An Iran-backed Iraqi militia suspected of a drone strike in Jordan that killed three US soldiers says it has suspended operations against US forces. Kataib Hezbollah, which is part of an umbrella group that claimed Sunday’s attack, said this was “to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government”.
The US defence department said: “Actions speak louder than words.” US President Joe Biden meanwhile said he had decided how to respond to the attack but did not elaborate. Iran warned it would retaliate against any attack on its “interests”. Earlier, it denied US and British accusations that it was involved in the attack. The US has hinted at an armed response that might come in several waves.
Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said in a statement on Tuesday: “As we announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces – in order to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government – we will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways.”
The three US soldiers were killed at a base next to the Jordanian-Syrian border by a “type of Shahed drone”, the one-way attack drones Iran has been providing to Russia, a US official told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68150359
Comment: This is an interesting turn of events in this Tower 22 drone strike story. I did not expect anything but continued defiance from Kataib Hezbollah. They clearly felt threatened by the possibility of a massive retaliation by the US and were most likely pressured by both the Iraqi and Iranian governments to suspend further attacks against US forces. Will this be factored into the strike package approved by Joe Biden? I can’t see the perpetrators of the drone attack getting away scot free, but maybe they’ll just lose some drone stores and facilities. I have no idea what the full retaliatory package will entail.
The success of the drone attack on Tower 22 also highlights how unprepared our troops are for modern drone warfare. The Shahed drone followed a returning US reconnaissance drone and was apparently mistaken for another US drone. The tactic of shadowing a returning or retreating enemy force is not new, but it remains effective. It’s one of the reasons a passage of lines is such a delicate and dangerous operation. This applies to air, sea and ground operations. Those managing drone operations at Tower 22 should have been absolutely certain of where their drones were and assumed anything else flying was a threat. I guess twenty years of enjoying absolute mastery of the air has erased all those lessons that were drilled into us when I was on active duty. We assumed anything flying was a threat until proven otherwise. We have a lot to relearn.
TTG
Let Kaitab Hez stew for awhile. Send a kinetic message to Iran itself, not to its proxies. No sense in going after Mafia soldatos or capos while leaving Mister Big alone. Plenty of time to get Kaitab later.
But before that happens, there is a critical need to ensure protection for US troops throughout the Middle East.
Leith,
The first target that came to my mind was the Iranian drone carrier providing intel to the Houthis.
A part of that protection to US troops in the Middle East has to be breaking the mindset that those bases should provide the same amenities as a CONUS post. I should have learned that from the Beirut Airport attack in 1983. The Marines slept in a big barracks. We slept in GP medium tents surrounded by dirt-filled 55 gallon drums. Then we dug individual sleeping holes under cover of those tents. If we had the time and resources, we would have constructed reinforced bunkers.
TTG,
Those are all good suggestion, IMO.
On preparedness, my understanding is that plenty of incoming drones and missiles have been intercepted. This one got through. Lucky shot more that AA crews sleeping on watch? Maybe we’ll get the details one day.
Very encouraging that Kataib Hezbollah has backed down. As I have been saying, no one wants to really tangle with the US. A pot shot here or there if they think they can get away with it? Sure, but no stand and fight. They know they will be destroyed if they do. As you know, a US military, unrestrained by overly onerous ROEs versus an enemy in a desert environment, is an awesomely effective killing machine.
That is also why I do not see Hezballah going to war with Israel (unless Israel launches a major unprovoked operation against them), let alone WW3, Armageddon or any of that developing – and why the Palestinians are on their own, excepting the impotent international court. The US military ensures it is so.
TTG –
Just blind that Iranian intel ship, don’t sink her. Take out her antennas, both radar and comms. The same for the IRIN Alborz frigate that is accompanying her.
I was at first more inclined to a direct attack on a drone production facility in Iran. But maybe save that for later?
“Send a kinetic message to Iran itself, not to its proxies.”
Note that everyone now seems to accept – as a given – that this attack came from a Shahed drone.
Well, heck, Iran isn’t the only country that makes these: Russia makes them under license as the “Geran-2”
So *if* Genocide Joe takes Leith’s advice and launches a direct attack on “Iran itself” *then* he is leaving himself wide-open to a humiliating kick in the balls from The Putin.
Think about it: Scranton Joe orders an air strike on Iran **because** he claims that this is an Iranian drone, and then Putin gets up in front of CNN and says “It was one of our drones”.
What does the old genocidal, senile fool do then?
Logic dictates that he has to now launch a strike “at Russia”.
Self-preservation dictates that he doesn’t.
Politics dictates that neither option is viable for him.
Neither leave yourself at the mercy of the good-will of your opponent, and especially not when that opponent is a judo expert.
Using billion dollar missile systems to knock out 20K drones is probably not going to workout at all. Also, fighting people that fear God more than their heathen enemies also not going to workout at all. The Pentagon better pull their heads out of a general lower portion of their sex changed extremities and burn all CRT and DEI manuals if they want to have any shot at winning.
babelthuap,
Don’t need billion dollar missile systems. Need radar directed gun systems. Even the Vulcans upgraded by the Israelis would be effective. That and EW systems. Also, this move by Kataib Hezbollah shows they fear a lot more than God.
