I have read about several instances of Merkava destroyed since October 8. Interestingly, all of those were hit by anti-tank mines or IED, not anti-tank missiles.
I wish he and his loathsome kingdom would be cast out in the cold, just like Iran is. You make a succint point. It is what it is and itās not just that the geopolitical alliance, which I like to call the Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact (because it is an alliance between ideologically opposed actors, much like in the historical pact in question) between the US and the House of Saud still goes on. They get away with worse than murder all the time as long as they donāt rock the boat too much and even then, as in the murder of Kashoggi, self interest of the US predictably demands that he gets away with it.
But at least as football fans, aka not geopolitical actors that must take other geopolitical considerations into account, we can oppose Saudi control and ownership and more. I wish everyone close to the House of saud to get a popular and economic backclash. States may need to deal with them, but as individuals we certainly donāt.
And yes, also the Emirates. Most people donāt realise that if you took the money out of these regimes, they would be utterly oppressive (are at this time) but that the money they flood into their citizens pockets keep them appeased.
The Iranian attack was very, very much provoked by Israel, but has only very indirectly anything to do with Israelās brutal Gaza campaign, which is terribly inconvenient for Iran but not critical. Indirectly only because the Gaza campaign triggered by Hamas oct 7 attack, forced Hezbollah to take part as part of the Axis and shell Israeli towns and military positions in the north, later triggering the new war between Hezbollah and Israel, where Israel killed Nasrallah and the Hezbollah leadership as well as Iranian generals.
It is the killing of Nasrallah (far more than Haniyeh) and the Hezbollah leadership as well as the killing of senior IRGC personell in Lebanon and Syria that made Iran decide to attack Israel. Hamas and Gaza is not that important for Iran, just useful. Hezbollah is.
And Iran is far from peaceful, it has been engaged in imperial proxy wars and has attempted to dominate multiple countries in the Middle East for many decades. The strike on Israel was far from a humanitarian intervention. Itās chiefly about Iranian geopolitical self interests to protect its spider web and increase morale of it, as well as deterrence visa vi Israel.
https://x.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/1841562665107230819
https://x.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/1841571354912469120
https://x.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/1841575499170251241
Just something about being media savvy and wading through info war material/war propaganda, since I feel like teaching at the moment for some strange reason. This post is very random and you may just scroll on. Itās not news this and maybe I am just bored.
I see many Hamas videos and I have never posted them before. I am sure many of you have seen them before as well. I am just posting one now, just to explain why I donāt post them. Why donāt I post them usually, I post so much battle footage from Ukraine and Russia? Well the answer is that I donāt know what they are showing. Unlike battle videos from Ukraine, which are uncut and show everything, Hamas videos on attacks on enemy armour show someone talking, usually praying, then aiming, everything else is usually greyed out for security reasons (Op-Sec is understandable). Then he shoots the RPG, usually seemingly hitting the Israeli vehicle. But does it kill or seriously damage the vehicle ? Often it does not, we know that from vehicle losses, but Hamas propaganda videos show it as a kill, always. The video always, always cut when the vehicle is seemingly hit. I say seemingly, usually you see a fireball. Why do I say seemingly ? Because of Trophy and armour: Trophy (countermeasure) - Wikipedia
Which is an explosive charge that detonates and if it works, kills the warhead so it does not penetrate (most RPGs can only pentrate a tank with luck anyway). Incredibly annoyingly with Hamas videos, they always cut them at the fireball. Real footage that is not slick propaganda, shows the aftermath of a hit, like we see thousands of in Ukraine where we see the brutal truth of war. In the Hamas propaganda videos, which are very similar to ISIS videos from Syria (same graphics and computer bullshit), this is almost never shown, so itās impossible to know what you see, and if there is one thing I never post (this is an exception) knowingly, it is propaganda that can be disinformation or misleading and Hamas videos are very often at least misleading to a trained eye (Hezbollah videos tends to be much better and show a far clearer picture, or it used to be so in the past at least). Remember, if you ever see a war video and it is cut the second the target is hit, be very skeptical of what you seemingly see. There is always a reason why such videos are cut and when there is methodology regarding cutting them and glammy computer graphics inserted with cool sounds, be even more critical. Of course, I have seen several Hamas videos where an Israeli soldier is sniped, but that hardly has news value and is also quite uninteresting and have no value outside social pornography or heightening morale amongst Hamas fans (destruction of material and mass casualty of troops far more interesting, since it can change outcome of an operation) and I never post battle footage from Ukraine where a single Russian or a single Ukrainian are killed either, as it has no value and we know it is happening daily anyway. My twitter feed is full of FPV drone kills of individual troops, but I donāt usually post such videos unless they are remarkable and I deem it news worthy, since I find it generally ugly.
