Opuscula Is Afghanistan ‘Nam over again?

IMAGES OF AFGHANS TRYING TO LEAVE Afghanistan before the Taliban assumes full control. Afghanistan’s former president earlier abandoned his country to avoid “transition issues.” Something unique in U.S. foreign policy history? Hardly.

Dry Bones cartoon

Is it any wonder the U.S.’ “allies” are suspicious of Washington’s promises? Rhetorical question.  

San Diego Union-Tribune Image by Neal Ulevich - AP (https://tinyurl.com/3k7nerdw)

The Print Twitter screengrab (https://tinyurl.com/zru98mu8)

 

AFGHANISTAN SEEMS TO BE VIETNAM all over again.

Aside from the fact that the U.S. never had a policy to win a war in Afghanistan — or Vietnam, or Korea, or Iraq, or Cuba, or — there are many similarities with earlier excursions on behalf of “democracy and the American way.”

The U.S. president who got American troops out of the Vietnam quagmire was a Republican (Richard M. Nixon). The president who ended the U.S.’ 20-year involvement in Afghanistan is a Democrat (Jos. Biden), although to give credit where it is due, under a deal signed last year between the militants and then-President Donald Trump, foreign forces were to have left by 1 May. (http://tinyurl.com/27muz8yn)

In both cases, when the troops came home — from a politically unpopular war in the Far East and when they returned from what appeared to be a never-ending conflict in Afghanistan, — the military people returned sans war materiel, left behind for the victors.

When the troops returned to the States, they abandoned locals who supported the war effort.

In Vietnam, some managed to get a flight out — primarily those who worked directly for the U.S. government.

For many of those left behind, the victorious Communists had a place for them: re-education camps. (Such “camps” are popular with the Vietnamese’ masters, Communist China.)

Will the Taliban have “re-education” camps a la Vietnam?

U.S. fails to learn from others

The U.S. failed to learn the lesson the Vietnamese taught the French.

They warred against the French until the French tired of the fighting and left Vietnam.

President (ex-5-star general) Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in a limited number of U.S. troops as “Military Advisory Groups” (MAGs). His successors, Democrats JFK and LBJ massively increased the U.S. presence in Vietnam on a piecemeal basis — as troops were wounded or killed, they were replaced by green personnel.

Vietnam was NOT the first war in which Americans refused to fight. That “honor” goes back to the War for Southern Independence (a/k/a U.S. Civil War) when people could, and did, “buy their way out” by paying for stand-ins.

The Enrollment Act of 1863 provided that a draftee could pay a “substitute” enrollee the sum of $300 (about $5,000 in today’s terms) in order to enlist in his place. Such famous Americans as Grover Cleveland and John D. Rockefeller took advantage of this provision, in effect buying their way out of service. (https://tinyurl.com/9thvtsaw)

Actually, after the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War many new Americans had other things to do rather than engage the English.

In Afghanistan, the U.S. started supporting the Afghans in their effort to oust the Soviets.

 

Revolving door (a la Vietnam)

 

It was very much the CIA’s covert war with a program to arm and finance the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan prior to and during the military intervention by the Soviet Union. (https://tinyurl.com/2t355rsy)

After 9-11-2001 — the day Muslim terrorists flew four U.S. airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and into a field in Pennsylvania; in the the latter high jackers, were overcome by the flight’s passengers and crew — the CIA directed its efforts in Afghanistan to attacking the Taliban and its leader, Osama bin Laden. (https://tinyurl.com/2wbyes84)

According to a New York Times article (https://tinyurl.com/5b9ya9bk), the FBI knew well in advance of 9-11 that Muslims were buying flight training. Anecdotal stories claim that the “students” were not interested in landing the commercial airliners.

They won’t fight

According to Biden, the Afghans lack the will to defend their nation, despite the fact that — with substantial U.S. CIA aid — some Afghanis did take up arms against the former Soviet Union.