Taliban didn’t fear the US. They didn’t have drones either. Just brown lamp wire and fertilizer and won. These people will never bow down to the US under any circumstance. Go ahead and bomb away TTG. You and many others are going to keep learning this lesson over and over. I won’t be learning it anymore. I served a couple decades as a combat officer. I will never support this nonsense ever again. Get out of these countries and fix your own domestic problems like drugs, homelessness and open borders.
Don’t fret, the problems are coming to us. Now you can assault a group of police and get out immediately without bail.
https://nypost.com/2024/01/31/metro/migrant-cowards-who-ganged-up-on-cops-should-be-at-rikers-as-three-more-sought-nypd-chief-says/
Migrant ‘cowards’ who beat cops near Times Square should be locked up, NYPD chief says as 3 more suspects sought.
———————–
The USA is in its stagnation-to-death throes transition phase. Here’s some old Soviet Union jokes that can be easily modified for our fearless leadership:
Lenin proved that even female cooks could manage a country.
Stalin proved that just one person could manage a country.
Khrushchev proved that a fool could manage a country.
Brezhnev proved that a country doesn’t need to be managed at all.
Or:
With Lenin, it was like being in a tunnel: You‘re surrounded by darkness, but there’s light ahead.
With Stalin, it was like being on a bus: One person is driving, half the people on the bus are sitting [ed. “sitting” in Russian has a secondary meaning of doing time in prison] and the other half are quaking with fear.
With Khrushchev, it was like at a circus: One person is talking, and everyone else is laughing.
With Brezhnev, it was like at the movies: Everyone’s just waiting for the film to end.
Amen
TTG: “Also, this move by Kataib Hezbollah shows they fear a lot more than God.”
This is naivety bordering on childishness.
This move by Kataib Hezbollah was *solicited* by the Biden Administration as a necessary step in de-escalation, and would only have been agreed by them if Biden’s team didn’t quietly offer a quid pro quo.
That the de-escalatory step by Kataib Hezbollah had to be publicly announced by them is not going to matter at all: the “optics” of doing so would be something that they couldn’t care less about.
That the corresponding de-escalatory step from the Biden team is never, ever, ever going to be announced publicly is, again, something that Kataib Hezbollah would not care two hoots about.
But your belief that this announcement by Kataib Hezbollah was made unsolicited, and made because of “fear” is…. honestly..,, you were born yesterday, were you?
100%. People are looking for anything to give them the ability to hold their heads up. The move was done in response to the USG reaching out to them. These groups are Morpheus. This one group wont attack….there are another dozen waiting in the wings who will.
Kill a leader, or a few dozen? Their replacements are already waiting in the wings. It is like playing whack a mole. The real lesson, that most people have missed the last 40-50 years, dont want to fight these stupid wars and battles…..dont be in areas where the locals dont want us and dont get so involved in other people’s business. 4,000 dead US servicemen in Iraq in a war based on lies….and people still dont learn and still havent held our leaders to account who lead us into that disaster.
We have ZERO real interests in getting involved in any conflict regarding Israel. They are not truly our allies. They will drop us the second it is clear we are no longer the key international player. They dont listen to us, but are more than happy to take our money, our arms and ask for more.
They are a net liability to the US on the international stage and they always have been. The only reason the US supports them is out of misplaced religious conviction, nothing more. Time to put the US first.
America first would start with kicking Israel to the curb and looking out for our own interests, not those of a welfare pseudo 51st US state.
The only reason the US supports them is out of misplaced religious conviction, nothing more.
That’s a bit of a simlification. … I have very mixed feelings about the topic …
But yes, what percentage of America First members would back the complete cleaning of “Judea and Samaria” and Gaza of these “high birth rate terrorist squatters”? After Jerusalem and the Golan Heights what else to legalise as purely Jewish ground? Do I have to add irony alert?
Stefan,
Sure, your Muslim buddies, the ones you represent, would love us to leave Israel in the wind and to the wolves.
Not going to happen. Becauese no one with a lick of sense wants your buddies running free and making a hell on earth.
Eric,
As we have already established it isnt just Muslims, it is Middle Easterners in general. Including you Middle Eastern Christians. PLFP. George Habash responsible for airline hijackings and killing civilians, car bombs, supporting Hizb’Allah. All done by CHRISTIANS from the Middle East.
Becauese no one with a lick of sense wants your buddies running free and making a hell on earth.
Eric, the reality on the ground is that without some type of ethnic cleaning or expulsion, the only chance left would be a one-state solution. Two states seems impossible for much longer now. They always were, as the late Uri Avnery claimed; and they always should have been?
A one-state solution is of course not feasible given the centuries of occupation, suppression, and aggression going all the way back to 1948. Occupation, first inside Israel and, post-1967, in the West Bank and Gaza. What recipe could the USA provide from its one experience? Reservations with fewer restrictions than in the Palestinian areas post-1948? … Heavily more?
Citizen Strangers, Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State
SHIRA ROBINSON
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21669
So what do you suggest Israel, with America’s and thus the “Western World’s” backing, should do to solve the problem? Leave it festering, while Israel nationalizes more and more land slowly, slowly?
Thankfully, those Arabs will ‘never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity’? And that’s all one needs to acknowledge?
http://tinyurl.com/never-miss-opportunity
Abba Eban, Personal Witness, 1992, may take a while to load the page of the citation below:
https://archive.org/details/personalwitnessi00eban/page/492/mode/2up
Could there have been Peace?
