Iran misses military targets, kill passenger jet instead
How typical for a terrorist nation: Iran, in its claimed revenge for the U.S. strike that killed terrorist Qassem Soleimani, failed entirely with its missile barrage to kill even one American or inflict any significant damage on any military target, managed however to shoot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 innocent civilians.
More here.
There are also indications that the missile barrage was designed to avoid inflicting serious harm to U.S. facilities or troops, suggesting that the Iranians were merely doing it for propaganda purposes. With the mistaken murder of almost two hundred civilians however they have also failed in achieving that propaganda goal. Instead, they have once again shown their willingness to kill indiscriminately in order to maintain their power.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. the Trump action in killing Soleimani has done a wonderful job of revealing the traitorous perspectives of many Democrats and the mainstream press. They are more concerned for Iran and the fate of this murderous thug then they are for the United States, freedom, or democracy.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
How typical for a terrorist nation: Iran, in its claimed revenge for the U.S. strike that killed terrorist Qassem Soleimani, failed entirely with its missile barrage to kill even one American or inflict any significant damage on any military target, managed however to shoot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 innocent civilians.
More here.
There are also indications that the missile barrage was designed to avoid inflicting serious harm to U.S. facilities or troops, suggesting that the Iranians were merely doing it for propaganda purposes. With the mistaken murder of almost two hundred civilians however they have also failed in achieving that propaganda goal. Instead, they have once again shown their willingness to kill indiscriminately in order to maintain their power.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. the Trump action in killing Soleimani has done a wonderful job of revealing the traitorous perspectives of many Democrats and the mainstream press. They are more concerned for Iran and the fate of this murderous thug then they are for the United States, freedom, or democracy.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
NEVER FLY IN AN ACTIVE HOT ZONE
This reminds me when the US Navy accidentally shot down that Iranian Passenger Jet during the Tanker War. Except in that tragic incident, the Cruiser was trying to keep the straight open and was worried about being attacked. I am assuming this tragic incident happened because the Iranian Military was worried about being attacked after they just ATTACKED the US and Iraq. I doubt Iran will respond the same way the US did after the their unfortunate mistake.
Mr. Z:
You should be ashamed to celebrate the illegal murder of people. Especially not the murder of a man who, unlike America, made a significant contribution to the downfall of ISIS. I really don’t want to have to believe that you’re so bad.
Q said:
” … a man who, unlike America, made a significant contribution to the downfall of ISIS.”
You mean the man who propped up, for the Khomeinists, the Syrian Alewit Puppet regime of the Assads. No, we did not prop the Assad Dynasty up. That, prop did little to finally break the hold of ISIS, which was done by the Kurds, with lots of US help. The Khomeinist Caliphate Revivalists are just as bad as the Salafist Caliphate Revivalists, and have the abilities of an established State structure to do it with.
Their major strategic difference with ISIS is that they intend to procure nuclear weapons *before* declaring a Khomeinist Caliphate, while ISIS proclaimed their Caliphate, and grabbed land, and *then* wanted to get nuclear weapons to keep industrial society from replying to their raids “in defense of the right of Muslims to live under Sharia” wherever Muslims live. Their policy differences, of course are that they want a Caliphate descended from the Shia Caliphate of the Fatimids, rather than a Sunni Salafist Caliphate.
“murder” would only be appropriate if you think it reasonable to apply it to all occasions in which civilians are the unintended victims in areas of conflict.
I have a buddy who no longer has a leg to stand on due to that general.
Shot down by mistake? There could very well have been an insurrection activist (from Canada) on that plane. We will never know the truth!
Tom Billings:
You seem to have forgotten that ISIS would not have been created without the help of the United States. ISIS worked locally for the goals of the American Empire, which is why it was ultimately created by the United States.
They also forget that Saudi Arabia, a deadly enemy of Iran, was ISIS’s main supporter. In the case of Saudi Arabia, we see the typical double standards of the US empire. This really terrible Saudi Arabian regime is the main source of extremist Sunni terror in the western world. Nevertheless, this country is America’s best friend and is supported by him without reservation. (Yes, even though the 9/11 attackers were Saudi. Ill!) Israel also actively supported ISIS. So, this country treated ISIS fighters in its hospitals! This the truth! How evil!
Although the Kurds also fought ISIS, Assad and his Syrian people made the greatest contribution (also of blood) to the destruction of ISIS, followed by Russian and Iranian soldiers.
ISIS was an offshoot of the Iranian and Syrian proxies they funded and trained to fight in Iraq, who killed mostly Iraqis not Americans.
Syria and Iran did very little to fight ISIS knowing that the USA would take care of that problem and Syria, Iran, and Russia could focus on killing Syrians.
