The news coverage to which I awoke this morning already has me banging my head against walls, desks, and other hard surfaces. The hysteria burns…
First, Iran did NOT launch ICBMs. They don’t have any. An ICBM is an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, and again, for the cognitively impaired, they don’t (yet) have any. Yes, they would love to have some, especially if they worked.
It’s not clear (to me, yet) if they launched IRBMs. For those playing at home, that is an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile. Yep, they’ve got some. That work sometimes. That might actually go to the target area instead of deciding to go walk-about.
They most likely launched SRBMs, aka Short-Range Ballistic Missiles. Keep in mind that the model rockets I launched as a child were technically SRBMs, at least when the “warhead” failed to pop off and the parachute deploy. Which happened more often than I cared for.
SRBMs include several flavors of SCUD missiles. Yes, some SCUDs can be IRBMs, at least technically. I say that given the targets of the air strikes that brought Suleimani to Iraq (hint, in parts of Iraq and especially Syria, even SRBMs can threaten Israel).
Is the launch an escalation? Yep, and a significant one in that they openly launched from Iran. Is it a major earth-shattering pearl-clutching panty-peeing Flouncecon 1 event? Nope.
Couple of things to note about Operation Symbolic Revenge. First, look at the number actually launched, which is 15 (best sources), not 10s or dozens. Then, look at the number of birds that failed between launch and landing. Then, look at the accuracy of the attack. To a great extent, yawn.
Also look at the immediate response of the Iranian government after launch. In short: We’ve taken revenge; if you don’t retaliate we won’t do anything further; if you do retaliate you will be great big mean poopyheads and you will pay a bitter price via Operation Symbolic Revenge II.
For those saying it’s a act of war: DUH! What do you think the sacking of the embassy in Tehran was? What do you think the attack on our diplomatic outpost in Benghazi was? What do you think the attack on our embassy in Baghdad was? What do you think the proxy (and possibly some direct) attacks on our troops over the last almost 20 years were? What do you think the attacks against our interests elsewhere, as well as against other countries, via proxy forces were and are?
Get a grip: Iran has been at war with us since around 1979. We’ve mostly ignored it, and at best have dealt rather poorly with it. Danegeld never works. Ignoring has only emboldened.
So far, Trump and his administration have taken rather measured, and extremely effective, responses. My hope is that those continue. Again, it would take about 35 minutes to destroy Iran as a power without using nukes or even necessarily putting American lives at risk to do so. For all that I would have no problem with that, I think there should be at least a couple of more steps before we do so, though to do so would be completely justified on any/every level.
As for those at Flouncecon 1 wailing that we are bumbling our way into a major ground war: You are complete and total fecking morons. Patton was wrong: people like you know even less about fornication than about war, which may help prevent the stupid genes from being spread. We can at least hope so. If you can’t take a look at what has been done, and how, then there is a good bit out there about why this isn’t going to happen. If you can take a good look at what has been done and how, what makes you think they will drop proven and effective for something different that is not likely to work on any level?
Personally, I’m hoping that the next steps do enough damage that the people of Iran can make a change. More than thousand died protesting the regime last year, be nice if they could get out and do something without being killed en-masse. There are a number of ways that this can happen, without a massive effort on par with Afghanistan and Iraq.
Me, I’m not too worried and am looking forward to the President’s remarks later this morning. As for the feckless politicians mourning a fracking terrorist: Sod Off. The masks are off, take a look at who truly cares for America and Americans; and, take a long look at who clearly does not. Remember it come election day.