The Years 1967-1973 ended in war, not in peace. This does not mean that we were inactive in the search for an agreement. Peace is not always obtained by those who seek it most assiduously. Between 1967 and 1973 the Arabs could have recovered all of Sinai, and the Golan, and most of the West Bank and Gaza without war by negotiating boundaries and security arrangements with Israel. …
While I hoped and worked for this outcome, I was skeptical of its feasibility. The results of the Six Day War were objectively uncongenial to peace. There was not enough self-confidence on the Arab side or enough humility on the Israeli side to create a balanced atmosphere. The Arabs were shattered and humiliated, but this did not mean that surrender was their most likely option.
Stefan,
We have established nothing of the sort beyond the outlier random psychopath here and there, like Habash.
In other news, US backed militant Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to strike Russian forces in Ukraine that are there to fight Nazis.
James,
I take it that this is an attempt at humor. The “Russian forces in Ukraine” should have tipped you off to the absurdity.
TTG,
I was attempting to be humorous but I was also attempting to make a point about the hypocrisy of how the western news media covers these issues.
I was sitting in a living room in Damascus in 2008 talking to a Syrian cab driver I had befriended named Majid. We were talking about the US invasion of Iraq. Majid said something along the lines of “If the US tries to invade Syria we will kick their butt”. My jaw hit the floor and I asked “You can’t possibly think that you can defeat the US military”. Majid insisted they would – that Syrians were tough and they loved their country while Iraqis by comparison were a bunch of weak willed puppies who couldn’t fight their way out of a brown paper bag.
The British learned “divide and rule” from the Romans. America learned it from the British.
What US national security interests are at stake in the region (eg Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, etal) that justify squandering the lives of American service men/women?
None. The US forces are in Syria to allow the Kurds to sell oil to Turkish middlemen, who then on-sell to Israel.
So the national security interest they are serving is Israel’s ongoing access to cheap oil.
Sweet deal for Israel, but those service men/women didn’t sign up for that gig.
I’d say the US forces are mainly in Syria having to set up and prop up a Pro-US kurdish statelet to manipulate against the regional powers, especially Turkey and Iran and in support of Israel. Syria has already been destroyed, with stupid involvement by Turkey at Obama’s behest.
Like Col. Lang would have set, the economic side of things like Oil via Turkey (officially) from Northern Iraq to Israel or smuggled oil to Israel (unofficially) from Northeastern Syria are results of this, not the drivers.
Iraqi Kurds, especially KDP actively collaborate with Turkey who is fighting YPG/PKK both in Northern Iraq and Northeastern Syria.
None, we are there at the behest of Israel and their lobby
A very good question PnG and one that either no one can answer or even wants to ask. For the USA and similar minded western nations, a multitude of variables may be considered ranging from security of resources, empiricism, capitalism (MIC) through to plain-out fear, revenge or dick-swinging from a portion of their respective populations. I think that all these factors play some part in USA ventures in the regions you list and this can be established in relation to conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen etc.
I note that you have missed out Israel from your list. That sorry state appears to be one of the main protagonists and is the state that dare not speak its name for a lot of western people. A solution that enables Palestinian statehood would calm the area down considerably. I personally don’t think that this will happen soon and we can expect unabated conflict until USA either tires or is required to attend to more pressing problems. To put that in simple terms, if the USA were to stop or reduce support for Israel the whole edifice might tumble down.
A student of history will soon see how many invaders have come and gone from this region and the most benign ones tend to stick around the longest.
Rob Waddell
The sorry State of Israel may well tumble, but it is not in the interests of 330 million Americans that the edifice of the USA goes with it – and that is the great danger now. Ironically, it is precisely unqualified American support for the Zionist project that has brought us to this point.
Whoever it is that runs the “Biden” Administration would do well to remember the Delphic oracle’s words to King Croesus before he went to war with the Achaemenids:
Absolutely NO US interests in supporting Israel. 4,000 dead US troops in Iraq, based on a lie. We are illegally occupying parts of Syria in what is really an attempt to weaken the Assad regime. We dont really have any to gain by this. All done at the behest of Israel and their supporters in the US, nothing more. Our “leaders” continue look to attack and depose any government in the region that poses a threat (real or imagined) to Israel and wont tow the US line.
Iraq is the perfect example Hussein was our man in the region, even when he was gassing his own citizens and Iranians. His use and possession of WMD only really became an issue when he decided to no longer be our man in the region.
Stefan,
This is whining of a supremely juvenile and impotent level.
Where is the evidence that the current minor US troop deployments in the region is causing an erosion of the Syrian government? How? The US and Russia + Syrian and Iraqi forces killed ISIS. Yet you think we support them? Conspiracy theory.
Does Syria really even have any small level of control over the parts of Syria where small US bases are? Or is it more like a wild west frontier?
The US bases are an illegal problem, but Kurds, Iraq and ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hizballah being in the same areas is fine with you? Biased much?
Saddam was an autistic idiot? No worldly understanding of his arrangements work?
All done by Israel? No other concerns in the entire region? The Saudis have no weight in any of this? Turkey none as well? What of the plight of the Kurds (darlings of the liberals from time to time)? What of Jordan? What of Lebanon and Gaza and the Gulfies?
And here I thought you were a regional expert of some kind. Your role as an Islamist influencer is becoming crystal clear.
“Where is the evidence that the current minor US troop deployments in the region is causing an erosion of the Syrian government? How?”
