At least from my limited perspective, the biggest surprise coming from Operation Epic Fury so far is the counterstrike reaction from Iran toward the rest of the region. I have reached out to several people about this, and everyone has a different response.
Within a few hours of the operation against Iran beginning, the Iranian regime began firing counterstrikes against the entire Arab region. Instead of their traditional approach toward striking back at limited U.S. military bases in/around Iraq and/or Israel, Iran began firing missiles and drones into the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.
Brief recap map of the first 24 hours of attack sites, contrast with a map of known U.S. military bases.
This seemingly wanton striking out against the entire middle east region was not something CTH expected to see.
Additionally, the Iranian targets were not just limited to U.S. military bases, the missiles and drones were launching toward all kinds of random infrastructure throughout the Arab world. Most of these missiles and drones have been intercepted; however, no one has yet established a reasonable thesis as to why Iran chose this approach.
In a recent interview with Jake Tapper, President Trump also said the White House and Pentagon were surprised at the civilian targets selected by Iran for retaliatory strikes. The White House, State Dept and U.S. military did not expect to see Iran retaliate against regional allied partners, and the reaction has been for the Arab countries to be even more supportive of the attacks against Iran.
All of the Arab countries that seemingly would have sat on the sidelines and given tacit support, are now openly providing support and even expressing a willingness to get involved with their own military to assist. This is a first.
That said, the action by Iran doesn’t change the approach the U.S. is taking, but it does beg the question: why are they doing it?
Again, these are not U.S. military installations being targeted; Iran isn’t just shooting missiles and drones at U.S. bases, they are targeting nonmilitary infrastructure and even civilian targets (hotels, apartment buildings, commercial real estate).
The expenditure of the Iranian counterstrike armament, the targets they are selecting, doesn’t gain Iran any material benefit. So, why do it?
Any thoughts?
President Donald Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a nine-minute phone interview Monday morning that the US military is “knocking the crap” out of Iran – but the “big wave” is yet to come.https://t.co/0rhIowcppw pic.twitter.com/sWLrvDLmVi
— CNN (@CNN) March 2, 2026
Jake Tapper notes President Trump has said “a big wave is yet to come,” meaning the U.S is prepared to launch another phase against Iran that will hit even harder than the current targeting of military assets and infrastructure.
I’m left to wonder if the regional targeting by Iran is strategic, or if their top tiers of military command structure were so devastated the local command centers were essentially left to use their own targeting decisions, and that led to a random set of launches at just about everything they could program as a target set.
However, a “big wave yet to come” might make sense, if you think about Iran’s seemingly wanton striking at every regional nation as probing to destroy radar capacity and air defenses.
If Iran is holding back strategic hypersonic missiles for later strikes after probing or degradation strikes, then yes as soon as those hypersonic launch locations surface there would need to be a massive blitz of overwhelming force to preempt the launches.
Essentially, what a person might call “a big wave yet to come.”
Iran continues to maliciously launch ballistic missiles, indiscriminately targeting military and civilian locations throughout the region. U.S. forces remain on the hunt to eliminate this threat. As the President has said, our resolve has never been stronger. pic.twitter.com/SDdvaL38yp
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 2, 2026
BREAKING: The UAE is projected to exhaust its interceptor missile stock within one week at the current rate of fire, and Qatar within four days; both are urgently seeking additional military support from the United States – Bloomberg
— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) March 2, 2026
Personally, I don’t think Iran’s mindset is very far from Sadaam’s mindset when he burned the Kuwaiti oil fields, if you can figure that one out.
Exactly, may be assuming rationality when none exists.
Genesis 16:12
Well put!
Does Iran have hypersonic missiles? I had not heard that and it is doubtful that we could intercept them.
It is possible that Iran knows these ME nations are sane and want capitalism vs Islamist tyranny. ( See Trumps first 2nd term visit to the ME and the 600 plus billion dollar investment from the ME into the US. ) In which case they are essentially done. This may be a disjointed temper tantrum of a failing 6th century Islamist regime, attacking those who who want to work with the rest of the world.
Interestingly, your point, Sundance’s take, and this extra layer all line up: the folks clinging to power right now, those Iranian power-mongers and their military brass, are classic authoritarian thugs.
