Game of Drones

It’s becoming increasingly clear that when it comes to geopolitical bellicosity, there is no word for “Uncle” in Arabic or Farsi.

In its war with Iran, the United States is learning what Israel has long known about its Islamist enemies: perpetually locked and loaded in apocalyptic, messianic, end-of-days dreamscapes, they will respond to total defeats by not surrendering and then, like psychopaths, emerge from the darkness and claim victory.

Therein lies a war strategy where to the survivors go the spoils.

No matter what weapons they have left, they won’t put them down. No matter how many losses they have suffered—the numbers of their own people who get killed or who they themselves murder—they will never cry “Uncle!” Survival alone leads them to issue new threats, renewed promises to teach mightier nations a lesson—blowhards without the capacity to deal any significant blows.

That pretty much sums up Iran’s situation right now as it desperately hangs on in a war it lost the moment it started. Whether it goes by the American name given to this joint United States-Israeli operation, Epic Fury, or Israel’s, Roaring Lion, Iran has retaliated with all the fierceness of a tattered Persian rug.

During the first 18 days of the war, 18 of its senior leaders were assassinated. Everyone—the Supreme Leader, the Intelligence Minister, security and nuclear policymaker, the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (along with his predecessor back in June’s 12-Day War), the Defense Minister, the Chief of Staff of Iran’s armed forces, and the Commander of the IRGC’s paramilitary force—are now all dead.

Fearing for his life, the current Supreme Leader has yet to make a public appearance, an impotence that has as much to do with his manhood (fertility treatments in Europe?) as it does his political authority. These days, having a lofty position in Iran’s political establishment is both a dubious honor and death sentence. Israel has made it a game of Whack-a-Mullah.

These days, having a lofty position in Iran’s political establishment is both a dubious honor and death sentence. Israel has made it a game of Whack-a-Mullah.

As for weaponry, the United States and Israel have taken 290 Iranian missile launchers out of commission. Only an estimated 130 are still operational. Israeli intelligence believe that fewer than 500 ballistic missiles are still in Iran’s arsenal (2,410 were fired but most were destroyed by air-defense systems early in the war), out of approximately 3,000 ballistic missiles and tens of thousands of drones when the Ayatollah’s smack-talk was at its loudest.

Both the missile and drone stockpiles have been severely degraded. Iran’s missile launches have plummeted by 92 percent.

Drones are another matter entirely, however. Iran is now largely reducing this war to a game of drones. While drone launches are reportedly down by as much as 73 percent, Iran nonetheless had tens of thousands of Shahed one-way attack drones at its disposal at the outset of the campaign.

The problem is that unlike missiles, drones are far less expensive to manufacture and much faster to deploy. Bombarded factories can be easily rebuilt. These drones function as launchers in the air that have placed energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in jeopardy.

It has created a chokehold on the shipping lanes for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to increased energy prices worldwide. With air superiority claimed by the United States and Israel, and without an air force or navy of their own, Iran has decided that economic pain is a legitimate war aim—and its fellow Gulf neighbors should pay a price for siding with the Americans and Zionists.

So, their own radar systems, embassies, energy infrastructure, airports and commercial ships—along with their civilian population centers—have become ready targets. The Gulf states are finally getting a glimpse of what it feels like to be Israel.

Meanwhile, America’s own supply of weaponry is dwindling just as 2,500 Marines are headed to the region either to put boots on the ground, or serve as a deterrent to Iran’s menacing activities in the region. Gulf states such as the Emirates are asking the United States to supply them with air-defense missiles, anti-drone interceptors and radar equipment.

Perhaps the most shocking discovery is that the ballistic missiles in Iran’s arsenal, we have since come to learn, can travel 4,500 kilometers from Tehran. European capitals are all potential targets.

Suddenly, blasé NATO nations that have refused to assist the United States even in the small task of securing the Strait of Hormuz, may have to finally concede that this is their war, after all. Iran always maintained that its ballistic missiles were short-range, just as their uranium enrichment was only for civilian purposes.

Both claims have repeatedly been shown to be false. Yet, there are still those who insist that Iran poses no threat to anyone aside from Jews (and the Iranian people). Islamists are bewitched by the West’s gullibility. They know that charges of Islamophobia repel all criticism and dissent.

When terrorists openly tell you who they are, believe them. The next world, to them, is more beguiling than the present one; and the West does place a higher value on human life—not because I say so, but because they do! There’s no reason to refute their logic or dismiss their intent. Presume that the ravings are insane, but easily acted upon.

When terrorists openly tell you who they are, believe them. The next world, to them, is more beguiling than the present one; and the West does place a higher value on human life—not because I say so, but because they do!

I realize that no one in your building on Park Avenue, or in the gated communities of Boca Raton or Brentwood, would ever behead a fellow human being. Savages would never get approval from your condo boards and town councils (wait and see what happens when Sharia law comes to Malibu!). Barbarism comes naturally to Islamists, who have nothing in common with your friends and neighbors.

We are getting terribly sloppy and indifferent to terrorism. We forgot all about those color-coded warnings that heightened anxieties after 9/11, and the 300 people seriously wounded in the Boston Marathon bombing, in which three lost their lives and 17 lost limbs.

Our memories are so dim and our will to live so diminished, we don’t seem worried by the fact that our Department of Homeland Security, and TSA agents, are not getting paid just when security over our homeland is needed more than ever. After 9/11 we were vigilant about borders and entry into the United States. Today we have over 20 million unvetted illegal immigrants living among us. Odds-makers are taking side bets on sleeper cells suddenly awakening.

What will it take for the rest of us to awaken?

Some of this can be blamed on heavy doses of stupidity and neglect. But it’s also true that we’ll accept any excuse not to speak ill of terrorists (or, heaven forbid, take action against them) because it forces an honest look at Islam—and that would constitute political incorrectness in the United States and a hate crime in Europe. Americans live in fear of insulting Muslims; Europeans fear inciting them.

As for Islamist Iran that can’t be persuaded to surrender, we need a Dutch Uncle to read them the Riot Act.