The USG is preventing Syria from gaining control of the oil fields within its legitimate territory,
and obtaining the revenue thereby derived.
As to who and what controls U.S. foreign policy,
I recommend you read
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy https://g.co/kgs/N6bnLSt
As to Armenians, let me just say that I have the utmost admiration for Emil Artin and his son Michael.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Artin
Not to mention Iran. Nope. Nothing to see here folks. Move right along now, if you please. Iran is not in Syria. Nope. No siree. Only the evil, imperialistic, racist, genocidal, colonizer, capitalist running dog US.
Would we all be happier living like Iranians anyhow?
Even the late Colonel made it clear there was NO US interest in supporting Israel. Nevermind their murder of multiple US servicemen that they have never atoned for. Another huge issue for the Colonel.
Iran IS in Syria. Where did I ever deny this? The difference is Iran is there at the behest of the the Syrian government. We are there illegally.
As for living like the Iranians, ask the Middle Eastern Christians in Lebanon some of whom support Hizb’Allah what they think.
As for the Saudis, rather ignorant to think I support anything they do. I spent years in DC trying to get our government to stop our arms sales to them because of the malign crap they did, and continue to do.
Besides posting online, what have you ever done to address any of these issues?
Other Colonels say that there is a US interest in the region and with Israel. Colonels disagree on that and many things.
And Iran is in Syria purely out of the goodness of its heart; no selfish region destabilizing motives at all? Remarkable. Veritable saints. Just like those Houtis.
Do you remember when Iraq was happy to have the US there to combat ISIS?
Stefan,
Zero interest? That’s not correct. Neither is “Hussein was our man”. You sound like anti-American agitprop from our friends overseas.
Fred,
Right in the ten ring.
That has been my sense as well.
I’ve said this in other sites, but that US base can be easily seen in Google Earth. If you zoom out a little and look around there are NO airstrips anywhere near that base.
None. Zip. Zero.
TTG: ” The Shahed drone followed a returning US reconnaissance drone and was apparently mistaken for another US drone. ”
How does that US drone “return” to Tower 22 when there is nowhere for it to land? Do US soldiers run outside with butterfly nets and catch it?
TTG: “Those managing drone operations at Tower 22 should have been absolutely certain of where their drones were and assumed anything else flying was a threat.”
What “drone operators”? What “their drones”.
There are no facilities to operate drones at Tower 22. You can SEE that if you go and look at the satellite photos.
There are two tarmacs that can operate helicopters. You can actually see the helicopters on the tarmac.
There are NO runways within 20 miles of that base. None.
The willingness of so many people to just take these press releases at their word is… staggering.
You have the tools freely available on the web to check what they are saying against what you can see with your own eyes.
There are no runways at that base. Therefore there are no drone operations at that base.
Yeah, Right,
The US has a plethora of drones other than the huge Grey Eagle/Global Hawk varieties. Many are hand launched, launched from small catapults or can take off in 100 meters or less. The tarmacs at Tower 22 are more than enough to accommodate such reconnaissance drones.
You have completely missed the point, TTG.
I don’t dispute for a moment that the USA has a plethora of “small catapult launched drones”. No doubt they also have countless numbers of hand-launched drones.
But this is reported to be a case of the base being confused by a RETURNING drone i.e. a drone they were expecting to get back again.
How many “small catapult launched” drones does the US Army expect to get back again? And how do they “get them back” again?
Not by standing on the tarmac at Tower 22 and catching it as it flies past.
If this was a “returning drone” then they were expecting to land it somewhere. If this was a “returning drone” then the reason for returning it is so they can use it again.
That’s a drone that needs a runway, and there is no runway at Tower 22.
Yeah, Right,
The RQ-7 Shadow, one of the larger of the small drones is guided in from HUMVEE-mounted control stations. Once on the ground, a tailhook mounted on the aircraft catches an arresting wire connected to two disk brake drums which can stop the aircraft in less than 170 feet. Smaller drones require even less. They certainly don’t require a tarmac. None of these drones are throw away drones.
TTG: “The RQ-7 Shadow”….
These are the first ten results I get when I type in “RQ-7 Shadow landing”, and all of them show that drone being arrested by wires spread across a runway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6rG4LEaBRQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_No3QWzzpKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjeORQ6dRQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RpAwlPS7vc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sUtns8aRak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMOuMvWvjk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69whPNqS_OU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtGHNDfMHmc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr7ESj72DLo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW17yog3BL4
TTG: “Once on the ground, a tailhook mounted on the aircraft catches an arresting wire”
As do US Navy jets, but those arresting wires still need to be strung across a flight deck.
I can see from those videos that the RQ-7 uses a tail-hook/arresting wire system, but those wires still need to be strung across a runway.
There are no runways at Tower 22.
Yeah, Right,
The tarmac at the south end of the base is well in excess of 500 feet in length and appears to be paved. The other one is smaller, but still over 300 feet in length. The RQ-7 requires less than 200 feet to land. do the math.
And does your maths include the height of the blast walls at either end of those tarmacs?
Not a problem for helicopters, sure, but they are a barrier to drones-on-descent.
Yeah, Right,
Those blast walls of yours seem to be reinforced berms at best and not very tall in relation to the shadows of nearby vehicles. You’re grasping at straws trying to prove drones can’t operate from Tower 22. I will agree that this is not a primary drone base capable of handling our largest drones. It’s a logistical support base manned by Army and Air Force personnel.
nd all of them show that drone being arrested by wires spread across a runway.
