The airstrike on Saudi Arabia this week is more than a little troubling for many reasons.
Not the least of which is what appears to be a ramping up of tensions by the mullahs of Iran. Whatever their protestations to the contrary, as the U.S. Secretary of State said, there’s no doubt Iran was behind it.
The Houthis in Yemen may have claimed responsibility, but that doesn’t stand up to any level of scrutiny. And, even if it did, they are funded by the mullahs of Iran and do their bidding.
When we look at satellite images we note the hits on the Saudi storage tanks appear to be on the northwest side, where Iran and Iraq is located. Yemen is well to the south west.
Another striking aspect is the Saudis were unable to stop the attack considering the millions they have spent on air defence. This tells us a couple of things.
First, the attack was likely the product of slow-moving drones or UAVs. Saudi air defence is set up to defend against conventional air attack using fighters and bombers.
Clearly, they have to re-think how they are defending themselves. But so too must all western nations inasmuch as we all use the same essential air defences as the Saudis.
But that, in the great scheme of things is not the most disturbing aspect of the attack on the Saudi oil production facilities. No, the surprising aspect was the precision of the attack. This satellite image shows direct hits on four storage tanks from the same northwesterly direction.
The U.S. has long had laser and GPS guided precision munitions. We saw that in the first Gulf War. Who can forget the live images of the cruise missiles being guided into direct strikes on specific buildings in Baghdad?
Even in the second Gulf War when the U.S. launched ‘Shock and Awe’ we saw their unique ability to hit specific targets while sparing civilian buildings in close proximity.
But now it appears that the Iranian mullahs may well have the same capability. That changes the equation significantly.
There seems to be little doubt there is going to be some kind of showdown between Iran and the Western allies, which now includes the Saudis. Iran is being squeezed to death economically by the West, notwithstanding the efforts of French President Macron to breathe fiscal life into them.
U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to get the mullahs to the negotiating table and thus far, they seem bent on suicide, because that is what they face if they refuse to negotiate. Whether it be by their own hand or a military confrontation with Western Allies including Israel, Jordan and the Saudis. What is patently obvious, and as has been stated by Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu is that Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
The Iranian escalation with the attack on the Saudi oil production facilities just underlines that position. What might they do with a nuclear weapon? These are not rational people and that is not likely to change anytime soon.
Frankly, the world’s best hope is for an uprising from within, some sort of Iranian spring so to speak. For the sake of the world, the mullahs need to be dethroned or eliminated. How that happens is yet to be determined. But happen, it must.
