Obama's best solution for Syria: Blast the living shit out of Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Who would have thought that a wretched, backwards little country about which few in the west ever think, let alone care about, could trigger one of the world's great conflagrations?

There are no good guys in Syria's civil war. We are at the deplorable point in world affairs that the despotic Russian President Putin has more credibility than US Secretary of State Kerry, when the latter has said "moderates" are in charge of Syria's rebellion and the former called him a liar.

A world war is not going to break out if the US bombs Syria to punish it for using chemical weapons against rebels. But it's worth remembering that just under 100 years ago, the assassination of an Austrian archduke in Serbia triggered a war which was responsible for history's greatest loss of life of soldiers in battle. The point being, these things have a way of getting out of hand when national leaders don't know what they are doing.

Barack Obama is not a President whose leadership inspires great confidence on the world stage. It is for that very reason that he does need to keep his word and launch a punitive strike in Syria. Not to teach Bashar al-Assad a lesson, but to keep the world from spiraling into the even more chaotic state of instability that would worsen if miscreant nations realized that American threats carry no weight.

Because of Obama's dithering and then mishandling of the Syrian file, he now has to strike.

But strike whom?

The west has nothing to gain and much to lose if the scales are tipped too far in either direction in Syria. However one of the reasons Syria is a linchpin in its region is its close relationship with Iran and its influence in Lebanon with the Iranian-proxy terror group Hezbollah.

Both Iran and Hezbollah have sent fighters to support Assad in the civil war.

American military intelligence knows precisely where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah fighters serving Assad's cause are stationed.

It is they whom the US should strike, and it should be done decisively.

Syrians would not be infuriated at the deaths of foreigners that insinuated themselves into their domestic affairs. Assad would not be toppled by the loss of the Iranians and Hezbollah auxiliaries. But a clear message would be sent, both to the reprobate Mullahs in Tehran, who have terrorized the Middle East since the Khomeini revolution in 1979, and to their subordinate stooges who maintain a stranglehold over domestic affairs in Lebanon through thuggery and intimidation.

Obama could accomplish a great deal if he has the resolve to push through the measure. It would restore him as a world leader, help stave off the collapse of American credibility, and even give the US President an opportunity to provide a "teachable moment" to the world's most vile rogues.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad bitch-slapped by Revolutionary Guard commander

Iranian President and Holocaust-denier Mahmood Ahmedinejad may be crazy, but a Wiki-leak cable shows that among the cadre of theocrats in the Iranian Mullah-ocracy, there is some evidence he may be a relative moderate compared to his fanatical colleagues. The same cable also gives further evidence that the Iranian president is a figurehead who is far from being the guy who calls the shots in Iran.

This report makes Ahmedinejad seem like the casino "owner" played by Kevin Pollack in Marty Scorsese's movie, who does what he's told and signs what he's told.

According to source, President Ahmedinejad surprised other SNSC members by taking a surprisingly liberal posture during a mid January post-Ashura meeting of the SNSC called to discuss next steps on dealing with opposition protests.

Source said that Ahmedinejad claimed that "people feel suffocated," and mused that to defuse the situation it may be necessary to allow more personal and social freedoms, including more freedom of the press.

According to source, Ahmedinejad's statements infuriated Revolutionary Guard Chief of Staff Mohammed Ali Jafari, who exclaimed "You are wrong! (In fact) it is YOU who created this mess! And now you say give more freedom to the press?!" Source said that Jafarli then slapped Ahmedinejad in the face, causing an uproar and an immediate call for a break in the meeting, which was never resumed.



Did Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guard Commander eventually kiss and make up?

WikiLeaks explain how Iranian Revolutionary Guards evaded terror group designation

A classified cable from 2007, released recently by wiki-leaks. revealed that the Iranians had promised security cooperation in Iraq, but only if their Revolutionary Guards did not receive a terror group designation:

"Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) xxxxxxxxxxxx told London Iran Watcher xxxxxxxxxxxx  that Iran's cooperation on security in Iraq, though not yet evident, would be forthcoming, but in the same breath argued that a U.S. terrorist designation of the IRGC would prevent any such cooperation."

There has, for a long time, been a movement to have the Iranian Revolutionary Guards listed as a terror group in the west. There are clear terror links to them and they have a history of support for terrorism.

The leak helps explain why that designation may not yet have occurred.

The cable also confirmed the role of Iran in formenting terror and violence in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"for the USG to hold its hand on designation came xxxxxxxxxxxx engaged with the invited group at length on Tehran's view of U.S.-Iran relations, Iraqi security, and the nuclear issue. xxxxxxxxxxxx candid remarks, which included extremely vigorous exchanges with xxxxxxxxxxxx alternated between aggressive characterizations of Iran's relations in the Persian Gulf, admissions of the IRGC's presence and role in Iraq and Afghanistan, and apparently earnest statements of Iran's desire for cooperation with the United States."

Yet despite their remaining off the US State Department's list of terror groups, the Iranians failed to keep their word, as a subsequent cable in 2009 reveals:

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force (IRGC-QF) officers are active in Iraq, conducting traditional espionage and supporting violent extremists as well as supporting both legitimate and malign Iranian economic and cultural outreach. Iraqis and their government have demonstrated increasing willingness to push back against malign Iranian influence in the last year. Working with the Iraqis, we have succeeded in stopping some IRGC-QF activity through military operations and diplomatic engagement, while we prevented some IRGC-QF officers from entering Iraq through explicit warnings that we would target them unilaterally.


You can read the entire 2007 wiki leak below (click each one to enlarge)

Pt 1

Pt 2

Pt 3

Pt 4