But yes, this video. This is an example of a video where itās impossible to know what happened. I strongly suspect a failed attacks (at least most of them), but I donāt know that, itās just an educated guess. Most people when they see this video will think they see destroyed Israeli tanks though. This is because they donāt understand what they are seeing and because they donāt consider the video and understand why it is cut and you see no aftermath.
Take a very careful look at this; and ask yourself the question: What do I really see here ?
https://x.com/warfareanalysis/status/1841527549001601523
My Ted Talk about misleading propaganda videos is now over. Regular disaster news will follow.
Asshole
NEW
ā Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 3, 2024
Crude oil price jumps 5% to $77 a barrel after President Biden, asked if he would support Israel striking Iranās oil facilities, responds āweāre discussing thatā: https://t.co/4jCfFOLinQ pic.twitter.com/K8NVILMIEy
Interesting how people havenāt got angry about Biden facilitating a genocide but are now worked up about the impact on the price of petrol
Below 80 a barrel is still a low price for oil, so donāt understand the complaints.
A shame they didnāt hit the Russians, but still a target I donāt complain about. Russian personell, aircraft and equippment was unfortunately not targeted nor hit, just the Syrian section of the airfield which had just recieved an Iranian shipment of arms destined for Hezbollah.
https://x.com/yarotrof/status/1841733469291893068
https://x.com/Levant_24_/status/1841680657115643952
https://x.com/Qidlbi/status/1841666735197323274
https://x.com/Schizointel/status/1841670249113944209
The Iranian strike didnāt really do much damage on military targets despite the many missiles that struck around various bases.
https://x.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1841908593882497223
https://x.com/PennyGodfather/status/1841909008195846346
https://x.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/1841909752470897149
So they claim:
https://x.com/Apex_WW/status/1841901932157260074
Itās not like the Biden administration has been saying otherwiseā¦
Probably the most peculiar news of the day.
A yazidi girl (11 at the time) that was captured by ISIS during the attempted genocide of Yazidis, gang raped by several warriors, was later sold as a sex slave to a Palestinian ISIS member, raped again and later forced to marry him. She was saved a few days ago after 11 years as a sex slave. A good reminder of the sad fate of the small ethnic group Yazidis. Many Yazidi (and some other non-Muslims) slaves are still being held, trafficked around the Middle East by extremist salafists and whabists, who see the Yazidis as devil worshippers and unfit to be treated as human beings. So they are sex slaves or in some cases, conscripted wives. The Yazidi men were just killed of course, as you may remember from the time when ISIS was expanding and cleansing itās so called caliphate of unortodox believers and non-Muslims.
https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1841949395517874613
https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1841960144810475603
https://x.com/WarWatchs/status/1841955640861954295
https://www.axios.com/2024/10/03/hezbollah-leader-israel-airstrike-beirut-lebanon
Seems like an unwise idea:
https://x.com/tala_taslimi/status/1841840862168269048
If the IDF assassinate him Iran will go much, much bigger in retaliation than weāve seenā¦ and Israel will have then have the pretext it has been wanting to go after Iran.