An Afghan guerrilla handles a U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missile (https://tinyurl.com/y466xn5m)

Afghan borders Taliban ally Pakistan and the western world’s nemesis, Iran. (See map, below).

All are Muslim countries and while they often disagree, the enemy of my friend is my enemy. In this case, since the western world is deemed by Iran’s despots to be an enemy, Afghanistan is, by default, Iran’s friend (as is Pakistan).

Map of Afghanistan and its neighbors

The Taliban, Afghanistan’s rulers-du-jour, are infamous for being misogynistic.

They demanded women to be covered from head to toe according to their ideas of sharia law.

They banned education for females.

The “new” Taliban

According to reports making the media, the “new” Taliban will treat females with respect and they will allow females to be educated, unlike the “old” Taliban. (https://tinyurl.com/ye8jzawt)

The “new” Taliban promised to respect others religions, unlike the “old” Taliban of 2001 that blew up two statues of Buddah in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan. (https://tinyurl.com/qjuwbed)

The Taliban claimed the Buddhas violated Islam's prohibition on idolatry.

According to The Indian Express (https://tinyurl.com/yfbq8w24), “The Taliban have promised a new era of peace and security, saying they will forgive those who fought against them and grant women full rights under Islamic law, without elaborating. But many Afghans are deeply skeptical of the group, especially those who remember its previous rule, when it imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. “

Still, the “new” Taliban apparently retains elements of the “old” Taliban.

The Indian Express (ibid.) reports that “The Taliban have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them during Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulating on social media Wednesday.

“The statue depicted Abdul Ali Mazari, a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords. Mazari was a champion of Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Taliban’s earlier rule.”

So much for forgiving those who fought against them.

Some of the “old” Taliban’s actions remain to haunt them.

A video now being circulated of a woman being murdered, apparently by the Taliban on an Afghan street, actually dates from 2015, according to the India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) (https://tinyurl.com/yenpt6yx)

On the other hand, the England’s ITV (https://tinyurl.com/rn2v4ar8) reported on 17 August 2021 that “Abdul Qadir Jalil, an Afghan-born Manchester (England) resident, traveled to Afghanistan around three weeks ago to get married.

“Mr Jalil says the Taliban has ransacked his home in Kabul, and executed people in his street.

"Last night, the Taliban was trying to attack and search every house in the street," he told ITV News. They are searching for smart phones because they are trying to wipe social media evidence.“

 

---

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Vietnam again?

opuscula World power’s End caused By no win wars?

Donald Trump started it.

Joe Biden and Harris-Emhoff will finish it.

“It” is America’s exit from Afghanistan.

 

Right or wrong, American soldiers have been involved in Afghanistan since 2001 following the Muslim attack on 11 SEP 2001 that brought down two buildings in New York, punched a massive hole in the Pentagon in Virginia, and — thanks to brave passengers — plowed a furrow in a Pennsylvania field. (https://tinyurl.com/4chsxesb)

Over the more than two decades of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel have been killed. (https://tinyurl.com/3t2nutmz)

Since World War 2, the U.S. has gone from war (Korea) to war (Vietnam) to war (Iraq 1 & 2) and numerous skirmishes.

All of the wars since WW2 were “no win” for the U.S. and its occasional allies.

True, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was eliminated, but Iranians and their proxies soon filled the vacuum, a vacuum left by the Geo. H.W. Bush presidency. (https://tinyurl.com/6khnm2cm)

More than 4.500 U.S. military personnel lost their lives in Iraq between 2003 and 2020. (https://tinyurl.com/fetx49hu)

Americans are tired of “no win” wars.

Americans are tired of being the “world’s policemen.”

It is not fear; most of the men and women in uniform are brave enough.

It is simply knowing that the politicians allegedly “running” the wars don’t finish the job.

