US Helps Israel Thwart Iran Assault

The U.S. telegraphed more or less exactly what Iran was going to do via extremely good intelligence (reminiscent of the lead up to the invasion of Ukraine). It undoubtedly played a huge role bringing Jordan, Saudi Arabia and likely other Arab states into active and public armed action in defense of Israel. It positioned and deployed U.S. anti-ballistic destroyers and aerial assets to itself shoot down roughly a hundred of the estimated 300+ aerial devices Iran launched at Israel. Together, Israel, the U.S. and various allied Arab states took down 99% or more of all those devices. Iran launched a massive aerial bombardment and virtually none of it got through. And now the U.S. has managed to get Israel not to launch an immediate and inevitably escalatory retaliation.

It goes without saying that no administration works on its own. It comes to the game with the world's most powerful military and major power status. It's operating with Arab allies who have been gravitating toward a de facto anti-Iran alliance with Israel for years. And yet, anyone who knows anything about foreign or defense policy knows that most of it is all the endless number of things that can wrong and the one or two ways they can go right. Navigating the last week to this point today is a tour de force of international crisis management for the Biden White House.

Josh Marshall

And do you know what? The Biden Administration isn't sending ----------- out crowing about what at this moment appears to be a world class threading of the needle. The reason why not is that this situation is still very fluid and it's obviously not time to start spiking footballs in celebration.

However, I am going to keep mentioning that I find it more than curious - and a tremendous disservice to all Americans seeking to gain a fuller factual perspective from our media sources - that the statement released through the Iranian mission to the UN has received virtually no attention nor publicity when it alone clearly let's the West know that Iran had no asperations for a wider conflict with Israel:

Permanent Mission of I.R.Iran to UN, NY
@Iran_UN

Conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense, Iran's military action was in response to the Zionist regime's aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran's response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!

6:06 PM Apr 13, 2024

To me, the above statement set the foundation for allowing the repulsion of Iran's attack to be the end of open hostilities - at least for now. The cooperation of Arab countries helping Israel repel this attack would likely cease should Israel launch another attack on Iran after already bombing their Damascus consulate - regardless of the validity of their reason why.