Middle East War Briefing

[GURPS]

A massive fog of war covers the Middle East. The New York Times ran a story yesterday headlined, “A Wider War in the Middle East, From Hamas to Hezbollah and Now Iran.” The article was penned by David Sanger, who is so security-state connected that he might as well be romantically involved with CIA Director Bill Burns. I bet his electronic surveillance has little electronic surveillance of its own.

Something is happening in the Middle East, it’s just not clear what or how big or small it is. But we do know that Israel is now involved in kinetic conflicts with at least four opponents: the Houthis in Yemen to the southeast, what’s left of Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north, Hamas in Gaza, and now Iran, to the east.

Only a few days ago, Israel ‘decapitated’ Hezbollah. Yesterday, media reported Israel ‘invaded’ Lebanon. But the scale of the invasion isn’t clear. Reports vary. There is no agreement even on whether any invasion happened at all. Some platforms just call the activity on Israel’s northern border an “incursion,” and others describe it only as small scouting raids by Israeli special forces.

Yesterday, Iran electrified the media by firing between 180 and 300 missiles at Israel. Again, reports on the number of missiles vary. Media coverage exists but seems oddly muted. Unlike last time Iran attacked Israel, this time saw no six-hour, play-by-play media circus tracking the momentary movements of missiles between the two countries.

Nearly a full day after Iran’s newest missile attack, nobody can agree about precisely what happened. Israel’s government has apparently imposed strict information controls. Some reports said Iranian missiles soared right through Israel’s Iron Dome. But other, like David Sanger, said the Iron Dome mostly succeeded in shooting down Iranian missiles.

Miraculously, Israel said that almost nobody died or was even injured by any Iranian missile. Only one unlucky Palestinian gentleman was killed when an empty rocket casing fell on him — an unbelievably improbable event that was even more improbably captured on video.

Iranian sources conflict with each other over whether the US and Russia received advance notice of the attacks. Some Iranian officials say yes, others say no.

The Iranians claimed to have destroyed dozens of insanely expensive F35 fighter jets in the attack (don’t even ask), as well as an oil platform or oil processing facility of some kind. Israel won’t say what has or hasn’t been damaged or destroyed, apart from one empty school building. We just don’t know; that might be all.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has promised to retaliate, but only he knows what for, since all reports say Iran’s missile strikes were ineffective. Maybe just for the attempt, which seems like a legitimate reason.

The bottom line is we know more about what Tim Walz likes to eat on his China field trips than what is actually happening in the Middle East right now.

☕️ KNUCKLEHEADS ☙ Wednesday, October 2, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Hurricane suggestions; debate fallout; Mideast fog of war; exposing NYT propaganda; random notions; meme of the week; more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

All the uninformed leftoid dopes bleating "muh colonialism!" about Israel/Lebanon might want to ask why Christians have been driven from Lebanon and why an Islamic militia is running swathes of this formerly stable, prosperous, Christian country. There's your colonialism.
https://twitter.com/LeoKearse/status/1842148888914129021/photo/1

 

[GURPS]

AP’s Josh Boak: “And then secondly, could you clarify some of your comments yesterday with regard to strikes on Iranian oil facilities. What did you mean by them given some of the reactions we're seeing in the market?”

Biden: “Well, look, the Israelis have not concluded how they – what they're going to do in terms of a strike. That's under discussion. I think there are if – if I were in those shoes, I'd be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields.”






ABC’s Selina Wang: “But over the past few months they've consistently defied your administration's own advice, so do you believe that the Israelis are going to listen to the advice you're giving them?”

President Biden: “What I know is the plan that I put together received the support of the UN Security Council – the vast majority of our allies around the world as a way to bring this to an end. One of the – look, the Israelis have every right to respond to the vicious attacks on them, not just from the Iranians, but from everyone from Hezbollah to the Houthis. Anyway – and – uh – but the fact is that – um – they have to be very much more careful about dealing with civilian casualties.”

Wang: “So how should they respond? You expressed concerns about attacks on Iranian oil facilities. How should they respond?”

Biden: “That's between me and them.”