Harry S Truman was the last president to “finish the job.” (https://tinyurl.com/nxbn28jy)

 

”Allies” worried

America’s “allies” and “friends,” especially the Muslims, are concerned that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will allow the Taliban to recover and, in turn, will help the so-called Islamic State, in its various incarnations, to reconstitute, therefore threatening the U.S.’ Muslim “fair weather friends.”

In addition, China (https://tinyurl.com/4dtnuyd6), England (https://tinyurl.com/4r7mekpy), and Pakistan (https://tinyurl.com/khh7a4e6) must be concerned about the resurgence of Islamic State.

Islamic State had operations in Muslim-dominated countries around the world.

In Iraq and Syria, it used many of those countries' existing governorate boundaries to subdivide territory it conquered and claimed; it called these divisions wilayah or provinces. By June 2015, IS had also established official "provinces" in Libya, Egypt (Sinai Peninsula), Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and the North Caucasus. It received pledges of allegiance and published media releases via groups in Somalia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, but it has not announced any further official branches, instead identifying new affiliates as simply "soldiers of the caliphate". (https://tinyurl.com/59fdj4)

The question remains: As Islamic State reconstitutes on fertile ground (ibid.), will U.S. politicians volunteer Americans to contest Islamic State and its followers?

The alternative seems to be China.

That begs the question: Will the Biden/Harris-Emhoff regime allow China to spread its hegemony in an area the U.S. has for many years considered, rightly or wrongly, is own sphere of influence. Biden allegedly already has a financial stake in China.

In an opinion piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board, the publication contends that A May 2017 email thread that includes a discussion about “remuneration packages” for six people as part of a business deal with a now-defunct Chinese energy titan, CEFC China Energy. The Chinese company was international news a few years ago, after the U.S. government charged a CEFC-funded organization with money laundering, and its CEO was detained by Chinese authorities. CNN reported in 2018 that “at its height” CEFC was “hard to distinguish” from the Chinese government.

According to the emails, both Bidens were in line in 2017 to benefit from a deal with CEFC. One email appears to identify Hunter Biden as “Chair/Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC.” It also refers to financial payments in terms of “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy? (https://tinyurl.com/zjx2tcep)

China currently has a “One Belt, One Road" Initiative that extends, via land and sea, between China and Europe (see map, below). Toward that end, China is buying control of marine ports and offering to build railroads that would eventually expedite shipment of goods to and from China — as well as giving the Communists a financial and political foothold in all the nations on its routes.

What this might imply for U.S. military and naval operations is anyone’s guess.

Map of China's "One Belt, One Road" Initiative (https://tinyurl.com/53kzztry)

 

America passe’?

There is a notion that a nation can remain a “power” for a finite number of years.

British Empire (1707 – 1914)
Greek rule (776 BCE to 323 BCE)
Roman Empire ( 27 BCE – 476 BC )

While the U.S. was “just another country” until World War 1, it has been a “world power” only since 1917.

Will the withdrawal from Afghanistan and reneging on agreements, combined with the emergence of China as a contender, and the demise of the Soviet Union and Russia’s influence, signal the beginning of the end for U.S. influence around the globe.

Will the renminbi (RMB) with an image of Mao Zedong replace U.S. dollars bearing the features of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln?

Chinese renminbi and U.S. $2 bill

Wars contributed to the demise of former powers.

No win wars may prove to lead to the demise of the United States as a world power.

 

---

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on No win wars

Opuscula Santayana Was Right

JORGE AGUSTÍN NICOLÁS RUIZ DE SANTAYANA Y BORRÁS was correct when he allegedly wrote Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.¹

The Santayana quote, on of this scrivener’s favorites, came to mind as I read an article titled The Kishinev Pogrom as a Catalyst to the Russo-Japanese War²

 

According to the article’s author, Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen,

The Japanese surprise assault was launched just before midnight on April 8, 1904, when Japanese destroyers fired torpedoes without warning at a line of Russian battleships lying at anchor in the Port Arthur road stead on the China coast. Ten Japanese destroyers caught the Russians unprepared, badly damaging three of their largest battleships. A declaration of war was issued a few hours later.

