But what? It seems to concern Iran. Reports and speculation here and here.
Comments
Something’s afoot in the Middle East — 36 Comments
This news is disconcerting. But not entirely surprising, given the evil nature of the Iranian leadership.
It’s said that Trump has been presented with plans to take out Iran’s nuke infrastructure.
I should hope. Having plans is part of the Pentagon’s job, and requiring lower units to have plans which fit into the Big One is also a job. And Iran’s nukes have been an issue long enough to put together a planning office.
I’d be disappointed to find there wasn’t one for an alien invasion.
Doesn’t always happen. Grenada was an ad hoc job. I had a buddy who went to the Dom Rep in, iirc, 62. Airborne. Said their first objectives were the gas stations for the map s.
During WW II, we had a full time planning staff getting ready to invade Spain should Hitler move in or Franco throw in with the Germans. Kept changing as assets became available and then not.
Still, suggesting a planning staff for, say, Grenada, just in case, might not have looked like a good career move.
All of which being said, of course we have a plan and have had for some time. Of course it would be shown to Trump. The phrasing of the report makes it seem as if it were the military’s idea to bring Trump up to speed. Be surprised if Trump hadn’t said “show me what you have”, and that some time ago. Like as soon after the election as eligible.
It’s said that Trump has been presented with plans to take out Iran’s nuke infrastructure.
I should hope. Having plans is part of the Pentagon’s job, and requiring lower units to have plans which fit into the Big One is also a job. And Iran’s nukes have been an issue long enough to put together a planning office.
I’d be disappointed to find there wasn’t one for an alien invasion.
Doesn’t always happen. Grenada was an ad hoc job. I had a buddy who went to the Dom Rep in, iirc, 62. Airborne. Said their first objectives were the gasstations for the maps.
During WW II, we had a full time planning staff getting ready to invade Spain should Hitler move in or Franco throw in with the Germans. Kept changing as assets became available and then not.
Still, suggesting a planning staff for, say, Grenada, just in case, might not have looked like a good career move.
All of which being said, of course we have a plan and have had for some time. Of course it would be shown to Trump. The phrasing of the report makes it seem as if it were the military’s idea to bring Trump up to speed. Be surprised if Trump hadn’t said “show me what you have”, and that some time ago. Like as soon after the election as eligible.
Take off for the Islamic Republic.
Take a detour—“turbulence”, perhaps—and treat Qatar to some serious quid pro quo….
(And damn it, Huxley.
Why are you giving away the name of the operation???)
This could be twofold:
1) Actual preparation for a military strike, and
2) In parallel, a show of intent to Iran to push the negotiations along which seem to be faltering.
Very interesting tweet about the Pizza index.
On days with long nights expected, a lot more pizza is ordered.
Pizza places around the Pentagon report lots of pizza orders.
See instapundit for links.
Israel would have moved by now if they had the munitions to penetrate the underground complexes Iran is using to enrich their uranium. They don’t. The U.S. does.
Israel destroyed Iran’s air defense hubs on October 30 of last year, a week before Donald Trump was elected. That was a clear statement that Trump had options regarding Iran. Now there are 6 stealth bombers at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Those are the platforms for the bunker busting deep penetrator bombs we would use.
Israel might contribute to a strike, but the work would get done by our aircraft.
Also, this is the kind of warfighting this country is good at. Precision air strikes with superior weaponry. Considering the state of Iran’s internal tension, boots on the ground will probably not be necessary. De-fang the mullahs and the Iranian people will likely do the rest.
That’s best case, though. We are probably looking at a few massacres before the mullahs give up. Still, there is hope for Iran to cease being a criminal state.
but then you face asymmetrical challenges, as j e dyer notes some of their missile capacity has been crippled but not all, the bases all along the gulf from manama in Bahrain south to Muscat, are likely under threat, of course there is the wildcard of Al Udeid in Doha, the hudna with the Houthis hasn’t earned great success, then there is our still depleted strategic reserve and the vulnerability of the main oil refineries and pumping station in the kingdom, as we saw in 2018, our production capacity could out weigh a strike then, but now,
“. . . then you face asymmetrical challenges . . .”
“Then” implies a bit of stuff, no?
I mean the plain case is we already face asymmetrical difficulties issuing from Iran, the mullahs, the IRGC, etc., and have done for many decades now. They export “revolution” and they’re in no way ashamed to tell us so. We don’t need to do anything extra to invoke asymmetrical challenges.
