MissChief, in a general sense deception is
necessary in war.
We had a Ukranian exchange/liaison officer (a bit over 30 years ago) explain to us a few things about Soviet doctrine and
maskirovka, which he summed up as (roughly)
"If you don't have a deception plan you don't have a plan."
I have been using that line ever since in various discussions of military operations.
I wonder if I owe him royalty payments?
Originally Posted by
dead_pan
Does illustrate how important the US bases in Europe are, for all those NATO naysayers stateside.
Yep.
Originally Posted by
51bravo
Well we can all agree, it cant be a bluff anymore, the pure inertia is past V1 by now.
Who is this we, Kimo Sabe?
Originally Posted by
Asturias56
Trump has given them 10 days
If I recall the last time we went through this nut roll, President Trump made a lot of noise about "you have x number of days" (IIRC it was two weeks or 12 days, I'd need to go back and check) and then a few days later the American air strikes happened...well short of the alleged deadline.
I suspect that the leadership in Iran is keenly aware of that, and are in this case not resting on their heels.
As to whatever the Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini said: he's dead. There's been a new sheriff in town for over 35 years.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the Supreme Leader of Iran, a position he has held since 1989 - in other words, he's been in charge about three and a half times as long as the founder of the Islamic Republic ever was. I'd pay more attention to what he has to say.
As to Israeli involvement: I doubt that they'll play this time around. They are not part of the negotiating group, and as I read this current round of saber rattling (yes, it
may result in air strikes) it is meant to influence the current talks between the US and Iran.