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Well that got dumb pretty fast didn't it. Let's bring this back to escalation. Israel blew up an Iranian consulate in Syria. That's an escalation -- a level of conflict that hasn't previously been reached. If Iran responds, as rumours suggest, with an open strike against Israel then that too would be an escalation. Escalation doesn't mean total war. An Iranian attack puts the ball back into the court of Israel and the US to decide how to respond. If one or both opted for airstrikes v Iran, it's unlikely they'd go all out on their first try. They'd hit one or two targets. Then it would be back to Iran to respond, and etc. This tit for tat is dangerous but full on war is far from inevitable. Look up the Tanker War of the 80s where Iran and the US were blowing up each other's poo poo. It didn't lead to all out war because both sides carefully calibrated their responses. This is usually what happens.
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Apr 11, 2024 20:13
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The only issue I have with this take is that Israel seems to have cast aside any notion that it will act rationally or proportionately to an attack as seen by its response to October 7. Bibi has been wanting a war with Iran for a long time now and he will retaliate similarly even if Iran’s response is relatively minimal.
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Apr 11, 2024 21:30
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Israel's expeditionary capability has always been limited, by design. A war with Iran that isn't that an aerial slapfight would probably take a significant effort.
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Apr 11, 2024 21:47
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Just watch out for the sparky swamps
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Apr 11, 2024 21:56
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pantslesswithwolves posted:The only issue I have with this take is that Israel seems to have cast aside any notion that it will act rationally or proportionately to an attack as seen by its response to October 7. Bibi has been wanting a war with Iran for a long time now and he will retaliate similarly even if Iran’s response is relatively minimal. Right. Not sure I’m feeling confident this will be another round of Iranians and Israelis winking at each other as they nominate a few folks to throw into the volcano
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Apr 11, 2024 22:08
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Iran's domestic political situation is pretty dire. They already tried to blame the protests on the West and none of their citizens bought it. I'm not sure they want to risk a major war with Israel that could destroy their regime over a couple of Quds force commanders. I think it's more likely they'll let Hezbollah off the chain and maybe try to assassinate some Israeli officials in Europe.
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Apr 11, 2024 22:37
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Count Roland posted:If Iran strikes Israel directly then the US can return the favour. Or give Israel the green light to hit Iranian nuclear facilities. Striking the nuclear energy sector and R&D would be one hell of an escalation…
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Apr 11, 2024 23:33
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mlmp08 posted:Striking the nuclear energy sector and R&D would be one hell of an escalation… Yeah, I don't think that one is likely. Though I'm not sure what you mean by energy sector-- Iran has no nuclear power plants. The prime targets are centrifuges and enriched uranium storage sites. Which are largely built under mountains to keep things interesting.
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Apr 11, 2024 23:45
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:Just watch out for the sparky swamps I appreciate this reference.
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Apr 12, 2024 00:14
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Count Roland posted:Though I'm not sure what you mean by energy sector-- Iran has no nuclear power plants. The prime targets are centrifuges and enriched uranium storage sites. Which are largely built under mountains to keep things interesting. Iran has a nuclear power plant. They've had one for over a decade. Iran is also building more nuclear power plants.
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Apr 12, 2024 00:26
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mlmp08 posted:Iran has a nuclear power plant. They've had one for over a decade. Iran is also building more nuclear power plants. Well I stand corrected!
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Apr 12, 2024 01:26
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It should be noted that Rosatom is building them (as they did with completing Bushehr I), so given what's going on in Eastern Europe, there's a possibility the two additional VVER units might never get finished.
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Apr 12, 2024 05:30
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Iranian response on the way: https://twitter.com/AAhronheim/status/1779234516856672615?t=6ec8A40LPotWsRaDqWNeLQ&s=19 https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1779241269413261535?t=b1H7tfqXX3krCMwAb66LOQ&s=19
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Apr 13, 2024 21:14
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So did Iran just get a free dry-run of how a drone deployment will be treated in this future hellspace of ours? Did the US just get a free dry-run of the same thing?
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Apr 14, 2024 01:55
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Yes it gives everyone practice. It seems like the attack is mostly for show. We'll see how Israel responds. I bet the US will by applying heavy pressure to keep the Israeli response to a minimum.
