So far, so good. The Iranian retaliatory effort has been both remarkably weak and somewhat incomprehensible. They have fired missiles at Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and of course Israel. In one stroke, they have managed to not have hit much of anything, but at the same time potentially motivated every Arab state in the region to support the US and Israel.
My sense is that US forces have concentrated on air defense, ballistic missile stockpiles, command and control, naval assets, and individual launchers. The IDF seems to have taken the lead in the decapitation strikes which seem to have at least killed the RGC Commanding General and the Defense Minister.
Unlike the Gulf War when we had a terrible time finding scud launchers before they fired, I suspect we have flooded the zone with UAVs carrying air to ground munitions. They loiter over designated kill zones and launch on anything entering the zone meeting a launcher description.
Also note, this attack was initiated during daylight well into the morning in Iran. Unlike middle of the night attacks, these were designed to take out leadership and staffs, not just the command center.
I am a little concerned that we may be too late. If the casualty reports are accurate, the RGC inflicted enormous injury on the protest movement weeks ago. Hopefully there is still a core organization to take action.
Finally, it is about time for the democrats and Rand Paul to start screaming about presidential overreach. This action takes a lot of courage on the part of the President. He is defying a major slice of the louder and more ignorant MAGA base by attempting regime change. That may reduce their enthusiasm in the fall midterms. If the campaign is unsuccessful, he has given the democrats, who sadly are praying for failure, a major issue for the fall. Sometimes real leadership means simply attempting to do the right thing regardless of political consequences.