On the other hand, what of the effects of the mere threat of Iranian nuclear-weapons employment? How much more potent are these asymmetrical operations come that situation?
So a strategic ordering seems to be advised. Horses before carts, so to speak.
I have been on the complement of two American Embassies that were talking about quick evacuation. There are a lot of considerations for individuals and families when the subject is brought up: what can we take with us if it’s an emergency evacuation? What happens to the stuff we leave behind? Household effects, private vehicle, etc. What about household staff — what do we owe them considering we are not giving them a month’s notice? Who can get on the plane? (See note at end of this post.). What about pets — can we take them, or do we have to leave them behind, and if the latter, will they be taken care of? And on and on.
When you’re in the pecking order, you just ask your boss and s/he’s supposed to have answers. When you’re at the top of the pecking order, as I was on occasion, you’re supposed to have answers. In the days before good telephone links, asking the State Department for guidance on these questions usually entailed a wait of several days for answers.
About who can get on the plane: I was in charge of embassy in a small African country when the SHTF. State offered us emergency evacuation if we wanted it, but there would be a three-day wait if we wanted USNavy evacuation, one day if the Air Force was going to fly in and pick us up. Families talk to their friends and neighbors, so if we begin to contemplate an emergency evacuation, word gets around the diplomatic community and the calls begin coming in: can you take six British embassy staff and their dependents? And so on.
The most surprising was the call I received from the Russian Ambassador (this was in 1976.). “Please take me and my staff if you decide to evacuate.” Rightie-O. We’re not exactly allies, you know. But I didn’t say that. I just said “I’ll pass your request up the chain of command.” Russians understand that kind of talk.
In another African country the embassy imported enough poison to put down all our pets (more or less.). I took a vial because I didn’t want to leave our dog to her own devices if we had to jump on a plane. A year later it came time for us to rotate out without ever having had to use the vial of poison, but our dog was suffering the throes of terminal cancer, so I used it to give her a humane end and buried her in the back yard. It was mercifully quick and quiet.
F:
I do appreciate a solid personal account of a world behind the scenes.
I was stationed in Germany in the late 80s, and held an Emergency Essential DA Civilian position. My wife, however, did not and would have been evacuated if the balloon had gone up. We had an Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO, no relationship to our host here) that we sorta practiced occasionally. According to Wiki, “According to United States Military Joint Publication 3-68, Noncombatant Evacuation Operations: ‘Noncombatant evacuation operations (NEOs) are conducted to assist the Department of State (DOS) in evacuating noncombatants, nonessential military personnel, selected host-nation citizens, and third country nationals whose lives are in danger from locations in a host foreign nation to an appropriate safe haven and/or the United States.
‘NEOs usually involve swift insertions of a force, temporary occupation of an objective, and a planned withdrawal upon completion of the mission.
‘During NEOs, the US Ambassador is the senior authority for the evacuation and is ultimately responsible for the successful completion of the NEO and the safety of the evacuees. The Ambassador speaks with the authority of the President and serves as direct representative on site.”‘
I assume something like that has been activated.
Waidmann
Concerning developments.
Thanks to other commenters on their experiences while being stationed overseas. Very interesting. I had a job for a while that required a fairly significant amount of international travel to many locations, some better than others. We had one meeting canceled at the last moment because of unfortunate developments in that country, and I was quite happy that the meeting was relocated. This is as close as I came to the situations described herein – which is not very close! Of course, immediate concern is increased based on what little we are hearing in the news. Hope nothing serious is going on.
Israel Update with Mike and Gadi, “War With Iran?” (1:22:24 — longer than usual I might add): https://youtu.be/Ah2F4G5X0qA
Let’s take a for-instance: When Iran gets functioning nuclear weapons, they are guaranteed to use them.
What do we do now?
Maybe it’s time to dust off the Rods from God and put another one on deposit. Didn’t Trump give them a taste of this during his first administration? IIRC, it seemed to rather abruptly change the direction of activities then.
Richard Kemp:
Here in Israel an extreme alert has been issued across the country in preparation for potential retaliation as Israel launches pre-emptive strike against Iran. Explosions reported in Tehran.
