Iran Sends A Message
Will Iran’s warning shot be heard round the world? Or will the Deep State continue its escalation?
Last night Iran launched ballistic missile attacks against targets in both Syria and Iraq. Here’s a summary from MoA:
I’ll quote portions of the intro and the conclusion:
Hamas in Gaza successfully attacked invading Israeli forces. Even yesterday it still launched missiles from north Gaza towards Israel. Hizbullah in Lebanon attacked Israel on its border. Iraqi resistance groups attacked U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq. The Houthi in Yemen attacked ships related to Israel.
The U.S./Israel axis escalated from there. Israel killed Hamas officials who openly lived in Beirut. It also killed an IRGC official in Syria and a Hizbullah official in Lebanon. The U.S. bombed the Houthi as well as resistance groups in Iraq and Syria. An ISIS attack, likely instigated by the U.S., killed some 100 people in Kerman, Iran.
…
Last night Iran itself finally joined in. It fired ballistic missiles from Iran on two far away targets. The headquarter of the ISIS related Turkestan Islamic Party in Idleb, Syria, was destroyed. A headquarter of al-Qaeda aligned Hayad Tahrir al-Sham was also hit.
Another barrage of missiles came down (vid) in the city of Erbil in the Kurdish north of Iraq. The house of Peshraw Dizayee, a rich Kurdish businessman, was hit and destroyed. Dizayee did a lot of business with the U.S. and was involved in selling oil from the Kurdish region of Iraq through Turkey to Israel. Iran claims that his house was used as a base for the Israeli Mossad. That is at least plausible.
The shortest trajectory from Iran to Idleb in Syria is at least 1,200 kilometers. Iran thus demonstrated that it can reliably hit targets at that distance. The missiles used, named Khaybar Shekan, have a top reach of 1,450 kilometers.
These attacks are a warning to Israel and the U.S. Iran has shown that it can hit all of Israel with well targeted attacks without having to deploy any soldiers abroad.
Should Iran be attacked, it has the will and the means to respond in kind.
This map brings the significance of the missile strike into high relief:
The claimed Mossad center in Erbil is in northern Iraq, Kurdistan—not as far off as Syria, but still a considerable distance. Notably, the strike utilized 24 missiles, with a great degree of accuracy:
The mossad centre that the IRGC targeted in Erbil last night. Iran used 24 ballistic missiles in total in his attacks last night.
But, this as well via Megatron today …
Iran is now striking terrorist Headquarters inside Pakistan with ballistic missiles
Jaish Ul Adl headquarters were hit and destroyed by ballistic missiles and drones
Two bases belonging to the terrorist group Jaish Ul-Adl in Balochestan were destroyed, reports of heavy casualties
The Sunni Terrorist Group operating in Pakistan which Iran has struck, has conducted several Attacks and Suicide Bombings against the Iranian Military and is Designated a Terrorist Organization by not just Iran, but also Japan, New Zealand, and the United States.
For anyone interested, Balochistan is a restive (understatement alert) region spanning parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The population is ~20 million. It’s considered a strategic region because of its deep water port of Gwadar (in Pakistan). Gwadar was a backwater, so to speak, until this century. Now there's an international airport being built there.
Given that Iran and Pakistan conducted joint naval drills in the Persian Gulf today, we can safely assumed that Pakistan—despite condemning the strike—was actually OK with it. The fact is, the Balochis are rather like the Kurds, although less numerous—they have no nation of their own and have long waged insurgencies against the nation states that control their region. The real meaning of the Iranian strike could be that Iran is determined to strike at any terrorists (and foreign supporters) operating against them. Thus, it’s interesting to note that in the past the Balochis have sought Israeli and US aid. While that gambit appears to have ended in about 2015, one wonders how quickly it could be resurrected?
You might be wondering, Why would Israel get involved in Balochistan, of all places? The answer is simple enough. The Israeli survival strategy is to keep the entire region in turmoil, to prevent it from uniting against Israel. Create chaos. Only it appears to be backfiring as, for the first time in memory, Sunnis and Shias are uniting—against Israel. Balochistan? There’s a restless Balochi minority in Iran, so of course. Iraq? There’s a restless Kurdish minority in Iran, so Mossad activity next door in Iraqi Kurdistan is a no-brainer. Megatron, rightly, suggests that Azerbaijan (yes, there’s a large Azerbaijani minority in Iran, strategically located) will be taking notice of Iran’s missile strikes—Azerbaijan (a Turkic nation) is a hotbed of Mossad, MI6, and CIA activity. Hmmm. An Iranian attack on Mossad in Azerbaijan could put Erdogan in a difficult position. Does all this sound familiar?
In the real world it isn’t nearly so funny as it was on TV.
So, anyone interested in a regional war? It appears to be developing, and could shut down most energy flow from the Middle East to the rest of the world. Doug Macgregor, for one, sees escalation sooner rather than later. He also states flatly that the Neocons very much want war with Iran and laments the fact that Austin is one of the few who has been warning that the US simply doesn’t have the ability to wage and win such a war. He also repeats that Israel is its own worst enemy and is in a no-win position—it has set in motion things that are nearly impossible to stop. Escalation, which Israel appears to be seeking, will only make everything worse. But no one seems to be looking for a way out. In the meantime, just in case, Iran appears to have finally got serious about nukes—own goal Israel! You can hear Macgregor talking about all that for 45 minutes here:
You can get a taste of what’s on his mind in the last 5:30 minutes here:
No oil first. And pretty soon no chips. The flow of semiconductors will stop in the spring when China takes care of their Taiwan problem. The U.S. is in no position to stop them at this point. So much for that soft landing Powell was bragging about.
Obviously the U.S. should go seize another tanker full of Iranian oil.