For months, we at Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix had asked why the Trump Administration hadn’t developed a strategy to confront Iran’s jihadi regime? This was after Iran downed a US reconnaissance drone and launched a drone and cruise missile attack crippling Saudi Arabia’s oil processing and storage facilities. The New Year saw an abrupt shift to active deterrence with the dramatic killing of Iran’s powerful Ouds Force commander Soleimani and the regime lying about its downing of a Ukrainian airliner with 176 passengers aboard shortly after it took off from Tehran’s Khomeini Airport. That set off massive Iranian protests calling for the fall of the hated Islamic regime and its Supreme Ruler, Ayatollah Khamenei.
The sequence of stunning events included a US air attack at an Iran Shiite proxy base in Iraq in late December that killed 25 fighters and destroyed Iranian supplied precision rockets used in an attack at a US base near Kirkuk killing a US contractor. That brought out Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia forces who tried to force entry to the US Embassy in Baghdad in the Green Zone; thwarted by the arrival of 100 US Marines from Kuwait. On January 3rd, Iran’s powerful Quds Force Commander and Number 2 Islamic Regime figure, General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi Shia proxy Commander Abu Mohammed Al- Humandis were killed in a US MQ9 Reaper drone strike at Baghdad airport. On January 7th the IRGC launched 15 missiles at US Iraqi bases, Al-Asad and Erbil in Western and Northern Iraq clearly aimed at killing US troops based there. There were no casualties, but there was damage to the facilities and destruction of a helicopter. Within hours of that on January 8th a “lethally incompetent attack” by an Iranian Russian-supplied Tor SA-15 air defense missile destroyed Ukrainian Air Flight Ps 752 with 176 passengers and air crew. Most of the victims aboard the fateful flight were ex-pat Canadian Iranians and Iranian students.
The Islamic regime was caught lying about the downing of the plane prompting massive protests across Iran. Videos of the protests revealed cries of “Death to the Dictators” and “Don’t blame America” as well as, beatings, use of tear gas and shooting of protesters by Iranian security police and the dreaded Basij paramilitaries. The Islamic regime was left stunned on its backfoot forced to acknowledge its downing Flight 752. Iran’s economy was already reeling from the Trump maximum pressure campaign and announcement of new sanctions. David Goldman in an Asia Times article cited how fragile the economy is with a drop in real income, swooning fertility, three years of drought and an incompetent water management system.
Beyond the Matrix 15JAN2020 - PODCAST