Rumors of War

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. 
Mt. 24:6

It's looking like a real war is brewing in the Middle East. It's the long-expected war between Iran and Israel, which Iran will be fighting from a disadvantage because they haven't finished their nuclear program yet. The rocket strikes are ongoing, but ineffective so far; Israel has designated medical facilities and emergency radio frequencies in expectation of a larger barrage. There are no-fly zones in the north. The United States appears to be evacuating our diplomatic personnel, but has deployed 12 additional warships in addition to the carrier group already in the Persian Gulf. 

As mentioned on Wednesday, Iran is throwing away its most effective strategy in favor of a more dangerous but less effective one. It will do more damage in the short term, but it will end the deniability of the proxy war and expose Iran to direct retaliation. Iran is a lot more fragile than it looks, and has only survived this long by avoiding being drawn into a real war.

Coincidentally, Sen. Cotton has opened a probe into Kamala Harris' national security adviser over ties to Iranian networks. Now that's not necessarily anything untoward; it can be helpful for your national security guy to have a backchannel to the people you're worried about. Sometimes you want to talk to them, or hear their perspective. Still, it's the sort of thing that ought to be interrogated, so good for the Senator for pressing them on it. 

8 comments:

Gringo said...

If Iran decides to go to war against Israel, it will use the gazillions of rockets it sent to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

My understanding is that Hezbollah has enough rockets that, if launched simultaneously, could overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome defense and do some real damage to Israel.

Israel needs to destroy the rocket storage dumps in Lebanon before the rockets are launched. Pre-emptive strike- just like the 1967 Six Days War.

But will Nasrallah be willing to unleash the rockets, as the Christians and Sunni Muslims in Lebanon could unleash a civil war? Or maybe Iran will override Nasrallah and tell him that, regardless of what he wants, the rockets will be launched.

Moreover, a full-fledged war with Israel will probably mean that the hospital that Nasrallah lives under is no longer off limits. Nasrallah wants to destroy Israel, but I doubt he is actually willing to sacrifice his life for it.

Some hard decisions are coming.

Grim said...

Sometimes the time comes for hard decisions.

Dad29 said...

Lt Col MacGregor thinks Israel may HAVE to loose the nukes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDniO4UV2Lw

E Hines said...

...Israel may HAVE to loose the nukes.

Depends on the target. Precision-guided MOABs do a lot of the jobs we used to think nukes were needed for.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

Lt Col MacGregor thinks Israel may HAVE to loose the nukes.

Some of the Israelis think that too. The way they express that is by saying that "we may have to abandon strategic ambiguity," i.e., make clear that we are a nuclear power and will use them if necessary.

Christopher B said...

From Instapundit

US, UK, and Russia have all advised their citizens to leave Lebanon by the first available means Not sure exactly when the warning was first issued, one X posting appears to have come out earlier this morning (Saturday 3 August).

ymarsakar said...

My forces protect Iran, North Korea, China, R Federation, Ukraine freedom fighters, from the human NATO qabal. There's nothing NATO and their qabal can do about it at this point. They are in a state of war with moi, whether they know it or not. Which means they are at war with a true god. Have pity for them, their fate will not be nice and joyful.

ymarsakar said...

Here is some kindly advice. None of your nukes actually work against the might of a true god.