December 7, 1941

What immediately came to mind was December 7, 1941, a/k/a Pearl Harbor Day, when the Japanese attacked U.S. military installations in the Pacific and then —after the fact — declared war on the U.S.

There has been, since that day that was to “live in infamy,” suspicion that Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then president, knew of the impending attack well before the attack and failed to alert U.S. personnel. In other words, FDR must share in the responsibility for the deaths and injuries of U.S. men and women.

The fact that the Japanese had a well-documented history of “sneak attacks” apparently was ignored by FDR and his lackeys or else they were ignorant of 20th Century politics and warfare.

Pearl Harbor was a repeat of the attack on Russia vessels moored at Port Arthur, China.

The Japanese followed up with the Port Arthur massacre took place during the First Sino-Japanese War from 21 November 1894 for two or three days, when advance elements of the First Division of the Japanese Second Army under the command of General Yamaji Motoharu (1841–1897) killed somewhere between 1,000 and 20,000 Chinese servicemen and civilians in the Chinese coastal city of Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou). The battle is notable for its divergent coverage by foreign journalists and soldiers, with contemporaneous reports both supporting and denying narratives of a massacre by the Japanese military.³

No, that’s not racist on the part of this scrivener; it’s history.

Vietnam

The Vietnamese kicked out the French invaders who were less than brilliant rulers.⁴

It took the Vietnamese decades to send the French packing, but the Vietnamese knew their land better than the invaders.

The Vietnamese promptly divided the country into a Communist-leaning north and a non-Communist south.

The U.S., under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, sent in a few thousand troops in Military Advisor Groups (MAGs) to help train and equipment the south’s military.

The purported reason was to counter a threatened Communist takeover (that eventually occurred).

Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson added thousands of U.S. troops, replacing Americans killed or wounded with new soldiers, mostly conscripts.

Republican President Richard M. Nixon extracted the U.S. from the morass.

President Nixon also opened trade with China; THAT did not go so well.

Afghanistan: Vietnam deux

Not learning its lesson in Vietnam, the U.S. tried to help the Afghans find peace.

Like Vietnam, the environment is different, the language is different, and the mentality is different than in the U.S.

At one point — and the alleged reason the U.S. got involved in Afghanistan — the then Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the U.S. CIA stepped in to support Afghan resistance with training and materiel. The Afghans prevailed and the Soviets were ousted.

Enter the Taliban.

Armed with U.S. provided weapons and captured Soviet weapons — notably Mikhail Kalashnikov’s highly reliable AK-47 rifle — the Afghans bit the hand that fed them and turned on the U.S.

UNlike the Soviets, American administrations would not admit Afghanistan is another Vietnam and withdraw before more Americans were killed.

U.S. troops still are being murdered in Afghanistan in a war the U.S. cannot win.

Iraq

The U.S. twice invaded Iraq to protect its allies in the Gulf region.

The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. The war consisted of two phases the first was code named Operation Desert Shield (2 August 1990 – 17 January 1991) for operations leading to the buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia. And the second was Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) was the combat phase. ⁵

Although Desert Storm wound down in 1991, on May 1, 2003, standing directly under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, George W. Bush declared, "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Bush's claim of victory in what became known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech drew criticism as the war in Iraq continued for several years thereafter.⁶

Bush managed to avoid the Vietnam conflict by joining his state’s Air National Guard.

U.S. troops still are in Iraq and falling victim to Iranian-backed Iraqi snipers and bombers.

If, like the Afghans, the Iraqis cannot resolve their own issues years after the U.S. removed Saddam Hussein, the U.S. should consider abandoning these countries to their own devices. Like Vietnam — with which the U.S. now has trade relations — Afghanistan and Iraq will survive sans U.S. military presence, and (fewer) American soldiers will return home in caskets.

Wars of attrition

Wars of attrition generally are not welcomed by Americans, particularly when, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no end in sight.

