U.S. Scaremongers About Iranian Missiles But Reduces Mideast Missile Defense

moon of alabama

The propaganda of the Trump administration says that all must fear those ghastly Iranian missiles:

Trump’s Iran envoy blasts Tehran missile work .. - Sep 19

Brian Hook, the US special envoy on Iran, cited Iran’s continuing development, testing and transfer of ballistic missile technology as a key flaw of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from in May.

John Bolton warns Iran 'there will be hell to pay' if aggression continues: 'We will come after you' - Sep 24

The Iran nuclear deal, Bolton said Tuesday, "did nothing to address the regime’s destabilizing activities or its ballistic missile development and proliferation.

Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly - Sep 25

The Iran deal was a windfall for Iran’s leaders. In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget grew nearly 40 percent. The dictatorship used the funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, increase internal repression, finance terrorism, and fund havoc and slaughter in Syria and Yemen.

As with any government one must look at what the Trump administration actually does, not what it says.

U.S. Pulling Some Missile-Defense Systems Out of Mideast - Sep 26

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is pulling four Patriot missile systems out of Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain next month in a realignment of forces and capabilities ..
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Two Patriot missile systems will be redeployed from Kuwait, and one each from Jordan and Bahrain, officials said. Patriots are mobile missile systems capable of shooting down missiles and planes.The four systems have been taken offline and will be redeployed by next month, officials said. There are no plans for any of them to be replaced, ..

The Patriot missile defenses the U.S. kept in those countries were protecting U.S. bases in the region. If these were really threatened by Iranian missiles this reduction of defensive capabilities would be irresponsible. But the simple truth is that Iran's meager capabilities are no threat at all:

Patriot systems in the Gulf may not serve the purpose they once did, said Anthony Cordesman, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C. That is in part because Iran lacks the kind of missile capability required to level precision attacks.In addition, if the Patriot deployments to the Gulf region were intended mainly for air defenses, that threat simply doesn’t exist as it once did, he said. Iran now is no match for U.S. allies in the Gulf region, which have superior air forces.

The Trump administration knows well that Iran's missile capabilities are no threat at all. Iran's best defense capabilities are its location next to a major hydrocarbon transport route, the Strait of Hormuz, and its ability to respond asymmetrically through proxy-forces.

The hype about "Iran's missiles" is just for show. It is a cheap way to convince the Saudis and the Zionist that Trump is doing something they like.

Posted by b on September 26, 2018 at 09:51 AM | Permalink