LOS ANGELES.–Saying he delivered a rude “slap to America’s face,” Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has nothing left other than face-saving smoke blowing for domestic consumption. After cutting of the Internet to all of Iran’s 90 million people, the Ayatollah thinks he can still get away with the same gaslighting he’s done for years promising to destroy Israel and insult the U.S. Khamenei came to power after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei in 1989, the father of the the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But the last two-weeks proved disastrous for the Ayatollah in terms to exposing to world leader the ineffectual nature of the vaunted Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu utterly humiliated Khamenei for the 12-day war, flying bombing missions without any resistance, hitting Iranian military targets at will, proving Iran is nothing more than a paper tiger.
All anyone heard over Khamenei’s reign was how superior the Iranian military was compared to anything else in the Mideast. So when Netanyahu decided to go to war June 13, no one knew what to expect, thinking it would ignite a wider war across the Middle East. When no other country intervened, it killed the fake news narrative that Israel would create a wider Mideast conflict. As the bombing went on, it was clear that Iran had no defenses against Israel’s targeted aerial bombardment, showing that Iran’s missile defense didn’t stop Israel’s conventional air force. Israeli pilots had their way without resistance hitting all their targets at nuclear sites but at airports, silos and ballistic missile factors. By the time Trump intervened June 23 with B-2 bomber strikes, there was no Iranian resistance on the land or in the air, leaving Iran’s nuke sites as open targets.
Khamenei offered his own fake bomb damage assessment to Trump’s attacks on Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuke sites. “They could not achieve anything significant,” Khamenei said, not admitting that all three uranium enrichment sites were put out of commission for the foreseeable future. Khamenei mentioned nothing publicly about the B-2 Stealth Bomber strikes on Fordo and Isfahan, that were struck with 16 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs. “I think annihilated is too much, but it suffered enormous damage,” said U.N. IAEA Secretary-Gen. Raphael Grossi what Trump said all along, “complete obliteration.” Everyone likes to quibble over words but Grossi confirmed that the damage was not minor has pushed by CNN and the New York Times, but significant, putting all enrichment facilities out of commission for the foreseeable future.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Bagheri admitted “our nuclear installation have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” wondering how long he’ll last in his current position. Khamenei claimed the U.S. intervened to save Israel from imminent defeat, saying the exact opposite of reality. Netanyahu had hammered Iran military, Revolutionary Guard headquarters, nuke program and many other targets over 12-days. Israel was pummeling Iran, quite the opposite of the Ayatollah’s rubbish. “The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered as slap to America’s face,” Khamenei said. “This action can be repeated in the future,” assuring the Iranian public about the great Iranian victory. Khamenei boasted about striking Al Ubeid air base in Qatar, despite Qatar saying Patriot Missile batteries prevented all Iranian missiles from striking any targets.
During the 12-day war, Iran fired 550 missiles at Israel with its Iron Dome missile defense system intercepting 90% of them. Israel lost 28 people with more than 1,000 wounded. Iran lost 1,054 military and civilians with 4,476 wounded in the 12-day conflict. Whatever the casualties, it was clear that the Ayatollah wanted a truce and agreed to resume nuke talks with the U.S. to prevent another war. Iran’s most closely guarded secret was not its nuclear enrichment program but all the fake publicity surrounding the power of the Iranian military. After 12 days of war, Iran was full exposed as defenseless, with Israel picking its targets and degrading Iran’s military to the point it’s vulnerable to an internal or external coup. Trump decided it was OK to leave the Ayatollah’s mullah regime in power, now that it faced the ugly reality of military weakness.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.