I’m not an expert on any of the religious in-fighting of the Middle East, but killing Soleimani was not murder.
He was the leader of the Quds force, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department since 2007. Those forces, and Hezbollah proxies supported by them, have been wreaking havoc across the region for years, and were behind a number of newsworthy incidents over the last 6 months (tanker attacks/seizures, downing U.S. drones, and the attack on Saudi oil infrastructure). And finally, they perpetrated an attack that killed an American civilian (a linguistic consultant, NOT a combatant) in late December and then attacked our embassy in Bagdad. Killing a U.S. citizen and attacking sovereign American territory cross a very bright red line and Donald Trump chose to re-paint it with Qassam’s blood for all the world’s terrorists and bad actors to see and understand. It was an extraordinarily measured response that was extraordinarily precise is punishing the primary culprits, and by extension was extraordinarily efficient and effective. And hillariously the Iranian response has been a keystone cops comedy.
Will this deter terrorism greatly? Probably not. But I bet you $100 that whoever takes over for Soleimani will be far more discrete about their actions and far more careful to hide their whereabouts and travels. And that WILL seriously degrade their efficiency.
My humble opinion anyway
Questioner,
You wrote: “I really don’t want to have to believe that you’re so bad.”
Then don’t. Robert did not do what you accused him of. He pointed out that Democrats and the U.S. media think just like you, that the bad guys are the good guys.
Just because a bad guy does something that assists you does not mean that he is a friend, like you think he is. The saying “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is wrong. The enemy of my enemy might be an ally, maybe, but he could also be my enemy, too. He may attack one enemy today, but he may also attack me tomorrow.
Attack the U.S. is what he did. Even after he has been in the news, you know so little about him.
Questioner, you are terribly naive.
“You seem to have forgotten that ISIS would not have been created without the help of the United States.”
A classic example of someone who seemed to be a friend but turned out to be an enemy. It was the stupidity of the Obama administration that helped create ISIS. Some friend he was. He did more for Iran than he did for America.
“ISIS worked locally for the goals of the American Empire”
You mean the fictitious goals of your fictitious empire? You keep calling America an empire, demonstrating that you have no idea what an empire is. Just because you call something an empire does not make it one. It is like calling you informed.
“Nevertheless, this country is America’s best friend”
Not by a long shot. At best they are an ally. As you pointed out, the 911 terrorists came from there, so you should have been able to figure out that the country isn’t America’s best friend. I wonder why you couldn’t figure that out.
“So, this country treated ISIS fighters in its hospitals!”
Your ignorance just gets more and more visible. Read the Geneva Convention sometime. It may open your eyes.
I don’t buy the common narrative that Iran missed targets on purpose. Depending on the missiles used, they hit an airbase with perhaps 10,000 kg of high explosives. It’s highly suspect they have the targeting accuracy to only hit unoccupied areas. More likely the damage was somewhat random, with something like 10 of 13-ish missiles hitting the target airbase, and we were ‘lucky’. The warning from launch detect systems meant personnel had time to bunker down, increasing ‘luck’.
The alternative is their missiles have become very accurate, and they were communicating this.
I guess better Iranian missiles would be something for our deranged terrorist apologists to celebrate.
This Iranian attack was a farce.
But they did do one thing correct. They called Finland and Lithuania to warn them. No use causing a bigger problem. they may not have called America but I bet the other two did.
As for the Iranian missiles being accurate. Wrong.
They launched 15 missiles but I have yet to see 15 impact craters. 6 on one base and no picts from the other but supposedly only one missile was fired at it.
US anti-missile batteries are told to ignore any incoming targets that will not impact valuable areas. I say the missing impacts indicate that they were either intercepted or so far off target they were ignored and impacted out in no mans land.
If they were not intercepted than that is the most inaccurate barrage of missiles I have ever seen.
Totally random shotgun type pattern.
If they were as accurate as Iran and its defenders claim they could have hit all missiles inside the same crater on the base or drew a smiley face out in the wilderness just to prove they could have done something worse.
And so far no reports of any real equipment that was hit. A hanger or two but no reports of planes or helicopters.
Sorry about that word Bob.
Please change it to bigger.
pzatchok: Fixed.
pzatchok and John:
Iran had previously informed the Iraqi government about the planned attack. Iraq then informed the Americans.
Edwards:
I’m starting to feel sorry for you. You are addicted to sophism. At least, as Lee already noted, you could stop repeating sentence by sentence what other commentators had said, which is an ugly bad habit.
Questioner:
No one here, especially the Zman, is celebrating the deaths of innocent people.
Your “Vital” tactics perspective is more than transparent.