If President Trump wins re-election, and riding high on the “normalization” agreements between Israel and several Muslim-dominated countries, perhaps he will join President Nixon in extracting the U.S. from no-win wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

War mongers will object mightily if Trump pulls the troops out, and complain that the U.S. cannot be trusted. Allies who feel that way are invited to send their troops to replace U.S. forces.

In U.S. politics, it would be interesting to see and hear who complains the loudest about “abandoning our allies.”

On the other hand, President Trump has shown that he can achieve what no president before him — neither Democrat nor Republican — has achieved, viz “normalization” between Israel and several Muslim-dominated states.

President Trump’s predecessor (and his vice president, now candidate for president) only managed to bring on the “Arab Spring” and, despite warnings, the murder of four Americans at the U.S. consulate in what the then-secretary of state claimed was a “spontaneous” attack, albeit it was later proven that the “spontaneous” attack was well organized.

Neither President Trump’s predecessor nor the current Democrat candidate managed to accomplish anything toward peace in the Middle East while they encouraged the terrorists of the PLO/PFLP and Hamas/Islamic Jihad by funding and encouraging the terrorists’ intransigence.

CAVEAT

This scrivener is not anti-war; there are wars that are justified.

Unlike Bush (ibid.) this writer spent time in the real Air Force (as a medic) and took his chances on being sent to either Korea or Vietnam.

---

Sources

1. Santayana: https://tinyurl.com/y4zxsbml

2. Kishinev Pogrom: https://tinyurl.com/y4nfq3na

3. Port Arthur massacre: https://tinyurl.com/ycvd6qrs

4. France & Vietnam: https://tinyurl.com/yyku47mk

5. Gulf War: https://tinyurl.com/yyqc25h9

6. Bush’s faux pas: https://tinyurl.com/yxv2mvku

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Those who forget

Opuscula Who’s to blame For continuing Attacks on Iran?

 

IRAN IS SUFFERING ATTACK AFTER ATTACK on its infrastructure.

The ayatollahs stopped short of blaming either the Great Satan (the U.S.) or the Little Satan (Israel), but still make noise.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel admit to either committing the strikes or having anything to do with the strikes.

 

 

IF IT IS NOT THE U.S. OR ISRAEL, could it be that the Persians finally are fed up with the ayatollahs?

The Persians turned out one despotic ruler, the Shah, and got another, the Grand Ayatollah, in return. Having succeeded once, are they about to try again?

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right)

 

Not everyone is happy

According to an article in Newsweek¹,

The Iranian regime has long battled multiple militant insurgencies in different parts of the country, whether separatist groups among Kurdish, Baloch, and Arab communities or extremist religious groups like those pledging allegiance to what remains of the Islamic State organization.

Almost everyone knows about the Kurds, but the Baloch are an unknown.

Wikipedia² describes the Baloch thus:

The Baloch are an Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region of the southeastern-most edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There are also diaspora communities in neighboring regions, including those in India; and having a significant diaspora in the Arabian Peninsula

Persians do not consider themselves “Arabs,” and generally look down on Arabs as lesser people.

Not mentioned in the Newsweek piece are the on-going conflict between the dominant Shi’a and a minority Sunni Muslims.

 

Foreign aid

During World War 2, the Allies provided financial and military support to “partisans” fighting the nazis.

In most cases, foreign nationals — personnel from the Allied countries — were not sent to aid the partisans. (Inserting a foreign national, particularly one native to the country fighting the nazis happened, but the most common assistance was weapons, communications gear, an intelligence, the latter a two-way street.)

Many of the occupied nations had governments in exile, safely ensconced far from the fighting; often in London.

Iran has one, perhaps two, groups claiming to be its “government in exile.”

Newsweek³

On July 13, 2019, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, addressed an Iranian opposition group called the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK) at the group's tightly guarded encampment in rural Albania, where some 3,400 members have been preparing for the overthrow of the clerical regime in Tehran.