They’re flexing hard, showing off their brawn to everyone in sight, because they’re dead-set on ruling next. They’re not reading the room; they’re trying to terrify it into submission.
Keep in mind these top guys, including the now-dead Ayatollah, were/are straight-up terrorists who hijacked an entire country.
Desperate people (and desperate regimes) do desperate things. The simplest, most Occam’s-razor explanation? They’re doing exactly what terrorists always do: target and slaughter innocent people to spread maximum fear and chaos.
I presume they believe their 12th imam story and are trying to start a global or at least regional war of chaos.
In reality the region is fond of its wealth and also doesn’t subscribe to Shia apocalyptic ideology, plus they got a fresh look at what the US can do and is willing to do. On top of that Trump has really worked to better things for all in the area and has honor amongst them.
To your last point- this attack to take out the Ayatollah did’t happen without cooperation from most in the region.
I would assume Israel’s got some operatives in key positions for these strike decisions.
Insane hatred and the depravity it generates and perpetuates are not explainable by normal analytics. The Iran regime is insane. They hate everyone who is not a part of their clique of insane clerics and associated psychopaths. They even hate their fellow Persians because their own people don’t want to live under their radical sharia rules.
So they launch at everyone, because they hate everyone. There is no more to it than that.
We have targeted the leaderhsip as well as the domestic security agencies that would kill demonstators. I expect the next wave will be not just ballistic sites but the rest of the military and security services. But until that time, it is impossible to predict what sites the madmen may target. So the State Department warnings are right. Prepare for incoming everywhere.
When you finally take on the mad dog that has been terrorizing the entire neighborhood you can’t stop until you finish him off. It will be up to the Iranian people to finally run it down and put an end to it.
Insane hatred not unlike the TDS demonstrated by the democrats in their never ending campaign of hate for anything Trump does.
There was an Iranian quoted, maybe in a post here, saying all leadership is dead and they’re just following preset orders.
Seems possible, “if we get killed, attack everybody else”
I agree with you. And I believe that their intention was to terrify the Arab States so that they would pressure the U.S. to back off.
If so, they certainly misread the Arab States’ reaction.
Since Sundance asked, and knowing one guess is as good as another, I’ll play with the big kids:
Iran found herself in a use it or lose it situation, and like any cornered skunk, with a harried brain, used it.
Maybe Iran had 80,000 rockets loaded and ready to go, probably not, pick any number.
The missiles were not identical, each having different payloads, evasive capibilities, and reach. On day one the skunk was blinded, and let loose with the first available ordanice. Loading and targeting takes time and with Iranian leadership gone it was a sphincter response.
My point being that Iran had these missiles of limited range that were most likely all ready targeted and decided to use them against their Middle Eastern neighbors rather than let the missles be destroped by Israel.
Now ask the UAE about good will in the neighborhood.
I read a Substack hours after the first US strike related to this very question – why did Iran strike ME civilian targets. THe author reminded readers that there are two branches of military in Iran. One that protects nd is run by the clerics and religious leaders and the other that is a civilian military.
Author suggested the civilian military may have struck ME targets in the hopes that ME involvement would take out the cleric military allowing for a sectarian government to form.
Sunni vs Shia
I think it might be as simple as a breakdown of their command/control structure and they may have lost targeting ability too.
Thank you, Sundance. Seems to me, Iran wants to take out as many as possible before they get wiped out by U.S.
Well it appears they are more targeted now. US Embassy in Saudi Arabia was just hit by two drones.
I just hope no Israeli false flag stuff’s going on
Give Me A Break.
Just hope leftist trolls don’t get–oh, what’s the word?–eviscerated.
By their own admission (forget which Iranian official it was attributed to) there were soldiers who had been given instructions PRIOR to the initial attack. Once the head of the snake was cut off, they were acting on their own or on previous orders. I think that makes sense, plus some panic decision making.
Do you mean Bannon’s catchline:
Primal Scream of a Dying Regime
?
Works for me…
Known in psychologial circles as an “extinction burst”.
You may have proof, Sundance, but I think you’re making the assumption that they are targeting these other facilities intentionally.