Unconfirmed reports of explosions heard in Tehran, #Iran. Unconfirmed video circulating on Telegram below. #Israel has declared an emergency situation, with the defense minister saying that Israel conducted a preemptive strike in Iran.
Israeli minister of defense Israel Katz – “Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future”
The IDF launched a preemptive, precise, combined offensive to strike Iran’s nuclear program.
Dozens of IAF jets completed the first stage that included strikes on dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.
Today, Iran is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the wider world.
The State of Israel has no choice but to fulfill the obligation to act in defense of its citizens and will continue to do so everywhere it is required to do so, as we have done in the past.
The White House: Statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
Report: Iran’s Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri has been eliminated.
If this is true, Israeli penetration of Iran’s government spaces apparently has not diminished. Recall all the nuclear documents smuggled back to Israel and all the Iranian or Hamas honchos in Tehran that Israel has assassinated.
I suspect that the UN “revealing” now that Iran has been violating nuclear norms is to further delay things—think of the time involved in getting a UN inspection going— and give Iran more time to move things. One reason for Israel’s striking now is to insure Iran will have no more time to move nuclear things around. On the other hand, Iran may have already moved a lot of nuclear stuff.
A UN inspection of Iran will work as well as the UN did in keeping southern Lebanon disarmed.
The decapitation strikes appear fairly far-reaching in Teheran, if the video evidence of descending missiles isn’t fake. Looks like high ranking politicians, military leaders and nuke scientists were targeted, more or less simultaneously with what strikes on nuclear installations and ballistic missile sites Israel could achieve. The bombing/rocketing campaign appears to be set to go on for days now, and who knows what all israeli ground force teams are in place inside Iran already.
I’d be tickled should the Azerbis have decided to go all in and both let Israel use Azerbaijani airbases as well as seizing the Azerbi majority populated northwestern Iranian territories. But the probability of any of that is quite low, not to say impossible.
@EricLDaugh
BREAKING: The ENTIRE Iranian general staff, including the head of the general staff of the military and several senior Iranian nuclear scientists “ALL eliminated” tonight, intel suggests.
Israel says it ran several deception operations for this result.
The mullahs have been making their intentions very clear pretty consistently now over the past…um, how many decades?
“We will never relinquish our absolute right to develop nuclear power for strictly civilian purposes…” (which is why, of course, their development sites are situated inside “impregnable” mountains.)
To be sure, what they don’t say is that, for them, “civilian purposes” means, among other things, the destruction of the Zionist Entity (TM).
So who’s the next-in-line Pahlavi?
Some pundits opine that Israel merely wants to help break the logjam impeding the “talks” between the mullahs and the Americans, so that those “talks” can, somehow be “encouraged” to get back “on track”.
Yep, always willing to help…
ToI:
The top Democrat on the US Senate Armed Services Committee sharply criticizes key US ally Israel for its strikes on Iran, accusing it of putting the region and American forces at risk.
“Israel’s alarming decision to launch airstrikes on Iran is a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said in a statement.
Could be this isn’t the 20% in an 80/20 issue, but I seriously doubt it’s anywhere close to a 51% side needed in a simple majority — over against ordinary Americans’ views. Leave it to the Dems these days to find the ass end of every question.
Ben Shapiro has an excellent live show on the attack.
* The leaked info that Israel wanted to attack Iran week ago was a feint. The idea was to lull Iran into believing that Israel wouldn’t attack so soon because Iran would be on its guard. Tricky.
* Israel expects to degrade Iran’s nuclear program by 18-24 months. However, Trump remains steadfast that Iran will not get the bomb. If he sees Iran is spinning up its nuclear program again, he has the leverage on Iran that the US could finish the job.
* The current attack and the decapitation of so many senior leaders might embolden the Iranian people to regime change.
* Trump gave Iran a deadline of two months to settle this by negotiation. Today was Day 61 after that deadline.
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This news is disconcerting. But not entirely surprising, given the evil nature of the Iranian leadership.
It’s said that Trump has been presented with plans to take out Iran’s nuke infrastructure.
I should hope. Having plans is part of the Pentagon’s job, and requiring lower units to have plans which fit into the Big One is also a job. And Iran’s nukes have been an issue long enough to put together a planning office.
I’d be disappointed to find there wasn’t one for an alien invasion.