To all: Notice how Questioner descends to name-calling, accusing Edward of “sophism”, without making any effort to argue Edward’s points, in detail. He also attacks Edward for doing exactly that (arguing in detail), when Edward carefully quotes what people say and then refutes such statements with great care.
As Edward said, Questioner however is providing us a service. He is incompetently revealing is loyalties (bigotry, racial identity politics, the lust for power, irrational hate for the U.S.), while allowing us all practice in debating such beliefs.
My focus is on the little things – like accuracy and competence. Iran’s is clearly lacking.
Questioner,
You suggested: “as Lee already noted, you could stop repeating sentence by sentence what other commentators had said, which is an ugly bad habit.”
As I told Lee, elsewhere, it is to make sure that I don’t misquote, a complaint of Lee’s. It also ensures that context is preserved.
Apparently, you are able to comprehend Lee’s comments, but are unable to comprehend other people’s comments.
“I’m starting to feel sorry for you.”
At long last! That was my goal all this time. Now I can relax and stop trying so hard.
Considering I am able to back up my arguments and that you cannot, and considering that you often use falsehoods in order to make your bogus points, whose arguments reek of sophism? (Oops. I asked a question to which you will obviously say that my arguments do. *Sigh* I guess, like you, I am not quite as smart as I think I am.)
The strong denial by Iran and their not letting other countries read the black boxes and their putting a bulldozer on the site all lead me to believe this was not an accident; it was intentional. The question is “Who was the target(s).
After trucking off all the parts and bulldozing the area they finally admit it was their simple human mistake.
I said a little prayer for ALL the people on that flight.
I hope a Catholic prayer doesn’t send the 80 + Iranians to that bad place.
I think I read an article about Irans newest anti ship system that they are testing out.
Dolphins with bombs to attack ships.
Didn’t the Us try those out 60 years ago and decided they could not carry enough explosives and had no way of identifying the correct ships?
Next they will say they have the ultimate weapon system. Sharks with lasers on their heads.
Iran has admitted they shot down the aircraft, however, they have stated it was unintentional and the result of US provocation.
I didn’t know Baghdad Bob had a new job?
This video by Irishman Keith Woods is the best choice, if you are looking for more in-depth and precise information about who Soleimani actually was.
The Life And Legacy Of Qassem Soleimani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfm4AAfOyeM
Saleimani was a piece of human detritus who made his living running terror campaigns. The comments in the thread on the attached video say more about the personage behind Questioner than any comment we could make here.
When you don’t have the power, economic or otherwise, to be the lead dog, but don’t have the intelligence and wisdom to realize that and follow, you become Salemani and the rest of the Persian insurgency.
I have been rarely read a more absurd and illogical comment on this blog than what “commodude” wrote above.
Of course it’s the other way around. A man like Soleimani, the son of a simple farmer, which originates from the smallest beginnings, needs superior skills and intelligence in order to be able to reach the top of his people.
Trump, for example, even if he is certainly not stupid, is almost the opposite. He had a fairly easier start in the US elite, by means of a “small” start-up capital of about ten million dollars (by today’s value) supplied by Dad. Trump was later saved from bankruptcy, especially with the financial help of special New York men who would later expect him to align his policies with their interests.
Anyone can experience the egomaniacal Trump, whose shameless character is hard to bear. Soleimani, on the other hand, appears to us as a selfless man who gave his life for his people and his God.
Questioner,
Step away from the talking points.
Pres. Trump has never declared personal bankruptcy, rather, his businesses have, at times, done so. It’s a tool, no different than any other financial tool.
Your fawning over a terrorist betrays your intellectual shortcomings.
Soleimani paid people to do things he would never do himself. He was a coward, not a hero. Had he known his movements had been exposed to US intelligence, he would have never left Persia.
The press fawning over the murderous bastard shows them to be the traitors that they are.
Questioner,
You wrote: “Trump, for example, even if he is certainly not stupid, is almost the opposite.”
Considering that it takes more brains to build than it takes to bomb, I agree that Trump is the opposite. Saleimani: human-waste terrorist. Trump: peaceful patriot who knows when to fire the bad actors.
You, Questioner, may prefer characters of violence over characters of peace, but the rest of us like the peaceful much more than the terrorist. This says much about your own character.
Terrorism is a classic tactic of the weak.
The be the General of your nations terrorist forces is not that big a deal. You just need a little training, some experience and the support of your leaders. Offering them your undying loyalty tends to help that also.
But as for being a terrorist. Its the cowards way to be a solder attacking civilians.
Just a few weeks ago protests in Iraq were going on calling for the quds force and Iran to get out and stop trying to influence the Iraqi government.
I wonder how many members of the Iraqi government are being threatened(influenced) by members of the quds force?