The 10/29/21 dispatch.
Discover more from The View from the Front. By Stan R. Mitchell.
The 10/29/21 dispatch.
Happy Friday! Hope everyone has had a great week.
I thought I’d lead this week’s edition with a pretty scary story from The Economist.
In the October 30th edition, The Economist published the article: “Israel again rattles its sabre at Iran. A military response is readied as hope for a nuclear deal fades.”
The article lays out both the increasing sense of urgency, as well as the increasing potential, for Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, as they’ve done to other countries in the past.
The Economist described a massive recent aerial exercise by Israel, which curiously simulated the strike-package needed for Iran. The article also reminded readers that Israel has twice bombed its enemies’ nuclear facilities — striking an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and a Syrian one in 2007.
But this time it would not be simple. This would not be an easy strike for Israel. The attacks would have to occur more than 1,000 miles away, and air-to-air refueling would certainly be required. (See map below.) Additionally, Iran’s anti-air defenses are pretty good, and clearly, this would lead to a war between the two countries, which could spread wider than initially expected.
As The Economist noted:
Iran “sponsors proxy militias—in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon—that give it military reach across the region. Hizbullah in Lebanon has thousands of rockets that can be rained down on Israel’s cities, as well as guided missiles and drones that can strike accurately. Israel, military officials note, has just a handful of power stations and desalination plants, and a single international airport. Hitting these would cause strategic damage.”
Read the article if you get a chance. You can pick up the most recent paper edition or subscribe; it’s definitely a great publication.
I guess while we’re frightening each other today, I should also share this article below:
The article goes in-depth about recent increasing coordination and training between China and Russia. I’m not going to go too in depth into the article. It’s free to read at the link, if you’re needing that additional pre-Halloween scare:
Moving along, for your tech hit this week, there’s this:
Full article link: Unmanned tech dominates Turkey’s border security summit.
In European news, I thought President Joe Biden did a first-rate job trying to repair the rift with France over the nuclear sub deal. See video below.
If you’ve missed this whole mess, and it WAS a mess, you can read all about that rift here, in a previous edition that I wrote.
Finally, I thought I’d wrap up this edition with two things.
First, here’s a beautiful picture of an Osprey, just because I love the Marine Corps and all our service members protecting us across the world.
And secondly, here’s some habits to make sure you’re practicing.
That’s it for this post. Stay safe and be kind. And I’d love to hear any comments that you may have below. And, as always, please share this post if you enjoyed it.
Also, if you haven’t already, please sign up for email notifications. (They’re FREE. Unless would like to support what I’m doing by contributing $5 a month; cancel at any time.)
Every Tuesday and Friday, I write about conflicts and military matters that are happening throughout the world. I do this from a moderate perspective that focuses on unity in our country. I also don’t believe in clickbait, over-the-top headlines, or other tactics that increase fear or panic, all in the hope of web traffic. You will always get the sober, mature view, with a slight bit of my optimism peering through.
Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my books. I write fast-paced military and mystery thrillers. You can find all ten books here: amazon.com.