Y.,R., I arbitrarily choose one, there is indeed some type wire fence, but the drone stops clearly before reaching it. Thus it is not stopped by the fence. Which may be simply extra security.
https://youtu.be/_No3QWzzpKg?t=82
Returning drones don’t necessarily need runways. The Navy and the Marines catch their returning drones with skyhooks.
The RQ-7 Shadow is ancient history. Hard to believe the Army doesn’t have AeroVironment’s JUMP-20/T-20 at Tower-22 and elsewhere in Syria and Iraq. Or haven’t borrowed Navy/Marine ScanEagles. Or don’t have rotary wing drones.
But even if they only have the RQ-7 Shadow. It should be able to land there. I recollect that 30 years ago when the RQ-7 got fielded that it was touted as being able to land on an athletic field. If that is not now true then the manufacturer needs a bit of walloping.
So the air combat commander did not know how many drones were launched that day, or where they were in the air when this one was returning, and just let this tag-along shadow get close enough to launch an attack? Maybe they should re-read history so they don’t get suckered this way, again.
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have lawful authority in Iraq as a part of that country’s armed forces. They are a state-sanctioned auxiliary force that is an umbrella organization closely connected to all power centers in Iraq, including parliament, the ministries, and the prime minister’s office. It has a legal annual budget of more than two billion dollars. Its criminal income from the black economy is enormous. Extortion in the awarding of construction contracts, customs evasion, customs revenue redirection, oil, drug, and contraband smuggling, bring in millions more. This is a Shia organization, and among the most powerful subsidiaries of the PMF are the so-called ‘militia’ forces of the Hizbollah Brigade, known as Kataib Hizbollah. They have built a reputation since the 2000s as a dangerous guerilla force. An important PMF leader, with strong connections to Kataib Hizbollah, was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killed in the Trump/Bolton drone attack along with the Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad’s international airport in 2020. (Bolton will have to be protected by US agents for the rest of his life. He will cost more than Prince Harry and Meaghan.) I think that a fair and important question would be how much was the salary of Mahdi al-Muhandis from the Iraqi government; and did his widow get a pension? And how exactly is the murder of an Iraqi military official of a country you are supposed to have diplomatic relations with explained to them? Or do you need to explain anything to Haji?
I am one of those who think that Kataib Hizbollah will have received substantial monies and armaments from the Iraqi government. And the source of some of those monies–it could be millions– will be dollars from the United States government, given ostensibly as humanitarian aid, or for rebuilding projects. Remember, it is now estimated that two trillion dollars vanished into Afghanistan. And I suspect that whatever damage to the Kataib Hizbollah infrastructure, such as its base at Jurf Al-Sakhar some thirty miles south of Baghdad, that might result from the reprisals said to have been planned and now authorized by the Biden administration, the rebuilding of Kataib Hizbollah strongholds will most likely come both from legal Iraq government funds and from the black economy; but somewhere in the pipeline, there will be more than chump change coming in from the United States. We are being well and truly played. And we did this. Using ethnic cleansing we removed the Sunni power structure in Iraq and replaced it with the Shia.
Why? It is a question that no one seems to want to ask or evaluate. How dumb was it?
So now there is the developing Shia Crescent from Iran to Iraq through Syria to the Mediterranean. And this Shia Crescent is supported by Russia and China. But it was our gift. And you don’t need to blame Iran for this. You need to blame God. The Shia God.
The Iraqi PM has demanded all US troops leave Iraq. The US has refused. Now some say that the Iraqi PM’s request was just for public consumption. But now we are in a situation where the US is refusing to leave at the request of the elected Iraqi government. We have US troops in Syria against the wishes of that government. Hard to try and have any moral high ground about anything. Putin is in Ukraine? US is in Syria. We are in no position about illegal occupations of countries.
” Now some say that the Iraqi PM’s request was just for public consumption.”
No.
Do you know why ?
https://en.abna24.com/story/1380150
If Iraqi gvt ask US to leave, Iraq will lose about 31 billions USD.
No refund !
Like Afghanistan, Libya, Venezuela and so.
aleksandar,
I think it was the US freezing Russian foreign exchange reserves that caused KSA to join the Russia-China axis. So seizing countries financial assets is catching up to team USA. If the US seizes more reserves belonging to Iraq that will just drive MBS deeper into China’s embrace.
What Kind of Bomber Drone Was It….? Did it Have American Parts..? Can You Find
an Image of this Drone and Put Any Stats Up…? Y&ou Know the Familys have Got to Be Upset This Drone Was Allowed to Fly In and Kill Troops with exact Precision…What were Our Troops relying on For Protection..? Saddam Hussein.??
What is Irans Full Arsenal of Weapons…Drones and Missiles..? Provided by Who..
Besides thier Own Development..?… Who Started the Drone Bots…Flying Laser Guided IEDs..How many of those 24,000 Chinese Coming Across From Mexico..Are Drone
Specialists..Along with Other Military Training.???..I imagine Drones are Muled in Also..