It could very well be that their guidance and communication systems have been so degraded that their missiles are no longer accurate.
It could be that some incoming missiles were hit, but not destroyed, so they continued on a trajectory that was no longer accurate… might explain why hotels and other random buildings are being hit.
You’re also assuming these are logical people who are pushing the buttons. The same people who believe in the 12th Iman will appear like a magician’s rabbit, the same people who have killed tens of thousands of their own people, who rape women in prison, and who gouge out the eyes of girls who dare to wear makeup in public.
They are insane and demonic and I don’t think particularly clever in their plans.
Well said. I think Sundance’s map answers his own question. Other than Israel, they are only targetting US-owned facilities and in many cases missing them. It seems random exactly because it is randomly missing.
Tucker is an absolute lunatic.
1) Tucker blames the damage against the Gulf States on Israel, even when those themselves are blaming The Islamic Republic.
2) Tucker claims that the Saudis & Qatar arrested Mossad agents that planned to bomb those countries. This is completely made up.
https://twitter.com/AGHamilton29/status/2028604270933676209?s=20
Tucker is an absolute lunatic.
Tucker has gone off the rails just like Candace and if he’s not doing it because he’s having a mental breakdown, then I think he’s doing it and being paid to do it as a splitter strategy to confuse MAGA and make sure we lose the midterms. Tucker and Thune need to be removed one way or another. Where’s a crazy Minnesotan libtard White woman when you need one???
“Splitter Strategy”
Exactly. Even in the left-biased polls it shows JD Vance ahead of Newsom for 2028. The Dem Bolshevik party knows that they are dead if they can’t cheat. Their only hope is to manufacture a fake “America First” candidate to split MAGA. Just like Elon Musk tried briefly to do with his fake support of Trump followed by resigning from DOGE testing waters for a new political party. After that spectacularly failed he changed his tune to say he wanted to be less involved in politics and that was why he resigned. Whatever. But Tucker is playing the same ballgame as Nick Fuentes. Drop a few red pills about misdeeds of Israel while steering followers away from supporting Trump and conservatism in general. Just in the case of Tucker, every red pill is packaged in an extremely limited hangout Johnny-Come-Lately box.
Never forget that Tucker’s double-faced nature was exposed when his Fox News text messages came out describing how much he hated Pres. Trump.
I learned much from this post by Tucker Carlson.
“You didn’t stand by us and have allowed your countries to host Satan, therefore we are going to make you pay for your complicity.”
Succinct. Meets Occam’s razor.
This is Shia vs Sunni. Persia vs the Arab world. Last stance of a dying regime lashing out before its death arrives. Spray and pray they kill as many as possible.
Like a drunk getting kicked out of a party and trying to cause as much damage as they can on the way out. We might all see them as generic Muslims and Middle Easterners, but they have their own ethnic tribal hatred toward each other. Then add a religious layer to it where Iran is Shia and all of the targets are Sunni. I won’t claim that’s the full reason, but it could explain why they have no compunctions against attacking their neighbors as one last FU to the world.
I read that Iran knew from the beginning that they were not going to be able to win against the US and Israel. They had to come up with a strategy that would have the best potential of neutralizing the enemy. So they came up with the idea to attack as many countries in the middle east as possible, with the goal being to create a great deal of chaos and destruction, which might lead to the US-Israel and the Arab countries becoming angry at each other, hopefully causing them to shoot each other in the foot. Maybe they thought the Muslim countries would support them and fight the US and Israel. That turned out to be the opposite of what happened.
I don’t think this sounds like a very viable plan. Perhaps there was a much more viable plan than this that they thought about.
I guess I personally look at it this way: what is a mass murdering government to do when they are about to be cornered and their government brought to an end? Answer: More Mass Murder. This is their whole repertoire.
The command structure was destroyed in the first few hours, if not minutes. These are rudderless pockets of defense forces attacking at random. It’s not even clear if they have any satellite guidance etc since those were all destroyed. So they are firing at random.
They are really bad shots
I think the deceased leadership of Iran had a political back drop plan. Create mass civilian casualties across the region so that America could be blamed and politicians the world over could virtue signal. It could have led to galvanizing region enemies against America. A Hail Mary plan so to speak. It would absolutely work against any president not named Trump. Especially if the leadership group was somewhat still intact.
Every President all the way back to at least Reagan would cave to political pressure.
The difference is what Trump did in term one and what they can see so far in term two. Most of the region finally has respect for America solely because of Trump’s Doctrine and trustworthy word.
With the Iranian leadership out of the loop to offer a specific directive to individual units, I think local launch commanders fell to that plan.
So far it is having quite the opposite effect.
@Greeneghis Khan, I agree Bush 1 & 2 would have caved at the pretense of Political Pressure and Bubba and Michael’s Lover would have talked of Red Lines all the while moving the Line and praying the situation diffused itself.
I would not be surprised is the Iranian retaliation would have been akin to Babylon 5’s literal “Scorched Earth” — if they go, everyone else goes.
Maybe Israel launched these attacks at the gulf states. Tucker Carlson suggests this.
Every single one of these countries is capable of identifying the launch site within seconds of launch. The targeted nations would have to be in on it, looking for a plausible excuse to join in the war. So it wouldn’t be “evil Israel”, it would be cunning Abraham Accords full on conspiracy of all member nations.
Intriguing, but highly improbable. An interesting book premise though. Want to be the next Tom Clancy?
Tucker Carlson is a nutcase.
No surprise at all. It was foretold in the Bible:
Genesis 16:12
He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
Muslims dont care abput some other Muslims. Tribes and sects, Sunnis Shiites, Amadeans etc etc
All at war with each other
https://x.com/greglaurie/status/1936250730207494505?s=46
Think like a radical Islamist. These nations are Sunni, and you are Shia, and therefore it is your duty to destroy them and to bring about Armageddon so that your “12th Imam” will emerge from his well and rule over whatever might be left. Sounds like a plan to me.
Why did they have that number of missiles? And why were they obsessively pursuing nuclear weapons? The answer should be obvious: where you now have conventional missiles falling, those missiles would have been nuclear. The Middle East would be turned into smoking ruins, and they would have been waiting expectantly for their vestal virgins. Confident that their “Allah” would reward them for fulfilling their highest religious duty by destroying his world.
For the Iranian leaders, this is a religious war. They know the Koran and hadiths as well as the ultra-orthodox Jews know the Tanakh and Talmud.
For years, the Ayatollahs and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been talking about bringing about the conditions for the Mahdi to return. They are actively working toward a worldwide caliphate (Obama and Valerie Jarrett were very helpful). This is what they anticipate: https://mahdi.org/events-upon-return/
https://www.abuaminaelias.com/al-mahdi-promised-caliph/
Last month, Mamdani obliquely indicated his participation in making NCY part of the califate: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/islam-is-a-religion-built-on-migration-nyc-mayor-mamdani-invokes-prophet-muhammads-hijrah-while-speaking-on-immigration/articleshow/128023088.cms
The Hijrah was not a simple migration. It ended with the extermination of the Jews who lived in the city before the Muslims arrived. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijrah
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10545-medina
The backgrounds of Islamic migration, one-world global governance and one-world religion (COP28 Interfaith Statement, drafted by Muslims) are already being set in place.
Rev. 20:4 “Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.” Hamas headbands make me wonder.
The Zabiba on their foreheads are the mark
Thats the mark when they lift their asses and their foreheads touch the ground. 5 times a day they do it
The Hidden Spiritual Battle Over America’s Future | Jonathan Cahn
History repeats itself! Trump was anointed by GOD During the assassination attempt!
Not sure it’s worth saying… Since likely I won’t be heard…
But the highest probability is of an intensity amplification strategy by Iran, and our chosen enemy, Russia, as well as of course China.
I won’t say the rest. I just want to communicate how disturbing and high risk this entire time in which we live actually is.
I’m not blackpilled. I do believe that President Trump is fighting an evil and that ultimately good will defeat this evil.
We’re only beginning the war though. It’s not even close to over and this Iran ‘issue’ is very, very dangerous. If half of what I’ve been convinced to believe is true about Iranian military capability proves accurate, Trump risks losing massive amounts of support and catastrophically…
Right into the midterms.