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Apr 14, 2024 02:01
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Too early to tell imo
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Apr 14, 2024 02:01
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Count Roland posted:We'll see how Israel responds.
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Apr 14, 2024 02:09
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Cugel the Clever posted:They've still been screaming that they're under existential threat from Hamas in the rubble of Gaza and Bibi is anxious to stay in office, so I'd worry a response is already in the works. Yeah sure but Iran can actually fight back. Getting into a full-on shooting war would carry very serious consequences even if the US supports Israel fully.
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Apr 14, 2024 02:14
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It's a shame that nothing is going to stop this nation of deranged genocidal maniacs
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Apr 14, 2024 09:28
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Proud Christian Mom posted:It's a shame that nothing is going to stop this nation of deranged genocidal maniacs 
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Apr 14, 2024 12:36
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Stringent posted:This was the first thing Google spit out, there's been a lot of reporting on it. This story is from February, the Houthis are still operational. there was an effort post here but just understand that you do not know what you're talking about hellotoothpaste posted:So did Iran just get a free dry-run of how a drone deployment will be treated in this future hellspace of ours? Did the US just get a free dry-run of the same thing? I think that this is completely irrelevant because it's (1) a relatively small number of (2) non-swarming drones (3) traveling for an entire work day before they even enter the ao when serious militaries talk about drone warfare, this is not what they're talking about. Potato Salad fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Apr 14, 2024 |
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Apr 14, 2024 15:54
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I do think there’s an interesting question related to Stringent’s post, which is if these kind of low intensity operations are legitimately effective as a stand alone measure, or if they just end up generating favorable PR for whoever is on the receiving end. They have been part of America’s recent response to the militia groups in Iraq, but my impression with that was most of the work was done through actual negotiations. If you don’t have a line of communication already built are these just a fool’s errand?
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Apr 14, 2024 16:55
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Low intensity fuckery isn't exactly new to warfare or world history. It just looks a bit different, but before the modern times we saw border raids, various local insurgencies being fermented, loving with trade ships on the other side of the globe, dueling for port access with violence and money, etc.
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Apr 14, 2024 17:01
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Potato Salad posted:when serious militaries talk about drone warfare, this is not what they're talking about. Yea that was several orders of magnitude facetious
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Apr 14, 2024 17:04
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I wouldn’t downplay last night too too much. Despite the rather choreographed nature of the whole thing and extended flight times Iran still put a LOT of stuff in the air for what looks like a decently coordinated ToT.
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Apr 14, 2024 17:15
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not a value-add posted:I wouldn’t downplay last night too too much. Despite the rather choreographed nature of the whole thing and extended flight times Iran still put a LOT of stuff in the air for what looks like a decently coordinated ToT. I dont think the intent was to launch a fundamentally impotent strike, but rather one that would demonstrate capability (by putting a lot of stuff in the air in coordinated fashion) while mitigating any real harm (by telegraphing the strike and probably using backchannels to ensure interception). It says "look what we could do....if we really wanted."
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Apr 14, 2024 19:41
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Went looking for why Israel bombed the Iranian Embassy in the first place and came across this quote:quote:“Israel went too far in assassinating the Iranian general, probably, in a diplomatic location,” said Yagil Levy, a professor of military sociology at the Open University of Israel. Strategic assessment: Yikesaroo
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Apr 14, 2024 20:50
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Iran is by far the most restrained power in the region. Their most ambitious action outside their borders was helping Iraq and Syria defeat ISIS and the Israelis and Americans will never forgive them for it.
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Apr 14, 2024 20:53
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Vengarr posted:Went looking for why Israel bombed the Iranian Embassy in the first place and came across this quote: B. A. Friedman (not the other Friedman thr reader is thinking of) put forward an brief deviation in "On Operations" of how the "myth" of the operational level of war probably emerged from some poor translations of Clauswitz, and how the whole model works better as a dichotomy with operation art as a means vice a trichotomy. I wonder if this war will be used as an example lf what happens when independent and empowered operations level escaping and driving the strategy and tactics vice strategy driving the operations.