Anyone See Christoper Rays Briefing about Cyber Borgs…Preparing to Shut Those Kids
Cell Phones Down..and Every thing Else…50 Chinese Operators for every one of ours…Oil…Gas…Water..Electric…Food…Banking…One RESET Button Away..
jim
So..a Russian Delegation was at Kashan Airfield S. of Tehran Last June Looking over
the Shahed -129 and the Shahed 191…
One hitting the Barracks and other Targets seem to have Precision..Laser & Camera Guidance…
Ukraine is getting Messy…Wont Get Ammo until March or Later..
jim
There are some very strange things going on.
What is this, D+3 and still zero response? And meanwhile attacks on the Houthis remain weak and ineffectual (they are still hitting shipping). For a long but very interesting read on the ineffectual response theme, J. E. Dyer (ex Naval Intelligence) has just done a detailed post on the Houthi thing and the wider issues:
https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2024/01/29/when-you-absolutely-positively-have-to-prevent-a-world-war
And to top it all; the State Department has just signaled recognition of a Palestinian state might be back on the table! This has of course been greeted with dismay in Israel: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-784573 The British Foreign Secretary issued the same ‘threat’ on Monday.
This looks a lot to me like pressure is being put on Israel to cool it. Has the ICJ thing shaken people up? Are the Axis of Resistance winning? If nothing happens soon it’s going to be very hard to avoid the impression that the US has just rolled over. Extraordinary.
Ha ha, looks like a ceasefire and US sanctions on Jewish
colonistssettlers in the West Bank and worse; Politico has just discovered these folk are “Far-right” – the true mark of opprobrium.The long telegraphed strikes will be for show. No war in an election year. Your move Bibi.
Barbara Ann,
You would leave Israel on its own to suffer destruction and genocide, even though you claim to oppose genocide. And for what? To please a bunch of Muslims that will never be our friends?
You’re the insurance guy Eric, so let’s put it this way: I’m given to understand that Israel is among those very few nations whose policies include truly exceptional destruction and genocide cover.
Barbara Ann,
Well, there is your problem. What you are given to understand, is based on a wrong paradigm.
I’m inferring that you hold dear some notion of universal justice and fairness based on, at bottom, Christian values. There is no such thing. A smart leader takes care of his own first and foremost and secondly those who’s ships sale in more or less the same direction. Anyone who opposes the success of that dedication is either a potential ally that needs to be convinced to join forces, or, if inconvincible, an enemy to be watched and destroyed, either long term or short term.
If one’s friend has been threatened by one’s enemy, then it is necessary to send a message to the world that such threats are not permissible. Else, why would anyone want to be your friend? Yep, it’s all about strength and might makes right. That is how life works and always will.
Does this really need to be explained to you? I know you know it already. I don’t understand the game you’re playing here. You deny antisemitism. I think it is. If not, what is it then?
Eric Newhill
“In international relations, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests” – attributed to Lord Palmerston, a British statesman.
My “problem” (and judging from other comments I think it is shared by many here) is that I certainly do not consider Israel a friend to the US. Furthermore, as I said above, I do not consider Israel’s interests (at least under the current leadership of that country) in the interests of the US either. If it is a “game” to hold divergent opinions then I plead guilty.
Barbara Ann,
So killing 1,400 and kidnapping a couple hundred more gets you official recognition as a State from the Democratic Leader in Washington? Kudos to Barack for teaching Joe how to do things right!
Fred,
Yes, it would seem that terrorism works after all. Even worked for George Floyd worshippers and their faux savior, Biden. Welcome to the new female brained world order. Because my feelings!
First they invade our institutions and prime us to believe that we’re evil; unworthy at least. Then they invade our country and skew congressional representation in favor of the America haters. Then the enemy becomes even more mainstream. And suddenly common sense and self-preservation becomes racist and cruel and the killing off of our allies, one by one is “Justice”.
Allah u akbar!
Everyone has gone soft in the head and weak in knees.
Apologies for the harsh kind of hard ass comments lately.
I’m just sick and tired of all of the mocking and denigrating of our country and, at the same time, the all of the moral equivalence and hyperactive excuse making for objectively inferior ways of life that include terrorism and oppression of minorities, women and others.
This idea that all evil in the world (or the MENA) comes from the US and Israel is far too prevalent and, frankly, ridiculous. As if Turkey, Kurds, Iran, Saudis, Gulfies, Iraq, Yemen, Hamas, Hizballah and a dozen or more Islamic groups are all just good hearted heroes trying to do good things for the good of everyone. They can be trusted and taken at their word, but not the US or Israel. Yeah, sure.
I don’t understand the self-destructive self-hate and all of the revisionist history that supports it and I’m not reacting well to it.
Yes terrorism works.
Israel has killed 73 000 palestinian civilians since 1948 to steal palestinian land.
I think Israel has told the US that it has no choice but to go into Lebanon. It has to smash Hezbollah and push it back over the Litani. If not, Israel will have lost an important part of its territory in the north. It already has perhaps one hundred thousand persons displaced from their homes. This means that the United States has to clear the decks. I think what we will see is the United States pulling out of Iraq and the evacuation of many of the odd little bases that have popped up there and in Syria and Kurdistan. There will be other signs: the departure of dependents, and the evacuation of certain foreign workers, not just from Jordan or Lebanon. From the Gulf.
Something big is coming.
Tidewater,
This could be interesting. I wonder if the IDF is ready to fight FPV drones in southern Lebanon.
James,
Good point. I don’t know if Hezbollah is ready to fully employ FPV drones either. If they are, it will be a far different war for Israel. I doubt if any country is on the level of Ukraine and Russia in fighting that kind of war. It changes damned near everything.
