Pretty brazen. Reads that whoever did it engaged in a shootout to get it done and the guy didn’t die on site, he died in a hospital aka the job was not clean. Not what you usually hear about a Mossad job. At what point does Iran say fuck this and retaliate. Soleimani, this guy, I know they are enemies but the #2 AQ guy, Bin Ladens son - all in the last 18 months.
Oh I know but you let an AQ guy live in peace for 10 years in the backyard and the Israelis find him and drop him, it isn’t a good look, at best.
Iran can’t really retaliate because they don’t want a large scale military conflict. Hezbollah is in the same boat after everything they went through in Syria. They lost tens of thousands of fighters
Apparently they keep a few AQ guys in Tehran as sort of a keep your enemies closer bc they can guarantee their safety while keeping them under constant surveillance to ensure they aren’t planning attacks against Iran.
Is there a realistic analysis that Syria sucked all the various regional factions into a meat grinder and they have all emerged basically crippled or dead (as anything beyond hyper local actors)? I have no idea but haven’t ever thought about that as the conclusion. It makes logical sense but I know the outcome and winners and losers is a lot more complicated than a simple conclusion.
This, Iran will retaliate but I expect something similar to what happened after Soleimani. This has Mossad written all over it and happened shortly after Pompeo met with Cohen (head of Mossad) in Saudi last week. I am sure this was a meeting to discuss and gain approval from the US to move forward.
Yes. Iran had to give Syria billions to prop up their economy so Assad would stay in power and that doesn't count the money Iran spent with military assistance (financing militias and whatnot). It's arguably the main reason Iran was willing to make the nuclear deal, they desperately needed money. Although Hezbollah is probably stronger weapons-wise than they were at the start of the conflict and they've gained a lot of experience the truth is that they've lost a few thousand fighters.
It was a Michael Bay movie? Jokes aside, Israel getting a 12 man team in position, with the firepower described, and pulling it off is stunning. Have to take what the Iranians say, or was “leaked”, at half value though.
My first question was how much we helped them, either through intelligence, training, or logistical support.
Smart genius intellectual thinking Kurds! Weaken each other and suck Turkish dick soon enough!!! Great tactical moves Kurds!
Supposedly this is a big deal, Pope visiting Iraq https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...shiite-cleric-iraq-visits-birthplace-n1259811
Tons of Assyrians who are Christians are from Iraq, tons of my friends here are Assyrian from Iraq I know it was big deal for them
I bet the Popes secret service equivalent had an absolute shit fit when he told them he was doing this.
I know that she is speaking of much more important and dire matters, but that is a very, very, attractive woman
^^^^^^^ (full disclosure, I actually am not familiar enough to know with certainty that she's Lebanese but WD's point is still legit)
Things are kicking off in Israel again. Hamas just fired a bunch of rockets, Israel responded with air strikes killed 21 people.
Settlers trying to evict people in Eastern Jerusalem, general protest and unrest, Israeli police firing rubber bullets, Hamas shoots rockets, Israel responds with air strikes.
Hard to do that when people were forcibly removed from their homes then called terrorists for fighting back. Just another example of outsiders fucking up the Middle East in the early-mid 20th century.
I don’t think it’s fair to look at the current issues in the Middle East without considering the impact that colonization and the fallout from both world wars had on the region. I’m not sure how anyone can expect a positive outcome by creating a country out of an area where people already lived and forcing them out, especially given the ideological differences between the two groups.
So what is the solution, force the Jews out? In 1947 the UN voted to make Palestinian and Jewish states, this fell apart due to Arab resistance. Instead of a two state solution, the Palestinians wanted war which they got and lost. Then Britain formally pulls out and the country of Israel is declared and what happened, Israel is attacked by the Arab League. And then it goes on and on and on. Only after the war did you see large numbers of Jews from Europe and the Middle East start migrating to Israel and a lot of those Middle Eastern Jews ended up in Israel because they were forced out of their country or residence.
Also not to pile on but Israel gains control of the west bank in 1967 so the PLO went to Jordan where they were the main belligerents in the Jordanian civil war in 1970, got booted the fuck out of Jordan and went to Lebanon, helped start the Lebanese civil war in 1975, got booted out of Lebanon and now are back fighting against the Israeli's. What has led up to today is a long and winding road and there aren't clean hands on either side.
ya that’s not how it was in 1947, there weren’t even that many people in what became Israel at that time