Very much my sentiments. President Trump has already achieved great things but I am extremely concerned with risk this war with Iran poses to his presidency. The initial hope was that if senior leadership, including Khameni, was taken out then the government would collapse. I think it’s fair to say this didn’t happen. Support for the regime actually seems to have increased (made a martyr) and retaliatory measures rolled out very deliberately and with strong intent. I think Iran knows it just has to survive 4-5 weeks, all the while firing off a steady stream of drones and missiles to eventually deplete the defensive weapons to 0. They will inflict horrific damage to Israel in the process. I don’t think we’ve seen near the worst of it so far.
I believe President Trump has been poorly advised with this action. I’ll be incredibly sad if the whole thing goes sideways and effectively ends the momentum behind his presidency.
Once the bully Iran is toothless America is leaving the Middle East. Hopefully never to return.
Everyone gets whatever they’ve been screaming for.
They still won’t be happy, but, it won’t be our concern anymore.
So long, and thanks for the fish.
Any thoughts?
Sunni hates Shia and vice versa.
And Sonny hated Cher and vice versa.
PDT: “I got him before he got me.”
I don’t recall hearing a peep about “Iranian Hit Squads” until the Deep State got caught trying to shoot President Trump at Butler and the Trump Golf Course and needed to provide an alternative suspect to themselves.
A DOJ indictment of Iranians is actually only more proof of a frame-up.
The lower level Muzzies not “eliminated” in the first strike are scrambling to,hit back. They mostly hit civilian populations, bc that’s what they do.
I don’t put it past them to hold off on supersonic weapons until later, like Wednesday. By then, they’ve received the brunt of attacks from their whizzed off Arab bros and won’t be available.
Pray for a quick, successful conclusion for all involved.
The actions of Iran in this war have taught us 10 hard lessons.
1. Terrorists will rather die than change their ways.
2. You cannot Rehabilitate or negotiate with terrorists it only ends if you die or they die.
3. Terrorists will attack anyone including those who have not offended them.
4. The UK thinks by acting neutral out of fear of terrorists they will be spared. They have learned the hard way.
5. David Hundeyin told us that the US Army was not that strong, it was CIA and Hollywood that was deceiving us. Now the USA has kidnapped one president, killed 2 supreme leaders and leveled IRAN within 4 weeks. I wonder what David is saying now.
6. If a terrorist discovers that his time is up, he will take everyone around him down with him.
7. There is no amount of negotiation or accords that will stop the eventual eradication of Islamic terrorism in the world.
8. Any country where terrorists are being Rehabilitated or pampered will eventually fall to terrorists and then the USA and Israel will fall that country like they are doing Iran.
8. Despite all the death and evil that islamic terrorists have caused in Nigeria. There are still Nigerians criticizing the eradication of the terrorists Regime in Iran, just sound politically correct or enlightened. And because terrorists have not killed their families before.
9. The USA is no body mate in the world.
10. The IDF and Department of War do not play, those of you who talk anyhow because you live in a terrorist country shout take note.
They have said if you mess with them, they will find you and KILL you
https://nitter.poast.org/ImtiazMadmood/status/2028587386200813749#m
When your “career” and livelihood as an Iranian Guard…..to work, support, carryout the supreme ayatola leader’s beliefs/commands…..when you are instructed, controlled, live day to day amongst this fenaiical evil structure…..you become evil to the core yourself. You become desensitized to anything/everything normal or human. You become dehumanized & rabid toward any/all feeling, emotions and life itself. You sense of “relationship” to yourself & others is non-existent, dead. The hate you have for yourself is so deep, so intense that the brain tries to repress it, deny it. When that does not work and you can no longer run/hide from yourself, your deep inner thoughts…….it becomes too much. You have made a deal, aligned with evil and your inner being knows it. And you and/or your unconscious brain/mind MUST INSTINCTIVELY REMOVE IT – BE RID OF IT by P R O J E C T I N G I T ! When you have become & are EVIL personified – everyone else has to be also. It’s a last dich, insane trick of the brain, to somehow justify, lessen or “equivocate” what you have become = everything/everyone else.