Calling the MEK Iran's "government-in-exile," Giuliani assured MEK members that the Trump administration regards the group as an acceptable replacement for the current regime. "It gives us confidence that if we make those efforts to overthrow that horrible regime, sooner rather than later, we will not only save lives but we will be able to entrust the transition of Iran to a very responsible group of people," the former New York City mayor told his cheering audience.

At the same time, there is a Wikipedia entry⁴ that

The National Council of Iran (NCI), officially the National Council of Iran for Free Elections, is a loosely based umbrella group of the exiled opposition to Iran's Islamic Republic government. It serves as Reza Pahlavi's government in exile in order to either reclaim the former throne, or as the new president of Iran, after overthrowing the current government.

The NCI is based in Paris, France.

The Newsweek piece³ notes that

The opposition groups remain deeply divided, which undermines their chances of ever taking power, Iran experts say. Over the years, several opposition groups have tried repeatedly to form a united front against Tehran, but their attempts have failed because of clashing histories, agendas and personalities.

President Trump apparently is not promoting a regime change in Iran; preferring to challenge the ayatollahs with sanctions. Yet, Giuliani was promoting regime change when he met with the MEK, ibid.

MEK has, according to Newsweek, a long history that dates back to the overthrow of the shah. It was behind the take-over of the U.S. embassy in Tehran; it “broke with Khomeini over his decision to release the American hostages.”

Lesson not learned? The U.S. supported the Taliban in Afghanistan against Russia. Once the Russians were kicked out of the country, the Taliban turned on the U.S. The MEK already has a bad history with the U.S., but the Pahlavi group, while friendly to the U.S. when the U.S. kept it in power, was over-thrown by the ayatollahs and the MEK. Is Iran worth America’s involvement?

Israel has a history with Iran that predates the ayatollahs.

Israeli communications gear found its way to Arab armies via Iran when the Persians sold Israeli military radios with a Made in Persia label.

There is a very large population of ex-pat Iranians in Israel and they are active in all segments of Israeli society.

Iran and Israel seem to be — Israel refuses to acknowledge it — in a cyber war in which, if Iranian claims are true, Israel seems to have better defenses and better offenses. Iran allegedly attempted to attack Israeli water resources (and failed) and Israel allegedly attempted to interrupt operations at an Iranian port (and succeeded).

For its part, Iran has a blatant Fifth Column in Israel’s Knesset; members who support the overthrow of the Israeli state.

On the other hand, Israel’s Mossad has been known to infiltrate agents into foreign countries.

Attacks on Iran

Foxnews.com⁵ reports that

Black smoke rose as flames engulfed the Shahid Tondgooyan petrochemical plant in the Khuzestan province of Iran late Sunday afternoon.

Hours earlier, more than 500 miles away, detonations rocked the basement of an old, nondescript home in a northern pocket of Tehran. The two-story dwelling was said to have housed at least 30 gas cylinders that were used for unclear purposes.

Both incidents came fewer than two days after a string of explosions – and power outages – were reported west of Tehran in the early hours of Friday. Local reports indicated that multiple “mortar-like sounds similar to anti-aircraft missiles” were heard.

The blasts reportedly took place at an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile depot.

These most recent attacks happened on the heels of multiple other mysterious explosions at sensitive sites over the course of the last three weeks – and no one is precisely sure what is going on, other than its rattling of the regime and stymieing its controversial nuclear program.

A short timeline:

June 26 at a liquid fuel production center that makes ballistic missiles in Khojir, near Parchin, southeast of the capital.

June 30, 19 people died following an explosion at a medical center in Tehran.

July 2, the Natanz uranium enrichment plant was struck by a mammoth blast

July 3, an unexplained fire erupted at a power plant in the southwest city of Shiraz, triggering a power outage in the region.

July 4 yet another explosion and inferno tore through a power plant in Ahwaz, while at the same time, a chlorine gas leak was detected at a Karoun petrochemical plant in Mahshahr, about 75 miles away.

