No question, Iran has a number of very good generals. Their officers learned war fighting Saddam Hussein's army in the long war 1981-1989. The head of their Jerusalem/Quds Force, Major General Qassem Suleimani, is fairly credited with stopping the ISIS Islamist psychopaths from taking over Syria and taking and keeping the north and west of Iraq. Iran has good sensible leadership, generally,
But then Lieutenant General Hossein Salami gave on-air interviews where you have to wonder about the man's stability. He is a deputy head of IRGC -- their Green Beret-like elite army unit. His on-air claims have a cartoon quality. In the U.S. we don't hear stuff like this, not since Michelle Bachmann left Congress.
Perhaps the wildest part of this story is that the civil and theocratic elements of Iranian government decided to put Salami's raw video interviews on their broadcast television system. They even put him on air live.
Here's the calmer of his interviews, a November 2014 broadcast:
Lt.Gen. Salami: "We have created a balance (of deterrence) vis-a-vis our great enemies in the arena. We have blocked the enemies' means of military operation. We have created an invincible balance of deterrence vis-a-vis the enemy."
I will not indulge the temptation to pun-ish you with a play on salami and baloney.
Long interview in Farsi here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g5HRLshrc0
Terms of the U.N. Security Council deal the civilians cut with P5+1 ??? That's a No Go. Salami says that IRGC will never allow inspection of military bases. (What, too much booze? Smuggling?) He also claims to be able to take out Israel. And Iran's felangist-model street gangs known as the Basij will be copied all over the Middle East.
It's one thing after another.
This guy has to know about the U.S. Air Force and its shock-and-awe attacks on Iraq. If he reads open source backgrounders, he knows these planes fly out of the United States and Western Europe. He also has to know that U.S. Navy attack subs could sink the Iranian navy in what, an hour?
Deterrence? Really, no way.
Salami's not even lying. These claims are not constructed to generate credibility. You do not need your liespotting skills to dig out what's screwy.
There's worse in the way of megalomania. Salami put it out that America is near collapse. Maybe he's been reading the old school Fred Koch propaganda from the John Birch Society? Through the 1960s and 1970s America was always "two or three years" from takeover by an internal communist conspiracy.
And yes, Dear Hearts, those are the same pinko-faggot Commies who are going to take away our guns.
NRA, the Kochs and Salami have a lot in common. It's not just Americans who do this.
Which does not lead us back to Bachmann. Thankfully.
(I put a filter up to tell me when Salami flips his Go Viral routine. Researching this guy resembled early Woody Allen movies. He says... uh, what????.... with a remarkable regularity.)
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Iran's government does claim that they can retaliate for a military attack on Iran with a counterattack on Israel. I'd put more credibility to that if they hadn't put up CGI video that resembles a "Power Rangers" episode:
-- www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-tv-airs-animated-strike-on-tel-aviv-dimona/