From what I can recall from statements made in Tehran in the wake of the bombing last year, the Iranian leadership made it quite clear they would consider gulf states targets if they deemed them as providing material assistance to the US in the event of another attack. Of course that could have been a bluff but all the same this should hardly be considered a surprise.
I’m quite unfamiliar with any of the locations which have seemingly been randomly/wantonly targets, yet it has been credibly reported that most of the locations had something to do with military assets. For instance, US DoD personal were staying at the hotel in Bahrain when it was hit. The US 5th Fleet HQ was also severely damaged in that same country. The RAF base on Cyprus. Rumoured CIA and Mossad HQs in civilian areas throughout the region. The Iranians appear to have done a competent job tracking potential target locations and preparing operational directives using a distributed leadership model in case of classic Israeli strikes on their enemies’ leadership.
I’ve also read the Chinese have been providing real time satellite data for all launches, which makes perfect sense—I fear the missile strikes have been far more accurate than reported.
Anyways, that’s kind of my thoughts to add to the discussion, based on 15-20 journalist sources from a wide spectrum of political views.
Your comment is the first I have read so far, that even tippy toes gently toward the truth of what is really going on!
So far, US air assets have been driven out of all of their Middle East and Jordan air bases to Cyprus!
Two British Cyprus air bases are now being hit!
Next stop is Italy!
Iran is a big country with over 90 million people!
Killing 40 so called Iranian leaders is a drop in the bucket!
They have all been replaced!
Think logically, not emotionally, for a moment.
Imagine “only” killing 40 US leaders?
They all would be instantly be replaced!
And not with unready, untrained, inexperienced, new leaders!
The US leadership wouldn’t miss-a-heart-beat!
It would be business as usual!
Well, that is exactly what happened in Iran!
Iran replaced it’s dead leaders with new leaders!
There are reasons Islam behaves as it does.
1) In Islam, revenge is a virtue.
2) In Islam they believe they are instructed to first “cleanse” their own lands from “infidels” (anyone who does not believe very, very much like they do).
3) Both branches of Islam usually consider the other as “illegitimate” at best and “infidels” at worst.
With this construct, when one is losing, and the possibility of winning is not possible; the next-best-thinking goes to purging “infidels” or “settling old scores.” So, there may be many perceived “old scores” to settle (1000+ years worth of tribal thinking and offenses) and depending on where the orders for targeting originate… determines the targeting of the missiles.
Next in developing the rationale is a two sided coin: 1) the other Islamic nations should have helped and didn’t, therefore deserve punishment from us (Shia Iran); or 2) this is the last time for a long time that Shia Islam can give a “kick in the shins” to Sunni Islam (much larger and more powerful) and does so since the Shia’s can’t either destroy the Sunis or convert them with the “sword.”
For an amazing read of historical fiction try “The Haj” by Leon Uris, 1984.
Hajj.
The reason is simple: They are utterly evil.
Cui bono?
Imagine you are in the sandals of some Iranian missile battery commander. You know that the war is underway and the longer you sit on your missile inventory waiting for targeting information the higher the likelihood you, your missiles and everybody else around you will vanish in a cloud of fire and smoke from an American or Israeli smartbomb.
You can try to sit tight under camouflage. But that hasn’t worked very well for a lot of your peers.
So Iranian missile-captain “Ali Ima-gettin-outahere” might just decide to launch everything ASAP at whatever pre-existing targeting coordinates he has on hand so he can be “mission complete” and then run like heck as far away from the launch site as possible.
Witkoff: Iran negotiators boasted of having enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/witkoff-iran-negotiators-boasted-of-having-enough-enriched-uranium-to-build-11-nuclear-bombs/
i WISHED THAT Information WOULD BE PUBLICLY TESTIFIED TO in PUBLIC – IN The UNITED STATES
> NOT the TIMES of ISRAEL <
Iran is generating fear in the region.
They must be hoping our strategic allies currently under random attack will pull back US support.
This seemingly wanton striking out against the entire middle east region…
I’m left to wonder if the regional targeting by Iran is strategic, or if their top tiers of military command structure were so devastated the local command centers were essentially left to use their own targeting decisions, and that led to a random set of launches at just about everything they could program as a target set.