 

Foreign or domestic?

The BBC’s Persian service reported that just after midnight on June 30, some of its journalists received an email from a group purporting to be the "Homeland Cheetahs" – comprised of anti-government, underground dissidents – claiming credit for earlier attacks. The outlet also said they were informed of the Natanz attack hours before it was documented by officials.

David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec and a former NSA and Marine Corps cyber-intelligence expert asks “was this a cyber-attack or physical sabotage, the answer could be 'both.' The most likely suspects are the U.S. and Israel working in tandem. Both countries have very sophisticated cyber warfare units and significant capabilities when it comes to cyber-kinetic attacks," Kennedy explained "An attack of this magnitude would require a great deal of planning and preparation, and is very complex because you are exploiting industrial control systems and air-gapped devices."

Inside, outside, neither, both. The ayatollah’s so far are avoiding the issue.

 

---

 

Sources

1. Newsweek: https://tinyurl.com/ycn9vqlm

2. Baloch: https://tinyurl.com/yad4pvgd

3. MEK: https://tinyurl.com/yd3ujcy2

4. NCI: https://tinyurl.com/y9w4fpyq

5. Fox: https://tinyurl.com/y6wuphcm

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Attacks on Iran

Opuscula Dear President Obama, Go on vacation (again)

 

Obama wants to "do something" about the Islamists attacks in Iraq.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner is haranguing Obama for not doing enough.

Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Obama is doing enough.

I say, Mr. President, do what you do best: Go on vacation where you can do less harm to America.

Iraq is NOT America's problem and most assuredly NOT a place to "insert" U.S. troops.

I realize that Obama did NOT get the U.S. involved in Iraq or Afghanistan. U.S. soldiers died there - and continue to die there - in actions initiated by Republican presidents.

I also realize that Obama is making noises to get most U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and he has kept U.S. troops out of Syria. As much as I dislike the man, credit where it is due.

But if Obama even suggests U.S. boots on the ground in Iraq it will prove he failed to learn from the past.

Boehner should be retired for pressing Obama to "do more" in Iraq. Will he never learn that all warfare in Muslim countries is religious warfare? Doesn't he get it? Is he blind to reality?

Obama does enough dumb things without Boehner's help.

For once - and probably for only time - I am in at least partial agreement with Pelosi on one issue: Iraq.

If we are attacked by a "non-state entity" (e.g., Al Qaeda and similar ^{NOTE 1} organizations), the U.S. should reserve the right to seek out the terrorists no matter where they hide, with or without host nation approval or cooperation. Where possible, use drones and other weapons that keep American troops out of harms way. If there is "collateral damage" because the country hosting the terrorists won't turn them over, so be it. The terrorists declared war on the U.S. and "collateral damage" is the unfortunate price of war.

Politically I am a social liberal and fiscal conservative. My social concerns, however, are for U.S. citizens and others legally in the country. I have no sympathy for "undocumented residents" - a/k/a illegal aliens - no matter from where them came. I am against "fast tracking" illegals, putting them ahead of people who believe in the "rule of law."

I also believe in the Monroe Doctrine which stated, basically, that the U.S. would not get involved in foreign escapades outside our region - North, Central, and South America.

I have little problem with offering off-shore guidance, but I'm old enough to have seen how in-country advisory groups grew into army-size combat and support units in Korea and Vietnam - the last of the (semi-)conventional wars we should have avoided.

My personal bottom line is that the U.S. has NO business in any religious war - no matter where the war is fought.

If you don't believe Iraq's war is a religious war, read what Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, referring to fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that are pushing toward Baghdad, allegedly said on Iranian tv the other day: “This is an extremist, terrorist group that is acting savagely,” Rouhani said live on state television, adding that Tehran will not “tolerate this violence and terror.”

 

Note 1: For a list of terrorist groups, most of which are Islamic, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_designated_terrorist_organizations