Silence In Syria, Panic In Iran

To The Point News ^ | 19 September, 2007 | Dr. Jack Wheeler

[Salem]

One of India's top ranking generals assigned to liaise with the Iranian military recently returned to New Delhi from several days in Tehran - in a state of complete amazement.

"Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing," he reports.  "No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over and over again, ‘Do you think the Americans will attack us?' ‘When will the Americans attack us?' ‘Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation with the Israelis?' How massive will the attack be?' on and on, endlessly.  The Iranians are in a state of total panic."

And that was before September 6.  Since then, it's panic-squared in Tehran.  The mullahs are freaking out in fear.  Why?  Because of the silence in Syria.

On September 6, Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16s conducted a devastating attack on targets deep inside Syria near the city of Dayr az-Zawr.  Israel's military censors have muzzled the Israeli media, enforcing an extraordinary silence about the identity of the targets.  Massive speculation in the world press has followed, such as Brett Stephens' Osirak II? in yesterday's (9/18) Wall St. Journal.

Stephens and most everyone else have missed the real story.  It is not Israel's silence that "speaks volumes" as he claims, but Syria's.  Why would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about an act of war perpetrated on their soil?

The first half of the answer lies in this story that appeared in the Israeli media last month (8/13):  Syria's Antiaircraft System Most Advanced In World.  Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree, spending vast sums on Russian systems, "considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology."

Syria now "possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world," with "more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types,"  some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria "before being introduced into Russian operation service."

While you're digesting that, take a look at the map of Syria:



Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel.  An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace.  And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6^th.

Nothing.

El blanko.  Silence.  The systems didn't even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada.  The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn't even know they were blinded.

Now you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless.  They thought they were protected - at enormous expense - only to discover they are defenseless.  As in naked.

Thus the Great Iranian Freak-Out - for this means Iran is just as nakedly defenseless as Syria.   I can tell you that there are a lot of folks in the Kirya (IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv) and the Pentagon right now who are really enjoying the mullahs' predicament.  Let's face it:  scaring the terror masters in Tehran out of their wits is fun.

It's so much fun, in fact, that an attack destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and the Revolutionary Guard command/control centers has been delayed, so that France (under new management) can get in on the fun too. 

On Sunday (9/16), Sarkozy's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner announced that "France should prepare for the possibility of war over Iran's nuclear program."

All of this has caused Tehran to respond with maniacal threats.  On Monday (9/17), a government website proclaimed that "600 Shihab-3 missiles" will be fired at targets in Israel in response to an attack upon Iran by the US/Israel.  This was followed by Iranian deputy air force chief Gen. Mohammad Alavi announcing today (9/19) that "we will attack their (Israeli) territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack."

A sure sign of panic is to make a threat that everyone knows is a bluff.  So our and Tel Aviv's response to Iranian bluster is a thank-you-for-sharing yawn and a laugh.  Few things rattle the mullahs' cages more than a yawn and a laugh.

Yet no matter how much fun this sport with the mullahs is, it is also deadly serious.  The pressure build-up on Iran is getting enormous.  Something is going to blow and soon.  The hope is that the blow-up will be internal, that the regime will implode from within.

But make no mistake:  an all-out full regime take-out air assault upon Iran is coming if that hope doesn't materialize within the next 60 to 90 days.  The Sept. 6 attack on Syria was the shot across Iran's bow.

So - what was attacked near Dayr az-Zawr?  It's possible it was North Korean "nuclear material" recently shipped to Syria, i.e., stuff to make radioactively "dirty" warheads, but nothing to make a real nuke with as the Norks don't have real nukes (see Why North Korea's Nuke Test Is Such Good News, October 2006).

Another possibility is it was to take out a stockpile of long-range Zilzal surface-to-surface missiles recently shipped from Iran for an attack on Israel.

A third is it was a hit on the stockpile of Saddam's chemical/bio weapons snuck out of Iraq and into Syria for safekeeping before the US invasion of April 2003.

But the identity of the target is not the story - for the primary point of the attack was not to destroy that target.  It was to shut down Syria's Russian air defense system during the attack.  Doing so made the attack an incredible success.

Syria is shamed and silent.  Iran is freaking out in panic.  Defenseless enemies are fun.

[Grunthor]

“The Iranians are in a state of total panic.”

Good.

[ozzymandus]

Yeah, the AK is very reliable, I have a couple of the civilian versions, they’re just not very accurate, nor are they meant to be. They’re just meant to be cheap, reliable weapons for semi-trained mass armies.

And to open another can of worms, they’re a dumbed-down knockoff of a WW2 German weapon, although Kalashnikov has always denied this.

[The Drowning Witch]

But I do wish we'd learn not to tip our hand so early in the game in the future. Go ahead, let all-out war to break out, THEN crush them, THEN humiliate them. As it is, they all get off cheap and easy -- and they should NEVER be allowed to get off cheap and easy.

This is the way brinksmanship is played. An all-out aerial assualt against Iran could spook the chicoms all to hell, and then if we attempt to militarize the Straits of Hormuz, they might seize the opportunity to take Taiwan. THEN the Big Dogs would get in one UGLY pissing contest to control the world's oil spigot, that is 30 miles wide. The geometrics of this Iran thingie are mind-boggling; we're talking about a medicine ball the size of New Hampshire tossed into the glassy pond that is the global economy.

[kalee]

interesting article ping

[PapaBear3625]

Wonder if Russia just wanted to see if Israel could figure out a way to get past it. Or possibly they get paid twice. Once from Syria for the systems and then by Israel for the key to getting past it.

The problem with that is that military hardware is one of the Russians biggest exports, If their junk gets too embarrassingly smacked, then who will buy their junk in the future?

[grey_whiskers]

Watch the east Mother Mary said at Fatima!

Details, please?

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

Bashar is about six foot two, so that would make her...

oh, five foot ten or so.

That picture looks like she's posing for the camera but he was caught by surprise.

Cheers!

[OESY]

Let's hope that Ahmadinejad, fresh from a tongue-lashing at Columbia, doesn't do something that is irrational or stupid, or both, before he is deposed and his capacity for making war is terminated with extreme prejudice.

.

[DoughtyOne]

It isn’t a good word. It expresses what I wanted to say, but it is not valid. And no, in this instance I wasn’t clever, just obtuse. LOL

You take care.

[granite]

ping

[Interesting Times]

Jack Wheeler’s take...

[MaxMax]

Wait until they find out about our,

"Super Secret Saucer".

[Kevmo]

I think their jets would make great recreational air vehicles.

[TigerLikesRooster]

I wonder about that, too. To make the system completely broken down may need more than fancy countermeasures on F-15. What did Israeli do?

[bray]

Time to put a bomb right down ol Ahmacrazyraghed’s Smokestack. Basically send one of his IED’s back.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. Jack Wheeler ia the only one I’ve seen point out that the target wasn’t as important as the fact they hit it, but I’m hoping for solid information as to just what that target contained.

[shield]

No he doesn’t. He has enough goody insiders to keep him hopping...especially the Pentagon...

[shield]

Have you ever heard of ‘The Reagan Doctine?. Dr. Jack Wheeler is the author of that doctine.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Bump To Read Later. I was killing some time at the end of the workday, and wanted to find the posted article again.

[Kevmo]

okie dokie. Let me know what you think.

For some reason, very few people respond to that standard compilation post about Kurdistan autonomy.