Doesn’t always happen. Grenada was an ad hoc job. I had a buddy who went to the Dom Rep in, iirc, 62. Airborne. Said their first objectives were the gas stations for the map s.
During WW II, we had a full time planning staff getting ready to invade Spain should Hitler move in or Franco throw in with the Germans. Kept changing as assets became available and then not.
Still, suggesting a planning staff for, say, Grenada, just in case, might not have looked like a good career move.
All of which being said, of course we have a plan and have had for some time. Of course it would be shown to Trump. The phrasing of the report makes it seem as if it were the military’s idea to bring Trump up to speed. Be surprised if Trump hadn’t said “show me what you have”, and that some time ago. Like as soon after the election as eligible.
It’s said that Trump has been presented with plans to take out Iran’s nuke infrastructure.
I should hope. Having plans is part of the Pentagon’s job, and requiring lower units to have plans which fit into the Big One is also a job. And Iran’s nukes have been an issue long enough to put together a planning office.
I’d be disappointed to find there wasn’t one for an alien invasion.
Doesn’t always happen. Grenada was an ad hoc job. I had a buddy who went to the Dom Rep in, iirc, 62. Airborne. Said their first objectives were the gasstations for the maps.
During WW II, we had a full time planning staff getting ready to invade Spain should Hitler move in or Franco throw in with the Germans. Kept changing as assets became available and then not.
Still, suggesting a planning staff for, say, Grenada, just in case, might not have looked like a good career move.
All of which being said, of course we have a plan and have had for some time. Of course it would be shown to Trump. The phrasing of the report makes it seem as if it were the military’s idea to bring Trump up to speed. Be surprised if Trump hadn’t said “show me what you have”, and that some time ago. Like as soon after the election as eligible.
Ba-ba-ba ba Barbara Ann
–“The Beach Boys – Barbara Ann (Official Music Video)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wvx14Qv9cg
Take off for the Islamic Republic.
Take a detour—“turbulence”, perhaps—and treat Qatar to some serious quid pro quo….
(And damn it, Huxley.
Why are you giving away the name of the operation???)
This could be twofold:
1) Actual preparation for a military strike, and
2) In parallel, a show of intent to Iran to push the negotiations along which seem to be faltering.
Very interesting tweet about the Pizza index.
On days with long nights expected, a lot more pizza is ordered.
Pizza places around the Pentagon report lots of pizza orders.
See instapundit for links.
Israel would have moved by now if they had the munitions to penetrate the underground complexes Iran is using to enrich their uranium. They don’t. The U.S. does.
Israel destroyed Iran’s air defense hubs on October 30 of last year, a week before Donald Trump was elected. That was a clear statement that Trump had options regarding Iran. Now there are 6 stealth bombers at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Those are the platforms for the bunker busting deep penetrator bombs we would use.
Israel might contribute to a strike, but the work would get done by our aircraft.
Also, this is the kind of warfighting this country is good at. Precision air strikes with superior weaponry. Considering the state of Iran’s internal tension, boots on the ground will probably not be necessary. De-fang the mullahs and the Iranian people will likely do the rest.
That’s best case, though. We are probably looking at a few massacres before the mullahs give up. Still, there is hope for Iran to cease being a criminal state.
but then you face asymmetrical challenges, as j e dyer notes some of their missile capacity has been crippled but not all, the bases all along the gulf from manama in Bahrain south to Muscat, are likely under threat, of course there is the wildcard of Al Udeid in Doha, the hudna with the Houthis hasn’t earned great success, then there is our still depleted strategic reserve and the vulnerability of the main oil refineries and pumping station in the kingdom, as we saw in 2018, our production capacity could out weigh a strike then, but now,
“. . . then you face asymmetrical challenges . . .”
“Then” implies a bit of stuff, no?
I mean the plain case is we already face asymmetrical difficulties issuing from Iran, the mullahs, the IRGC, etc., and have done for many decades now. They export “revolution” and they’re in no way ashamed to tell us so. We don’t need to do anything extra to invoke asymmetrical challenges.
On the other hand, what of the effects of the mere threat of Iranian nuclear-weapons employment? How much more potent are these asymmetrical operations come that situation?
So a strategic ordering seems to be advised. Horses before carts, so to speak.
