This is getting a little too weird. Barack Ravid is on CNN today. Ravid is a former Israeli Defense Forces intelligence officer and he offers what I can only call a novel theory about the missiles that were launched from Iran to Qatar this morning. The gist of what he’s saying is that the Trump administration knew about the missiles in advance. So what is happening here? We’re cosplaying war now? I wouldn’t put anything past Donald Trump but I wonder what the rationale for this kind of behavior is in the rest of the civilized world.
Barak Ravid stunned CNN’s Anderson Cooper when he said, “The Iranians coordinated this attack with the Qataris and with the knowledge of the Trump administration.”
Ravid said “a source with direct knowledge” of the Iranian missile launch on Qatar told him the retaliation was just for show and not meant to cause harm.
“I think … the evidence for that is that all those press statements were prepared in advance,” Ravid said. “The Qataris, five minutes after the rockets started flying, issued a 500-word statement that was already just waiting to be sent. And as far as I understand from my sources, nobody was surprised by this attack. And it really looks like a coordinated effort to, on the one hand, allow Iran to retaliate, but on the other hand, try to close this incident and not allow it to escalate even further.”
Cooper, reporting from Israel, called Ravid’s assertion “really remarkable.”
Ravid reiterated, “It definitely looks again, if you put all the pieces together first, what I hear from a source with direct knowledge, this was coordinated — coordinated in advance between Iran and Qatar, and it was conveyed to the Trump administration. And the statements from both sides that were prepared in advance. If you put all of this together, it looks like an attempt to try and shut it down here. Each side did its part, and now could be the time for de-escalation going forward with some sort of a diplomatic track.”
The missiles were reportedly intercepted by Qatar thanks to their advanced knowledge and no one was reported hurt, according to reports.
Maybe this is a new way to wage war. You just tell the other parties ahead of time what you intend to do, they evacuate and move precious materials, and its all for show.
It reminds me of a Star Trek episode, where war was waged by people voluntarily dying. Anybody else recall that episode? The Enterprise told the people of this culture that there was no war, nothing had hit any buildings — and then they explained to Captain Kirk that they got in line and allowed themselves to be destroyed when a dot appeared on a board, (which represented their sector) because this was a much cleaner, more civilized way to do war.
Is that where we are nowadays? We’re all agreeing to pretend that sabers are rattling, when in fact it’s all staged? And who benefits from these staged events? This is nuts. This is beyond nuts. That said, it is something that Trump would do. So now the rest of the world has been coopted into Trump’s cosplaying? And war in the Middle East is now reality TV? This is wayyyy too weird. If any here can wrap your head around this, explain it to me.
That’s the story they’re going to run with.
This is a kind of reality TV war, staged for the media. According to Der Spiegel,
“Iran has apparently used as many missiles as Trump bombs. Eye for an eye in the Middle East: Iran has carried out a retaliatory strike against US troops in Qatar. The emirate was apparently warned beforehand and intercepted all the missiles, according to the Pentagon there were no victims.”
https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/iran-israel-usa-news-donald-trump-aeussert-sich-ueber-regimewechsel-in-teheran-miga-a-e94350ce-15df-4a6f-9301-c6146bf3311b
Seems like Iran doesn’t want this to escalate. Let’s hope.
I do remember than episode. In fact, as warfare has changed and drones started getting used I wondered what would happen when they became a major part of warfare as has now become the case. With artillery, even artillery launched rockets those doing the launching are in harm’s way. Missiles that can be fired from hundreds of miles away provide some measure of defense as there’s a chance to shoot down counter strikes. But now we are at a point where swarms of drones can not only destroy targets but kill massive numbers of people. Worse, they can as has been the case with highly targeted strikes (the way this all started) be piloted by someone in an air-conditioned room thousands of miles away!
Not quite as bloodless as that Star Trek episode where people simply walked into ‘disintigration chambers’ but not that far off either. The horror of war for those who live where it’s happening and/or have to fight in it is what leads to forcing an end. Take out, or minimize the horror factor and it’s just too goddamned easy.
Patton rued the concept of remotely fought war with the kinds of weapons we now have. For the wrong reasons (no glory as he put it to reporters) but he was correct to worry about a world in which so much death and destruction could be unleased remotely. That’s where we are headed.
We should try to comprehend who gains what. In this Trumpler-Iran Show, both incumbent governments gain credibility, by not just flexing bulgy muscles but by actually using live ammo. Chickenshit Trumpler looks like a tough guy to MAGAts, the appalling Iranian clerics look like they’ve struck back in patriotic defence of Iranian honor. In both cases, the targets were forewarned, to minimize or eliminate damage. The explosions on the ground in Iran and in the air over Qatar were enough to feed the news media and drive any negative stories off-screen.
Now we’ll have intermission and see what, if anything, Act II brings.
so, the Iranians enriched uranium is safe somewhere so they can expedite development of a bomb, though they wouldn’t have been able to move their centrifuges. us personnel were never in danger. trump was just shooting his mouth off about regime change. putin and the Israelis had nothing to do with any of that. I guess we’ll know for sure if Iran closes the strait and especially if they sink any ships. in war games a couple years ago the Iranians obliterated a US carrier group in about 15 minutes. that was just an exercise. since then we have gotten a secdef who oversees a navy that had two fighter planes fall off a carrier so it’s all probably OK now.