Straight Talk | Iran's Fierce Stand: Decapitation Turning Into Nightmare For US? |
Straight Talk | Iran's Fierce Stand: Decapitation Turning Into Nightmare For US?
Sanbeer Singh Ranhotra
Decapitation works against brittle regimes with no contingency plans. Iran prepared for this moment through decades of sanctions and isolation.
Washington placed a high-stakes bet in late February. It assumed that “decapitation strikes" paired with overwhelming bombardment would shatter the Islamic Republic of Iran within days. The Supreme Leader would fall. The military command would fracture. Mass protests would erupt. The regime would collapse like a house of cards. Four weeks later, that calculation looks badly off the mark.
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died in the opening salvo on February 28. So did Ali Larijani, the security chief who briefly stepped into the void, killed in a follow-up strike on March 17. American and Israeli jets have pounded over 7,000 locations across Iran. They claim to have demolished 85 per cent of the country’s surface-to-air missiles and turned Revolutionary Guard bases into rubble.
The firepower proved devastating. What it did not prove to be was decisive.
Iran absorbed the blows, buried its dead and kept fighting. Instead of crowds toppling statues in Tehran, the country launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at American installations scattered across the Gulf. In fact, the only crowds that have so far come out on the streets of Iran are those sympathetic to the regime, chanting slogans of death to America.
Iran has struck bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and........