Silence In Syria. Panic In Iran - Another Look

I had no intention of commenting upon Syria's silence regarding the Israeli air strike deep inside that country. I've read a number of analyses about the strike, many of which imply that the attack was to take out either chemical and biological weapons stores shipped in from Iraq by Saddam before we invaded, or a “dirty” bomb factory being used to create weapons that would spread radioactive materials over a wide area.

This same air strike is said to have stricken fear into the heart of the ruling mullahs in Iran, creating a panic amongst them.

Both premises may be true.

On the other hand it may be likely that the mullahs have too many things to worry about without being bothered by an air strike that demonstrated that all of the sophisticated air defense weapons systems that both Syria and Iran spent millions of dollars to acquire are worth bupkis when it comes to defending against Western military technology.

Iran's economy is in shambles, despite their oil wealth. Because of this and the more frequent demonstrations against the mullahs by Iranian citizens, the mullahs biggest fear may be an uprising by their own people.

Considering how often America has threatened Iran with the same “If you kill Americans, you'll pay the price” line over the years, I'm not surprised they might not take us seriously.

Of course they do have the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq, each showing what happens if they push America too far. If nothing else, the Israeli air strike into Syria (undoubtedly with a little help from us) showed the Iranians that they aren't as safe and secure as they had come to believe. Somewhere deep down inside they know that they could end up suffering the same fate as Saddam and his cronies should they finally push us too far.

Maybe they have.....