The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight: Consequences of War with Iran
“The ineptitude of Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio is turning the war against Iran into a very lethal version of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.” – Chris Hedges
This past week, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Chris Hedges, interviewed Alastair Crooke, former British diplomat, who served for many years in the Middle East, working as a security advisor to the EU special envoy to the Middle East. He assisted in efforts to set up negotiations and truces between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian resistance groups with Israel. He was instrumental in establishing the 2002 ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Crooke is also the author of Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, which analyzes the ascendancy of Islamic movements in the Middle East.”
During the interview Crooke offers a forensic analysis of what is actually taking place across the Middle East since the murder of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, at his home in Tehran. To put it mildly, Iran is now raining holy hell on Israel, as well as U.S. military bases located in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Iran is even bombing Dubai, once thought as a safe haven for international business personnel.
How did we get here?
In late December Netanyahu met with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He told Trump to forget negotiating a nuclear agreement with Iran. He said the first priority was to destroy Iran’s missile system. It was at this meeting that Netanyahu gave Trump no option but to attack Iran. This was compelled on him by Netanyahu.
What kind of missiles are we talking about?
Iran has fifty-seven underground missile sites loaded with Khorramshahr-4 hypersonic missiles, which can fly at Mach 14 and can penetrate Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. Each missile carries 80 submunition warheads, which are steerable, and can bomb a wide range of targets all at once.
Iran gave explicit warning regarding targets, saying the first focus will be American bases in the Gulf region. Iran has already destroyed four or five U. S. radar systems, costing more than a billion dollars each. The U.S. has lost all its radar capabilities in the Gulf. Probably the only radar capability left is in Israel. These were big radars that could see 500 miles. They were part of the most sophisticated element of U.S. ability to project a battlescape digitally through their satellites and through their radar systems in a joint approach.
Iran’s initial strategy has been to use older missile inventory and inexpensive drones in order to force Israel and the Gulf States to deplete their intercept capabilities. Some sources are saying the U.S. removed defensive missiles from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States and sent them to Israel, leaving U.S. bases and allies in the region defenseless.
What Americans are not seeing on the news is the damage inflicted on American bases, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere. In Israel it is illegal for people to photograph and send images of the destruction out to the world.
In addition to attacking U.S. military bases and knocking out radar, Iran is targeting desalinization plants that the Gulf region uses for water. By closing the Strait of Hormuz, shipments of oil cannot move out to the rest of the world, but also food shipments cannot get into the Gulf States, which depend on imported food.
Miscalculations by Trump and Israel
Clearly, Trump had zero understanding of Iran’s capability to cripple the Gulf States that allowed U.S. military installations. Israel, of course, did not expect their Iron Dome defense system to be so quickly annihilated.
A March 6th article, “Iran Has the West Over an Oil Barrel”, brings home the point that “Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait cannot continue oil/gas extraction for long while Hormuz remains closed.” Saudi Arabia extracts 10 million barrels of crude oil per day. Onsite storage is full. Iraq has reduced production by 1.5 million barrels a day. Other oil producing areas are cutting back. When storage is full, the only thing left is to stop production.
The U.S. is only beginning to realize the seriousness and the true timeline of the situation. Oil and gas production, once shuttered, takes time to restart. Every day that Hormuz remains closed increases the scope and intensity of the global energy crisis.
The U.S. has now started a global financial crisis with its war in Iran. Trump and his “Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight”, driven by hubris and deranged megalomania, are incapable of understanding or caring about the complex web of consequences they have leashed on the rest of the world.
“To the psychopathic people who truly own and run our world, dead Syrians, Ukrainians, Palestinians and Iranians just don’t matter. The one percent don’t care about Epstein Island either.” But they do care about money and when someone screws with their bottom line, they are going to be very upset. If Big Finance is losing because of this war, hopefully they will step in and put a stop to it.
