and Sohrab Ahmari: “Attacks on U.S. bases would require the United States to respond in kind. And there we’d have it: another big Mideast war, unfolding amid the American public’s exhaustion with wars in the region. … And yet another generation of U.S. service members would devote their lives to unnecessary conflict.”

New York Times: “Iran could slowly recover, its surviving nuclear scientists could take their skills underground and the country could follow the pathway lit by North Korea, with a race to build a bomb.”

“Today, North Korea has 60 or more nuclear weapons by some intelligence estimates, an arsenal that likely makes it too powerful to attack. That, Iran may conclude, is the only pathway to keep larger, hostile powers at bay, and to prevent the United States and Israel from carrying out an operation like the one that lit up the Iranian skies on Sunday morning.”

Playbook: “In the run-up to the war in Iraq, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked in 2002 whether there was any evidence that Saddam Hussein’s government was actually attempting to supply terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. His response was evasive but memorable.”

Said Rumsfeld: “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”

“Now, one generation later, the U.S. is again in an undeclared war in the Middle East. Much about it is very different — more on that in a moment. But right now, the known unknowns vastly outnumber the known knowns, while the unknown unknowns lurk around the corner.”

“Saturday morning, flight trackers picked up a host of stealthy U.S. B-2 bombers that took off from their Air Force base in Missouri and headed west over the Pacific. It was a ruse,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Hours later, a group of B-2s attacked Iran’s most important nuclear sites from the east, defense officials said, hitting well-defended facilities where giant U.S. bunker busters were thought to have the greatest chance of success. President Trump said U.S. submarines firing cruise missiles joined in the attack, striking other key nuclear facilities.”

“A federal judge issued a new order that allows Harvard University to continue enrolling foreign students while the school fights the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent it from doing so,” Bloomberg reports.

“US District Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard a preliminary injunction Friday that prevents the Trump administration from implementing a May 22 order revoking the university’s ability to host international students. The injunction extends an earlier temporary bar that was set to expire.”

“President Donald Trump’s decision Saturday to strike Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities was an extraordinary bet that he could eliminate a nuclear program that has bedeviled multiple presidents while avoiding another long-running Middle East conflict of the sort he and his supporters have long denounced,” the Washington Post reports.

“What happens next will have profound consequences for his presidency. If Iran is sufficiently weakened that it cannot meaningfully retaliate, Trump will have delivered a blow against a longtime adversary that will send a message to China, Russia and other global rivals that he will not shy from using military power when necessary.”

“But if Iran does not agree to peace on Trump’s terms, the president’s vow that ‘there are many targets left’ opened the door to a much deeper and potentially longer conflict. Already, that prospect is angering some members of his political base.”

“The U.S. bombers that attacked Iran’s nuclear sites dropped GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, bunker-busting bombs designed to destroy hardened underground targets, for the first time in warfare,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A dozen of the bombs were dropped on the Fordow enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain, and another two were used against the enrichment site at Natanz, a defense official said. Tomahawk cruise missiles also were fired from submarines at Natanz and Isfahan, the official said. The U.S. was known to have produced around 20 of the giant munitions.”

“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

— President Trump, in a statement at the White House announcing air strikes against Iran.

President Trump announced that the United States has completed a “very successful attack” on nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, CNN reports.

Said Trump: “We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.“

New York Times: “The three sites that Mr. Trump said were hit on Saturday night included Iran’s two major uranium enrichment centers the mountain facility at Fordo and a larger enrichment plant at Natanz, which Israel struck several days ago with smaller weapons. The third site, near the ancient city of Isfahan, is where Iran is believed to keep its near-bomb-grade enriched uranium, which inspectors saw just two weeks ago.”

The president will address the nation at 10 p.m. ET.

“Israeli officials have told the Trump administration they do not want to wait two weeks for Iran to reach a deal to dismantle key parts of its nuclear program and Israel could act alone before the deadline is up,” Reuters reports.

“Multiple U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers appeared to be airborne and heading west from the United States across the Pacific, and President Trump is scheduled to return to the White House late on Saturday afternoon from New Jersey as he deliberates about whether to join Israel’s efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites,” the New York Times reports.

“Air traffic control communications indicated that several B-2 aircraft — the planes that could be equipped to carry the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs that Mr. Trump is considering deploying against Iran’s underground nuclear facilities in Fordo — had taken off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.”

Wall Street Journal: “Officials said there had been no order given to ready a B-2 strike. The flights could also help pressure Iran amid efforts to resolve the standoff diplomatically.”