Criticism of Israel's Damascus strike is dead wrong
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Iranian diplomats reacted furiously to Monday's Israeli airstrike on a building adjacent to Iran's consulate in Syria. The Biden administration appears almost as peeved. State Department officials hint that Israel gave the United States very little notice of the airstrike. This reticence indicates that senior Israeli military officials no longer trust the White House to keep pending operations secret and may affirm rumors that the Biden administration previously forced Israel to call off an airstrike on a high-value terrorist target in Beirut. Recently retired Central Intelligence Agency official Ralph Goss, likely reflecting the views of his colleagues in Langley, Virginia, called the Israeli strike "reckless" and added, "It will only result in escalation by Iran and its proxies."
Critics of the strike get responsibility exactly backward.
First, the Iranian regime has the gall to complain about violation of the sanctity of its embassy. No Iranian official has apologized for the 1979 seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran, nor has ad the regime paid any price for terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait in 1981, the U.S. and French embassies in Lebanon two years later, or the Israeli embassies in Argentina, Georgia, India, or Thailand.
Second, U.S. criticism of Israel is hypocritical given the U.S. history of targeted strikes on terrorists, including Al Qaeda leaders Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani. There is no difference between these terrorists and Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, nor do Israelis have any less right to prevent themselves from being victims of terrorism than Americans have. Jewish lives matter.
Third, the problem is far less Israel's strike and more the fact that the Biden administration flooded the Iranian regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with billions of dollars they would not have had if the White House maintained "Maximum Pressure." Put another way, any escalation will be national security adviser Jake Sullivan's war, because of the naivete of his outreach to Iran and his willingness across more than a decade to strengthen and normalize the Iranian regime.
When Iran's designated coordinator for terrorism against Israel and the West gets caught red-handed meeting and coordinating with terrorists, there should be no international sympathy nor Western second-guessing. Rather, there should be celebration: Not only did Israel hit its target, but it also so thoroughly penetrated the Qods Force, Islamic Jihad, or Hezbollah that it was able to gather actionable intelligence.
To blame Israel for any Iranian retaliation is to draw moral equivalence between a democracy and a terrorism sponsor. It is the equivalent of telling an abused wife that she should put up with beatings lest she provoke her tormentor even more. To handwring about retaliation is to rationalize terrorism and give Tehran a green light to attack.
The White House should thank Israel for removing Zahedi from the battlefield. He posed as great a threat to Americans as to Israelis. The U.S. government should never condemn a liberal democracy for preempting and preventing terrorist attacks by groups sworn to its annihilation who openly embrace genocide.
It is time for moral clarity.
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We have created our very own Frankenstein monster. A country that is just as militaristic, powerful, and arrogant as we are.
We have one major weakness that Israel doesn't. The NATO tail that continuously wags the US dog.
Well, NATO and Brandon. Brandon is all any country needs when it comes to detriments.
The most dysfunctional sand box in the world will continue to play it's never ending game of "stop touching me"; at least the US can truthfully say we are fully funding both sides in the game this time.
Your comment reeks of stupidity. You do understand that NATO and our other alliances are the reason we are able to project 24 hour power around the globe right?
You do understand that having troop presence in just about every country around the globe is asinine right?
You do understand that the US wastes more money on military ventures for the benefit of our European allies than they do? The US does the heavy lifting. European countries just offer excuses.
You do understand that when NATO countries that border Ukraine feared Russia they didn't call for NATO forces- they screamed for US forces.
Funny, why wouldn't they want NATO forces? Perhaps because Russia isn't afraid of NATO- just the US?
So would you rather that our allies were weak and unable to defend themselves-- so that if and when a country such as Russia attacks them they are weak and unable to defend themselves-- so we have to send in American troops to defend them?
What country would that be? (I don't think that any country even comes close to the U.S. in terms of power...)
????
Do you actually believe that we are funding Iran?
Glad Israel struck. If the high profile targets want to hide behind civilians... then i guess civillians will die. A war cannot be fought or won if certain people and places are completely off limits.
Don't worry, Israel cares as much about Palestinian civilian lives as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the PA do.
Israel proves it every day not just in Gaza, but the West Bank with their settlement expansion, settlers threatening and killing Palestinian civilians, and unwarranted mass arrests of Palestinian civilians. The PA doesn't give a shit so long as US/Israeli money keeps flowing to their elites.
Read the article again.
This strike was not on Gaza-- rather it was on Damascus.
Damascus is not in Gaza-- it is in Syria!!!
And it has been for quite a while:
Damascus is the capital of Syria , the oldest capital in the world.
About Syria:
Being ranked third last on the 2022 Global Peace Index and 5th highest in the 2023 Fragile States Index, [12] [13] Syria is one of the most violent countries in the world. The country is amongst the most dangerous places for journalism and is ranked 6th worst in 2023 World Press Freedom Index . [14] [15]
Syria is the most corrupt country in the MENA region and was ranked the second lowest globally on the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index . [d]
The country has also become the epicentre of a state-sponsored multi-billion dollar illicit drug cartel , the largest in the world.
The Syrian civil war has killed more than 570,000 people, with pro-Assad forces causing more than 90% of the total civilian casualties . [e] The war led to the Syrian refugee crisis , with an estimated 7.6 million internally displaced people (July 2015 UNHCR figure) and over 5 million refugees (July 2017 registered by UNHCR ), [24] making population assessment difficult in recent years.
The war has also worsened economic conditions, with more than 90% of the population living in poverty and 80% facing food insecurity .
Don't worry,
Relax-- no one here is worrying!
Any strike on terrorism is a good thing
Based on his comments here. apparently Ronin2 would disagree with you.