Ed Morrissey:
So say the cowards who thought they could keep their skirts clean in Tehran from the blood they spill throughout the region. They need to talk tough now, especially for domestic consumption, because the Israelis just exposed the IRGC as incompetent at external security again. The IDF easily penetrated their defenses a few months ago in a strike on an anti-aircraft system near their nuclear-research facility in Isfahan. As the Times of Israel also adds, the Mossad has succeeded in assassinating several officials and experts tied to that nuclear program over the years, but it's not clear to what extent the Iranian people themselves are aware of Israel's success in that campaign.
There's no hiding Haniyeh's death, however. He had just arrived to congratulate the new president of Iran and attend the inauguration. The regime played up his visit, as well as those by other leaders of their terrorist armies, as evidence of their mastery of the region. Israel's assassination punctures that illusion, and more dangerously, exposes the IRGC as perhaps nothing more than well-funded thugs rather than geniuses of totalitarianism. And that could have serious repercussions for an unpopular regime with an already restive population.
Unfortunately, that may make it more likely that Iran will retaliate directly and escalate the war in the region. They tried it once already in a large-scale missile attack that the US, Israel, Jordan, and the UK entirely thwarted, which is what led to the strike on Isfahan. The Iranians quieted down after that demonstration of superior Israeli skill, and perhaps that may still be enough for Tehran to farm out the retaliation to one of its proxies.
Because the message in Tehran yesterday was clear to the Ayatollah Khomenei: You could be next. And as much as these terrorist leaders like to talk about the joys of martyrdom, they seem very reluctant to volunteer.
Case in point: one Ismail Haniyeh, the multi-billionaire who celebrated martyrdom in Gaza from his Doha mansion's green-screen in October.
Well, congratulations, Mr, Haniyeh. You've finally been volunteered for a duty you spent every effort to avoid for the last few decades. Consider that in the context of cowardly, too.
# posted by Ranger @ 11:37 AM