The expenditure of the Iranian counterstrike armament, the targets they are selecting, doesn’t gain Iran any material benefit. So, why do it?
Alastair Crooke, former British diplomat and Director of the Conflicts Forum, recently interviewed by Glenn Diesen, addresses this question. He differs with your characterization of Iran’s actions as “wanton” or “random.” He states that one of Iran’s objectives in their attacks on gulf family dictatorships in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, which contain U.S military bases, is to drive the U.S. from the region. Strategic, not wanton.
Jake Tapper notes President Trump has said “a big wave is yet to come,” meaning the U.S is prepared to launch another phase against Iran that will hit even harder than the current targeting of military assets and infrastructure.
Sure, in the short term. However, the U.S. is not prepared or equipped to engage in a protracted conflict with Iran because it’s running low on its stockpiles, and neither is Israel.
UK Opposition Leader Badenoch Attacks Starmer Over Iran Strikes, UK Bases & 3% Defense Demand | AC1E
England has gone to the dogs.
Faytuks Network
@FaytuksNetwork
7h
Israel hacked nearly all Tehran traffic cameras for years, encrypting and streaming footage to servers in Israel, according to people familiar with the operation, the Financial Times reports. Intelligence officials used algorithms to build detailed “pattern of life” profiles on security around Pasteur Street, tracking guard routines, routes and assignments to determine when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be in his office. The report says Israel also disrupted several nearby mobile towers, blocking calls to his protection detail ahead of the strike.
This may explain things: https://open.substack.com/pub/tracyshuchart/p/the-strait-isnt-closed-the-insurance?r=28seoo&utm_medium=ios
Revealed: Mossad hacked every traffic camera in Tehran for YEARS… how Israel and America sealed the fate of the ayatollah
When Israel located Khamenei on Saturday morning, they disrupted around a dozen mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, making phones appear busy when called and preventing his security from receiving possible warnings.
‘We knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem,’ an Israeli intelligence official told the Financial Times.
‘And when you know [a place] as well as you know the street you grew up on, you notice a single thing that’s out of place.’
The CIA also had a human source who provided vital intelligence, according to the newspaper.
During a war the Ayatollah would be shifted underground into bomb resistant bunkers and acting early gave them the element of surprise.
Mossad officials planned the attack for months but decided to act immediately once they confirmed his location.
They used traffic cameras which showed Khamenei’s meeting was on schedule, hacked phone networks, and the CIA source on the ground.
During the strike, senior Iranian national security officials were in another part of the building.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15608357/Mossad-hacked-camera-Tehran-YEARS-Israel-America-sealed-fate-ayatollah.html
WIth everyone needing US missiles and their being use at a rapid rate benefits China. If we are low on missiles there is not much we can do for Taiwan unless we go boots on the ground, or intercontinental weapons, heaven forbid.
Agency assets were inside Iran tracking the top for months.
…”left to wonder if the regional targeting by Iran is strategic, or if their top tiers of military command structure were so devastated the local command centers were essentially left to use their own targeting decisions, and that led to a random set of launches at just about everything they could program as a target set.”
…”and the reaction has been for the Arab countries to be even more supportive of the attacks against Iran.”…
Seen it before.
If the IRGC is neutralized, it’s over. The next phase should focus on exterminating the IRGC, root and branch.
Iran is dying, and lashing out at everyone
Maybe the Iran response is theological in nature and not political. Do they want to provoke the ‘World’ so that the war becomes Iran versus the World. Do they want Armaggeddon?
Retaliation against Abraham Accord countries?
firstly Sundance you need to widen your reading away from the Bible-belt, secondly “toward all kinds of random infrastructure throughout the Arab world” – if you did widen your sources, you would easily find why – US and their Zionist puppets place armed forces personnel in 3rd party accommodation (i.e hotels) all the time and these strikes from Iran are targeting these, because, believe it or not, Iran has pretty good intel as well.
I’ll leave you to Gurgel this…..Shuaiba Port / Camp Arifjan area, Kuwait
and I suppose all those 120+ teenage Iranian kids that were vapourised were sitting on top of Iranian AF?
“widen your reading away from the Bible-belt,”
You are showing your cards.