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Apr 14, 2024 21:01
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not a value-add posted:I do think there’s an interesting question related to Stringent’s post, which is if these kind of low intensity operations are legitimately effective as a stand alone measure, or if they just end up generating favorable PR for whoever is on the receiving end. They have been part of America’s recent response to the militia groups in Iraq, but my impression with that was most of the work was done through actual negotiations. If you don’t have a line of communication already built are these just a fool’s errand? The Iranian operation was purely for PR. In that, it wasn't intended to militarily degrade Israel. Iran and Israel have been fighting a shadow war for many years now. This includes airstrikes, assassinations, bombings, sabotage and more. Iran decided (not unreasonably) that Israel openly blowing up it's diplomatic building was going to far. Thus, for both domestic and international audiences, they had to make a show of force to dissuade further attacks and not appear weak. If Iran wanted to cause damage to Israel, or if it wanted to provoke further escalation, they wouldn't have telegraphed the attacks so much. I don't know how this was done, but I shouldn't be reading on twitter about the attack before it happens. Launching slow moving drones from thousands of km away also gives a lot of time to respond. Really though, the goal is to make Israel think twice about attacking Iran so openly. Given all that's going on, its very hard to say if they succeeded.
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Apr 14, 2024 23:25
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Count Roland posted:The Iranian operation was purely for PR. In that, it wasn't intended to militarily degrade Israel. I saw a youtube short that suggested the attack represented something like 3% of Iran's capability. I have no way of knowing how true that is, but if that's accurate, then if they were really serious, it wouldn't matter how much they telegraphed a drone attack. You could drat near walk from Tehran to Tel Aviv by hopscotching across Shaheds.
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Apr 14, 2024 23:47
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I don't think they couldn't have telegraphed it? As far as I know, Iran does not have a particularly good route to firing stuff at Israel. It's why they had to shout at everyone in the path not to shoot them down or they'll get big mad. Pretty much anything they could have gone to Israel directly would be very obvious.
Kchama fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 14, 2024 23:51
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Kchama posted:I don't think they couldn't have telegraphed it? As far as I know, Iran does not have a particularly good route to firing stuff at Israel. It's why they had to shout at everyone in the path not to shoot them down or they'll get big mad. Pretty much anything they could have done to Israel directly would be very obvious. I'd be very interested to see the paths of the strikes if that's available OS somewhere. I suspect that one struggle Iran will have, even if Israel continues to isolate itself from the rest of the world, is convincing all the foreign and local forces in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and the Red Sea that these attacks are not for them in a way that is convincing, not going to be leaked to the Israelis and is a focused strike.
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Apr 15, 2024 00:15
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lol CNN dug up GEN Petraeus to give them expert advice on Iran.
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Apr 15, 2024 02:58
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Bolton on Fox, not even looking, I was right at some point
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Apr 15, 2024 05:54
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Count Roland posted:The Iranian operation was purely for PR. In that, it wasn't intended to militarily degrade Israel. I was thinking more of Yemen, but yeah you could probably fit the recent Iranian strike under this umbrella as well. It’s a crowd pleaser but won’t actually deter Israel, the only thing that will do that is some third party telling the Israelis to knock it off.
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Apr 15, 2024 08:49
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Count Roland posted:The Iranian operation was purely for PR. In that, it wasn't intended to militarily degrade Israel. Just a heads up, what happened wasn’t “telegraphed” so much as is was extremely backchanneled. There were a lot more parties involved to sort of box the whole thing in, versus it all turning into another regional actualwar. Edit: Caveat, may not be boxed in at all regardless.
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Apr 16, 2024 16:54
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hellotoothpaste posted:Just a heads up, what happened wasn’t “telegraphed” so much as is was extremely backchanneled. And what technology did those folks use to backchannel? The telegraph 
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Apr 16, 2024 17:38
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hellotoothpaste posted:Just a heads up, what happened wasn’t “telegraphed” so much as is was extremely backchanneled. There were a lot more parties involved to sort of box the whole thing in, versus it all turning into another regional actualwar. telegraphing and back channelling are essentially the same in this case. if they wanted it for any other reason than pr, they wouldve just fuckin sent it, no warning/communications.
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Apr 16, 2024 17:40
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A series of motorbike couriers ferried the message at speeds that were by all accounts impossible to achieve
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Apr 16, 2024 17:42
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