Israel

Why Europe’s leaders have struggled to speak as one on Iran

Europe knew this may be coming. For weeks, leaders and policy makers watched the US military build-up in the Middle East. They heard the threats of the Trump administration to Tehran: Give up all nuclear aspirations – or else!

But since the US-Israeli attack started on Iran three days ago, this continent has looked at best uncoordinated, if not fractured and decidedly without leverage, caught up in the maelstrom of events.

Each European country is understandably angsting about its citizens in the region – whether and how they may need to evacuate what would be tens of thousands of people in total.

They fear the Muslims they have allowed to settle.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEU, Europe, Iran, Israel, USA

CAUTION: Splodey Mullahs Ahead

MULLAH GO BOOM

Israeli forces “flattened” a building where Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts had gathered to select the regime’s next supreme leader, according to Israeli officials and regional reports.

h/t DickFitzwell

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Khamenei’s Unforced Errors Proved Fatal

Iran had failed on every front, but its supreme leader kept bluffing. He didn’t fool Trump.

This is the ayatollah’s war. Now as in June, the pileup of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s mistakes served President Trump a strategic opportunity too inviting to pass up. On Saturday, Khamenei paid with his life.

The proximate error came during negotiations, in which Iran all but announced it still wants to pursue nuclear weapons. What else was Mr. Trump supposed to conclude from Iran’s evasions?

No more domestic enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel, the president said. This was hardly unreasonable; 23 nations operate nuclear power programs by importing enriched uranium. U.S. negotiators even offered to provide Iran the fuel free of charge, a senior administration official said Saturday. Iran balked. Despite vast oil reserves, Iran claimed to need nuclear power and its own enrichment program. For this, it would risk everything.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Iran Attack Thread

Hezbollah TV Station Beirut

How will the war in Iran end? The scenarios explained

President Trump has threatened to send troops into Iran, raising the prospect of a full-blown regime change operation such as that which the US carried out in Iraq, and which he had previously promised to avoid.

Trump has sent conflicting messages since the start of the joint US-Israeli operation against Iran on Saturday morning, at times suggesting it could last just a few days and at others saying he is prepared to continue bombing for four or five weeks or even longer. His interview with the New York Post on Monday was the first time he had raised the possibility of “boots on the ground”.

Use this to drop any vids or stories that interest you on this momentous attack in the comments.

(more…)

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

CBC worried some nations may actually support the Iran attack

Wary U.S. allies try to avoid getting drawn into criticizing Washington or attacking Tehran

As American and Israeli war planes finished their first attacks against Iran over the weekend, carefully worded statements from Western allies started to roll out.

Iran “must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon,” said a spokesperson for the British government. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he shared the U.S.’s interest in ending “this regime’s terror.” French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on diplomacy.

All said they weren’t involved in military action, but carefully skirted judgment of the legality of U.S. actions. No loud applause, no condemnation. Just “whispered warnings” about what it could spark, said French newspaper Le Monde.

I bet CBC hates this…

h/t DM and Hermes

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Iran, Israel, USA, WTF?

Iran Attack Sticky

Iran missile hit Doha UAE

Hegseth vows swift victory at Pentagon briefing as Iran strikes enter third day

h/t patthedog

Iran’s Top 20 Attacks On The West

Since the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979 — when Democrat President Jimmy Carter capitulated to terrorism — no one has possessed the cojones to challenge Iran’s Islamic Death Cultists. Until now.

BBC Live Feed 

Telegraph Live Feed

Guardian Live Feed

Iran International

Use this to drop any vids or stories that interest you on this momentous attack in the comments.

(more…)

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

What Most People Have Missed About US Use of Low-Cost Drones in Iran

Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) 35K each

A lot has happened in the past few days, and with so much news to digest, it’s hard to separate out the wheat, the meat, the chaff, and the offal.

The meat of this metaphor is calorie-dense information that is also mostly of immediate interest. This target was struck, that leader was killed, and this country has stepped in to join us. It’s all very important, but ultimately only relevant to how this particular conflict plays out. Once the dust settles, the overall strategic situation is the only thing that matters, not when some target or another was struck.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

The Target For Tonight is … Tehran

Amazing what our forces, and Israel’s forces, were able to do in one day’s work.

I was all set to lay out what I think will be a near-ideal campaign strategy for midterm election success, a strategy that will allow President Trump to strengthen his political hold over Congress during his last two years as president, something that almost no president has achieved in either the 20th or 21st centuries.

Have a laugh at George Galloway!

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

The hypocrisy of the West’s weepers for the Islamic Republic

I almost feel sorry for the left. For today they’re going to have to pretend to give a damn about Iranian life despite having ignored the slaughter of thousands of Iranians by the demented Islamic regime literally just last month. They’re going to have to take to social media and cry ‘Oh no, Iranians might die’, despite having said nothing when Iranians did die in their thousands at the hands of the theocratic tyrants who rule over them. They’re going to be forced, by events, to make a spectacle of their own depthless hypocrisy, to expose to the world the cant and outright inhumanity that too often fuels what passes for ‘anti-imperialism’ these days.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Iranian sleeper agents have infiltrated the US. Now ex-FBI boss warns of imminent terror attacks on American soil

A former FBI boss has issued a stark warning over fears Iran could activate sleeper agents in the US to carry out terror attacks on American soil as vengeance for Saturday’s bombardment.

Chris Swecker, an assistant FBI director in the mid-2000s, said Hezbollah and other Iran-linked groups may feel they have nothing left to lose after Trump unleashed Operation Epic Fury this weekend.

Swecker told the Daily Mail: ‘We’ve got a cornered animal here, and if ever we’re going to see attacks on the United States, this would be the catalyst for that.’

I wonder why Dearborn has been so quiet.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Ten Thoughts on Operation Epic Fury and Its Aftermath

Why the strike on Iran was legal, overdue, and a strategic earthquake.

As I write this on Saturday night, there is still a lot going on, and as such I’ll throw myself on the mercy of our readers for whatever has gone out of date between its writing and your reading.

It’s a very fluid situation.

But in what looks like a very, very successful joint operation between the Israeli Defense Forces and the U.S. Navy and Air Force, a significant decapitation strike has greatly degraded the Iranian regime — including harvesting some 40 top leaders of the Iranian regime, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whose death has sparked worldwide celebrations from Iranians and Iranian expatriates.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

LILLEY: Taking out Iran’s Ayatollah should be celebrated

Ding dong, the Ayatollah is dead and the whole world should be celebrating.

While the Iranians were denying the death of Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei throughout Saturday, the evidence points to his much-welcome demise.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Who Is Upholding Western Civilization?

How fitting that the US and Israel finally retaliated against 47 years of aggression by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the week of the Biblical Purim Festival.

Then, roughly 2,300 years ago, Haman, viceroy to Persia’s King Ahasuerus, threw a lot (“pur”, plural “purim”) to determine the date by which he would kill all the Jews in the empire. This plan’s successor sits (or sat) in Tehran’s Palestine Square: a “doomsday clock” counting down the minutes until Israel is supposed no longer to exist: 2040, to be exact.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA