I don’t think it’s a given that they side with their Muslim brothers.
As I mentioned earlier the Qataris we are friends with reckon that even though they don’t really like Israel they are happy to see Iran obliterated. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a few such as the Saudis pick the other side
Some reports that the US has gone to Defcon 4.
Also reports: The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Department confirms that the Natanz reactor, one of the country’s most critical nuclear facilities, has been destroyed.
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There’ll certainly be some Shia / Sunni divides but I’m not sure that any will side with Israel. Perhaps the best that can be expected is for some to stay out altogether. Which will certainly help.
To explain how we got here…
- October 7 attack by Hamas led to…
- Israeli attacks into Gaza led to…
- Hezbollah and other Iranian supported militias in Lebanon and Syria start attacks on Israel, which led to…
- Israel triggered the pager attack on Hezbollah leadership, demolished the Iranian proxies and the smuggling operations that Iran used to push weapons in order to threaten Israel, which led to…
- Iran launched a mass ballistic missile strike on Israel, which led to…
- Israel launched an air raid that took out Iran’s air defence network and most importantly Iran’s ballistic missile manufacturing capabilities, which led to…
- Iran no longer possessed weapons or proxies that could threaten Israel, so looks to have only had the nuclear weapon option left, so started pushing to deployable nuclear weapons, which led to….
- Israel can’t tolerate a state ending threat, so took military action to wipe out Iran’s nuclear capability.
Israel doesn’t have the payload needed to take out Iran’s hardened bunkers without US B-2s, so it is unclear if these strikes will end or just delay Iran’s push to a nuclear weapon.
From here, all sorts of escalation options exist. Both sides have had off-ramps to de-escalate through this entire messy journey and every single time the choice has been made to increase the violence and strategic risk.
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What? There are a number of Middle East countries that consider Iran a bigger strategic threat than Israel.
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Israel has gone beyond targeting the nuclear facilities. They’ve used air strikes and on the ground assassins to take out Iran’s nuclear scientists AND much of the military leadership. Multiple generals have been killed and military headquarters destroyed. Multiple apartment buildings have been hit, likely to take out key figures living within.
This will be seen by Iran as regime threatening, which will prevent any chance of de-escalation.
Edit - reports from Israeli sources that they took out Iran’s entire general staff.
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Iranian senior military leadership confirmed killed so far:
Major-General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran
Major-General Gholam Ali Rashid, Commander Iranian Armed Forced Central HQ
Major-General Hossein Salami, Commander Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps
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Targeted Murders is what this really is.
Using the term “Assassination” somehow seems to give the act legitimacy.
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Yeah. Everyone thinks “legitimacy” when they talk about the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, etc
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I’m trying not to use emotional language when relaying what I’m seeing here. This thread will be on a knife’s edge for getting shut down, so as much as I understand where you are coming from, let’s try to not let this one spiral out of control. It’s a pretty major world event and would be good to keep discussing.
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I agree…and I feel that my post was an objective one.
I don’t see that the discussion is balanced if all we do is tip toe around what’s happening to pander to a few who get too emotional when their view of things gets challenged.
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Meanwhile, twitter’s ad algorithm is selling me an egg cooking device to “control rogue shell fragments”. I’m thinking the key word match has got a tad confused.
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Let it out mate
Call it a genocide. You know you want to
Facts over opinions I’d say is a good start.
This thread won’t last long otherwise.
No…I really don’t…but no declaration of war has occurred so how is what has happened legitimate in the eyes of the world?
Would you be ok if another country targeted Australian Scientists?
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I think this is an unnecessary escalation by Israel that will lead to a mass amount of killing and destruction.
And I think that Iran has been equally responsible for causing mass amounts of killing and destruction.
Both parties in this rapidly growing conflict are morally bankrupt. Don’t take my beige words for approval of the ■■■■■■■ stupidity that is playing out. I despise the actions of both parties.
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