The Iran debacle has gotten even “fishier” overnight. The plot has thickened as talking heads and “Iranian experts” try to explain Iran’s role in the apparent attack on a commercial airplane. It was taking off from Tehran’s airport at the same time that Iran was launching missiles at military bases in Iraq.
Did Iran actually shoot down a commercial airplane? For what reason? There were no Americans on board the flight. Will the ayatollahs fess up and take responsibility, or will the regime somehow attribute the tragedy to the US?
It’s conceivable that Iranians manning a mobile rocket launcher thought that the commercial plane was an American fighter jet. The plane took off around the time that Iran was launching missiles at US locations. But it was only one aircraft, not a barrage of attack jets zeroing in on Iran’s capital city.
Did Iran decide to delay or minimize retaliation against the US in light of a terrible mistake by members of a missile team on the ground? Every day more questions arise about the actions of Iran’s leadership.
There are several things that are disconcerting about recent events. Why were Iran’s missiles so inaccurate and ineffective? Was it because the Iranians did not want to kick-start a major conflict by killing more Americans? In fact, the Iranians supposedly warned the US about incoming missiles.
And why were missiles launched from Iran, several hundred miles away rather than by friendly Iran militia missile batteries close to US troops?
It should be noted that Iran was probably responsible for a pinpoint missile attack against a major Saudi oil facility. Why would that attack be so successful and the one against the US so ineffective?
Many analysts are attributing much of this to an Iranian government that does not want to engage the US at this time. Rather they would prefer to chip away at US interests in the region, the end game being no major response from the US and its departure from the region.
Trump quashed this notion by publicly stating that the US is not disengaging because the US is intent on preventing Iran from building a nuke, and will fight Iran’s continuing efforts to destabilize non-Shiite regimes.
The speculation about Iran’s intentions is creating great angst for many Iran watchers. Let’s hope that the real reason for Iran’ meek response to the assassination of Soleimani was domestic turmoil resulting from economic sanctions and not an impending all-out military response by Iran that includes a weapon of mass destruction, which has already been secretly built by the rogue regime.