This may have relevance in the near future in domains other than Taiwan/China Sea possibly – you can take a look. (Black sea, Red sea, Gulf ..)
https://news.usni.org/2024/01/30/pentagon-puts-out-call-for-swarming-attack-drones-that-could-blunt-a-taiwan-invasion
TTG,
What about a drone strike on the Super Bowl?
Black Sunday was a good movie. The bad guys used the Goodyear Blimp as the launch platform.
Good luck to israel.
Hezb is an army now, better trained and equipped than in 2006, 80% of soldiers are “combat proven” after 1 or 2 tours in Syria.
And it was a real war, not patrolling cities regularly killing unarmed women and children.
Combat proven soldiers cannot withstand carpet bombing
Which, it turns out, is exactly what the enemies of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia are now experiencing.
Maybe, just maybe, Hizballah and Iran are smart enough to learn something from what is happening.
Tidewater,
The Litani is 20 miles inside the Lebanese border. The US is a decade or more late in leaving Iraq and was never invited into Syria.
Fred,
If you mean by that that the United States will not leave Iraq and Syria when Israel launches an attack on Hezbollah, and simply will leave its troops there to deal with whatever situation they might find themselves in, I think that that could also be a plan, the design of which I don’t discern, and am not supposed to. I do think that some of these deployed so fecklessly, if reservists, could be sent home for a break, and others might be useful in other places, such as Kuwait. But the one thing I am sure of is that Israel will not let the situation as it is stand in northern Israel.
I think Israel intends to bomb southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut into rubble with a ferocity that will stun the world, but which it will accept after a few protests, which will mostly not be reported. It will be just as is being done in Gaza. All along it has been race war, and now we see it plain.
What I continue to be surprised at is how much time people think they have in the Eastern Mediterranean before irreversible and abrupt climate change brings the death of an astounding number of people when a regional heat dome forms and descends, the wet-bulb temperature kicks in, and the electric power grid fails. The eastern Mediterranean is twenty percent more likely to get it first is what the science is. The time to get out is now. But where do you go? To the north, to the wet, to the cold, and the dark? (Probably, yes.)
Tidewater
Back in 2021 Col. Lang wrote this
And this on the next IDF/Hizb war
If you are right about Israeli intentions I think Israel will go nuclear very soon, if not immediately. Yes the world will be stunned, but Israel will once again be feared and that is the Israeli leadership’s goal above all else. In recent years Israeli public opinion has never been more belligerent. If not now, then when?
https://turcopolier.com/the-dogs-have-teeth
Barbara Ann,
What I suspect could happen is that just as was done in January 2017 in Libya, B-2 stealth bombers will fly from the United States in support of the Israeli preliminary bombardment of targeted fortified areas known to have deep tunnels. Each B-2 can carry two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) in its internal bomb bay. There will be many B-2 night sorties over target areas that have been carefully studied for years by American and Israeli ISR. Then, when the Israeli invasion forces begin to move armor and infantry into contact with specific Hezbollah positions following some ops plan, again the B-2s will be used, this time dropping GBU-438 Massive Ordnance Air Bursts. This will be a fairly clandestine operation, at least at first, sometimes at night, sometimes not, and the media will not know much or report with any certainty. Whatever reports float around abroad in the USA, this purported use of air power will be considered to have been appropriate. There will be real sympathy for the destruction and death that Israel has endured, and billions will be given in aid. Southern Lebanon will have been nearly destroyed.
Barbara Ann,
Thank you for that reminder from the good Colonel. We will see soon enough.
About Black September, a film based on a book published in 1975, what strikes me about it is how things have changed. Even the cry of ‘Allahu akbar’ would freak out a stadium. I think drones will be used, somewhere, somehow, against a large American gathering, whether sports, political, military, ceremonial, or religious, I wouldn’t try to guess. But it is going to happen. We’re there.
Rule #1 for fighting a war: Don’t underestimate your enemy.
Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t teach you anything?
Are you aware that Russia has stated that an attack on its allies will be regarded as the same as an attack ob itself?
Don’t any of you remember Col. Langs dictum that Americans must never fight Russians directly?
Do you remember why?
Walrus,
Vietnam taught us that the Democrats would wage a decade long domestic anti-American campaign to maintain power and would sacrifice the foreign nation that we helped to defeat its communist enemy on the battlefield and bring to the peace table in Paris in 1973. Have you forgotten that history? Iraq and Afghanistan taught us the the Borg has greater influence on American politicians than US Citizens. Now those same uniparty pols are defending sacred Ukraine and doing everything in their power to keep Orange Man from returning to office.
Taught me that the US military can effectively, and fairly consistently, waste the enemy whenever contact, on any significant scale, is made, but that the American people, of the type that sit around in colleges and media corporations and Hollyweird, can be propagandized to fight against their own military.
Of course we shouldn’t fight the Russians. The US and Russia should be allies and accomplish many great things together, one of which would be to eliminate the Muslim and Chinese threats to Christian civilization.
Eric Newhill
” The US and Russia should be allies and accomplish many great things together..”
Yes.
Are the Syria and Iraq deployments necessary for a) operations against the Iranian navy and b) in the context of support for Israel?
elev8,
The Iranian navy–or a critical part of it that could block the strait of Hormuz–is mostly based at Bandar Abbas, which is 1200 miles away from these American Beau Geste forts, just inside the strait. Iran has a mosquito fleet of some 24 95-foot-long littoral class midget subs called Ghadir, based on the North Korean Yugo class, which each carry two 533 mm torpedoes, similar to the big boy Kilo class armaments. (Iran has three Russian Kilo-class subs.) These little blighters are considered to be dangerous for a number of reasons. They are virtually undetectable; they work well in the constricted Gulf waters and can set ambushes on ships forced by protocol into clearly defined, known traffic lanes; they are mine layers and they can deploy frogmen, and I suspect that they could be used in an operation to cut undersea fiber-optic cables, which if successful could shut down telecommunications of the whole Arab side of the Gulf. (Nobody wants to talk about this.) They operate, some of them, from sub-pens behind Qeshm Island, off of Bandar Abbas.
I think the reason for the Jordan and Syrian forts is inter alia reconnaissance for air strikes against the Iranian movement of arms and materiel across the new Shia Crescent transport route towards the Mediterranean which could become part of the Chinese Belt and Road. (Unless climate collapse wrecks it, which I think is likely.)
TTG –
I’m guessing you want to read this. It’s certainly unusual for the top general of a country at war to address a foreign audience during that war as far as I know, but that’s not much. He did this earlier with BBC. Lots about drones as with you yourself.
Ukraine’s army chief: The design of war has changed.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/opinions/ukraine-army-chief-war-strategy-russia-valerii-zaluzhnyi/index.html
Two related items. Number 1 isn’t fully accepted by everyone yet but the news media are running with it.
1
Russian Supersonic Missile-Armed Corvette Destroyed in Crimea Strikes—Video.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-corvette-destroyed-crimea-strikes-ukraine-ivanovets-1865961
2
The U.S. expressed its desire to work with Turkey to open the Black Sea Straits
WASHINGTON, January 23. /TASS/. The United States is striving to work with Turkey to gradually move away from the application of the Montreux Convention in the current situation around Ukraine and reopen the Black Sea Straits. This was reported by U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Celeste Wallander.
https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/19799269
I trust and hope that Turkey is not going to open the straits. Application of Montreux in this case is valid and justified. There is a war on. Both this demand by Wallander, and the Brits’ silly donation of minelayers to Ukraine were misplaced moves that were rebuffed by Turkey. Come on, if Britain wants to help, it could donate the minelayers to Romania, which could then be used to keep sea lanes open, for grain exports, whatever and directly help Ukraine.
Of course the Brits had two of their minelayers collide a bit later. Ironic.
First, why are US military at a remote FOB in the Jordan desert?
The troops who mijssed this sneak atrtack were no doubt practicing their pronouns.
TV,
The troops at Tower 22 include engineering, aviation, logistics and security troops with about 350 Army and Air Force personnel. It’s billed as a logistics support base. The much smaller US contingent at al Tanf in Syria is just 12 miles to the north. Our presence at al Tanf has always been questionable at best.
TTG
Forgive me my penchant for hidden messages if you will but there may possibly be one here. Strap-in for weird, twenty seconds, then apply brakes. To wit:
Extract Two from Tower .. then Tower 22 becomes Two 22 or 222.
So what?
Ok remember this revolves around the holy land.
The 222nd day of the year is August 10 in normal years.
Roman historians record the two dates on which the Jewish temple was destroyed as being August 10 – “the Tenth of Loos” in their jargon for Leo’s month. Albeit destroyed by different empires 500 years distant in time, it was the same date in their calendar.
So “Tower” which contains “Two” prominently is very unusually interesting when coupled with 22.
Especially with the resonances of the fateful date of the famous speech of Feb 22, 2022 – 02/22/2022 – which overflows with consecutive Twos. Let’s not forget the Twin Towers of course. (Eerie organ music).
So there is a blatant veiled message concerning destruction of the temple. (If you follow my exegesis). That would equate to a very serious threat against certain forces, avenues, desires, projects etc.
So it’s weird weird weird given the all around holy roller nutjob craziness with the reactionary ultra-right supremacist nutjobs in the Israeli cabinet, PM office and wider society.
You may now decompress and safely land.
Looks like the US just used B1 bombers, among other assets, to pulverize the Jebeebus out of Iranian and associated organization bases. 85 Iranian and Iranian tool bases destroyed. Secondary explosions at many of the targets. Some of them in Yemen. Statements that this is just the beginning. Shock and awe is back. Good. Time to deliver a message and degrade Iran & tools.
A thing of beauty. Iranian rockets cooking off as secondary explosions at bases across Syria and Iraq – and farting left and right into the sky (probably to land on some hapless denizens of the cities). Iran just lost a lot. This is a US air campaign of perhaps unpresented size and precision. Please tell me again about how the US military is lame and the Muslims mighty.
We all have to die, but immortality is achievable. A salute to Maj. Roman Filipov who did just that 6 years ago today.
Barbara Ann,
Now that you reminded me, I remember the incident. I firmly believe that the Russians would have gone to extraordinary lengths to rescue him if it was at all within their immediate capabilities. That stands in stark contrast to how they now send their ill-trained troops forward in doomed meat wave assaults and leaving so many casualties on the field to die alone and disappear into the Ukrainian soil.
@Barbara Ann
“but immortality is achievable”
May be not immortality but it’s definitely weird!
https://youtu.be/_18UdG4STHA