Tom I just saw that tweet too.
https://x.com/digijordan/status/1932908970722607537?t=Pu3fI4vKPglF1DJJjddggQ&s=19
Going to be an interesting summer…
I have been on the complement of two American Embassies that were talking about quick evacuation. There are a lot of considerations for individuals and families when the subject is brought up: what can we take with us if it’s an emergency evacuation? What happens to the stuff we leave behind? Household effects, private vehicle, etc. What about household staff — what do we owe them considering we are not giving them a month’s notice? Who can get on the plane? (See note at end of this post.). What about pets — can we take them, or do we have to leave them behind, and if the latter, will they be taken care of? And on and on.
When you’re in the pecking order, you just ask your boss and s/he’s supposed to have answers. When you’re at the top of the pecking order, as I was on occasion, you’re supposed to have answers. In the days before good telephone links, asking the State Department for guidance on these questions usually entailed a wait of several days for answers.
About who can get on the plane: I was in charge of embassy in a small African country when the SHTF. State offered us emergency evacuation if we wanted it, but there would be a three-day wait if we wanted USNavy evacuation, one day if the Air Force was going to fly in and pick us up. Families talk to their friends and neighbors, so if we begin to contemplate an emergency evacuation, word gets around the diplomatic community and the calls begin coming in: can you take six British embassy staff and their dependents? And so on.
The most surprising was the call I received from the Russian Ambassador (this was in 1976.). “Please take me and my staff if you decide to evacuate.” Rightie-O. We’re not exactly allies, you know. But I didn’t say that. I just said “I’ll pass your request up the chain of command.” Russians understand that kind of talk.
In another African country the embassy imported enough poison to put down all our pets (more or less.). I took a vial because I didn’t want to leave our dog to her own devices if we had to jump on a plane. A year later it came time for us to rotate out without ever having had to use the vial of poison, but our dog was suffering the throes of terminal cancer, so I used it to give her a humane end and buried her in the back yard. It was mercifully quick and quiet.
F:
I do appreciate a solid personal account of a world behind the scenes.
I was stationed in Germany in the late 80s, and held an Emergency Essential DA Civilian position. My wife, however, did not and would have been evacuated if the balloon had gone up. We had an Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO, no relationship to our host here) that we sorta practiced occasionally. According to Wiki, “According to United States Military Joint Publication 3-68, Noncombatant Evacuation Operations: ‘Noncombatant evacuation operations (NEOs) are conducted to assist the Department of State (DOS) in evacuating noncombatants, nonessential military personnel, selected host-nation citizens, and third country nationals whose lives are in danger from locations in a host foreign nation to an appropriate safe haven and/or the United States.
‘NEOs usually involve swift insertions of a force, temporary occupation of an objective, and a planned withdrawal upon completion of the mission.
‘During NEOs, the US Ambassador is the senior authority for the evacuation and is ultimately responsible for the successful completion of the NEO and the safety of the evacuees. The Ambassador speaks with the authority of the President and serves as direct representative on site.”‘
I assume something like that has been activated.
Waidmann
Concerning developments.
Thanks to other commenters on their experiences while being stationed overseas. Very interesting. I had a job for a while that required a fairly significant amount of international travel to many locations, some better than others. We had one meeting canceled at the last moment because of unfortunate developments in that country, and I was quite happy that the meeting was relocated. This is as close as I came to the situations described herein – which is not very close! Of course, immediate concern is increased based on what little we are hearing in the news. Hope nothing serious is going on.
Israel Update with Mike and Gadi, “War With Iran?” (1:22:24 — longer than usual I might add): https://youtu.be/Ah2F4G5X0qA
Let’s take a for-instance: When Iran gets functioning nuclear weapons, they are guaranteed to use them.
What do we do now?
Maybe it’s time to dust off the Rods from God and put another one on deposit. Didn’t Trump give them a taste of this during his first administration? IIRC, it seemed to rather abruptly change the direction of activities then.
Richard Kemp:
https://x.com/COLRICHARDKEMP/status/1933315577914761229
David Shor:
https://x.com/DYShor/status/1933314036633854291
Jason Brodsky:
https://x.com/JasonMBrodsky/status/1933314900052390070
John Spencer:
https://x.com/SpencerGuard/status/1933314806188065057
ISRAEL LAUNCHES MULTIPLE STRIKES IN IRAN.
BREAKING: Israel says it’s striking dozens of military targets across Iran, including nuclear sites
https://instapundit.com/725773/
__________________
It’s on.
Pray ’em if you’ve got ’em.
IDF:
https://x.com/IDF/status/1933324595471454495
@FoxNews
BREAKING: Israel launches sweeping strike on Iran while Trump administration seeks diplomatic solution
https://x.com/FoxNews/status/1933323845676449924
________________________________
So it’s Bad Cop / Good Cop?
The White House: Statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1933328486669697508
Netanyahu statement, 7 min video: https://x.com/IsraeliPM/status/1933329728246534596
Israel News Pulse
@israelnewspulse
Report: Iran’s Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri has been eliminated.
https://x.com/israelnewspulse/status/1933323002260738502
____________________________
The news appeared half-hour ago. He’s an important player:
____________________________
–“Major General Mohammad Bagheri: Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces”
https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/major-general-mohammad-bagheri-chief-of-staff-of-irans-armed-forces
Report: Iran’s Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri has been eliminated.
If this is true, Israeli penetration of Iran’s government spaces apparently has not diminished. Recall all the nuclear documents smuggled back to Israel and all the Iranian or Hamas honchos in Tehran that Israel has assassinated.
I suspect that the UN “revealing” now that Iran has been violating nuclear norms is to further delay things—think of the time involved in getting a UN inspection going— and give Iran more time to move things. One reason for Israel’s striking now is to insure Iran will have no more time to move nuclear things around. On the other hand, Iran may have already moved a lot of nuclear stuff.
A UN inspection of Iran will work as well as the UN did in keeping southern Lebanon disarmed.
The decapitation strikes appear fairly far-reaching in Teheran, if the video evidence of descending missiles isn’t fake. Looks like high ranking politicians, military leaders and nuke scientists were targeted, more or less simultaneously with what strikes on nuclear installations and ballistic missile sites Israel could achieve. The bombing/rocketing campaign appears to be set to go on for days now, and who knows what all israeli ground force teams are in place inside Iran already.
Benny Johnson: “Iranian state TV reports that the head of the Revolutionary Guards has been killed.”
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1933340731877314893
Photo at link.
I’d be tickled should the Azerbis have decided to go all in and both let Israel use Azerbaijani airbases as well as seizing the Azerbi majority populated northwestern Iranian territories. But the probability of any of that is quite low, not to say impossible.
@EricLDaugh
BREAKING: The ENTIRE Iranian general staff, including the head of the general staff of the military and several senior Iranian nuclear scientists “ALL eliminated” tonight, intel suggests.
Whoa.
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1933333516323786943
_____________________________
Whoa indeed.
Israel says it ran several deception operations for this result.
The mullahs have been making their intentions very clear pretty consistently now over the past…um, how many decades?
“We will never relinquish our absolute right to develop nuclear power for strictly civilian purposes…” (which is why, of course, their development sites are situated inside “impregnable” mountains.)
To be sure, what they don’t say is that, for them, “civilian purposes” means, among other things, the destruction of the Zionist Entity (TM).
So who’s the next-in-line Pahlavi?
Some pundits opine that Israel merely wants to help break the logjam impeding the “talks” between the mullahs and the Americans, so that those “talks” can, somehow be “encouraged” to get back “on track”.
Yep, always willing to help…
ToI:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/senior-us-democrat-condemns-israels-reckless-escalation-for-iran-strikes/
Could be this isn’t the 20% in an 80/20 issue, but I seriously doubt it’s anywhere close to a 51% side needed in a simple majority — over against ordinary Americans’ views. Leave it to the Dems these days to find the ass end of every question.
Ben Shapiro has an excellent live show on the attack.
–“Breaking News: Israel Hits Iran with Targeted Airstrikes”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLkvaeu7yiU
A few nuggets:
* The leaked info that Israel wanted to attack Iran week ago was a feint. The idea was to lull Iran into believing that Israel wouldn’t attack so soon because Iran would be on its guard. Tricky.
* Israel expects to degrade Iran’s nuclear program by 18-24 months. However, Trump remains steadfast that Iran will not get the bomb. If he sees Iran is spinning up its nuclear program again, he has the leverage on Iran that the US could finish the job.
* The current attack and the decapitation of so many senior leaders might embolden the Iranian people to regime change.
* Trump gave Iran a deadline of two months to settle this by negotiation. Today was Day 61 after that deadline.