Israel Decapitated Iran: A Full Recap

In this episode, we delve into Israel's recent offensive against Iran, dubbed Operation Rising Lion. Discussing its strategic objectives, we explore the significant shift in modern warfare tactics and Iran's outdated response strategies. We highlight the intricate geopolitical implications, examining why Western nations, despite their recent criticisms of Israel, have uniformly supported this action. The conversation covers Iran's weakened state, the impact of toppling key military figures, and the broader effects on regional alliances. We also touch upon the moral complexities and potential future scenarios in the Middle East.

Malcolm Collins: In effect, Israel's offensive against Iran achieved what years of Gaza fighting could, not a broad realignment of Western support behind Israel,

Simone Collins: well, what stands out to me is that , this is really the solidification of a clear trend, which is the nature of warfare it's officially changed. What you see too is Iran's reaction is extremely old school. It's, we will send our missiles from our war chest and it's,

Malcolm Collins: we will get our regional players to attack you even though they have no technology or real power. Yeah. And I'll also say here that to me the biggest thing that this changes that the Ukraine situation didn't change is Iran was operating off of Cold War logic. It was build up less economically, less technologically developed regional allies. Mm-hmm. And if you have enough of these that they will be able to assist you when you go to war right. And what is Israel is showing is. Those sorts of allies don't matter one lick. Mm-hmm.

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm Collins: Hello Simone. Today we are going to be asking the question, why did Israel decide to attack Iran right now? We are going to be looking at this within a few interesting contexts. One is, is. When they did this attack, I was certain because of how negative all the western countries have been on them for the Gaza situation that they've been generally almost unanimously positive about them, at least at the government level.

Now, I'm not talking about the wokes. The wokes are gonna screech no matter what, but at the government level, it's been a, a really surprising degree of like, yeah, just do your thing. We're not gonna interrupt, you know, whatever. Especially when the you know, inciting event was maybe less direct and less visceral.

If you're talking about reaching the public now, when you're talking about reaching the government and what all their secret services know they had reason to be like, okay, maybe somebody else needs to handle this. The other thing that we're gonna be talking about is what exactly they accomplished.

With this, we're gonna be talking about who they took out, how they took them out, and what was the collateral damage of all this. Because I'm beginning to realize about this channel. Is that nobody else ever covers things as deeply as we do. Like I, I'm always shocked, like I cannot find a single, we just yesterday did the Gaza article and I was like, it was on the, the, and I've never, and I learned

Simone Collins: so much from it on the march on Gaza, March to Gaza.

Yes. That was amazing.

Malcolm Collins: Why, why is it the news to, why did there some news source I can go to that'll just have a good summary of everything. Right. But that's what we're gonna be going over here because you know, it is important,

especially in the context of what we just covered around Gaza. Alright. So to give you an idea, because I think this is emblematic of where things are.

Simone Collins: Yes,

Malcolm Collins: please. So a few days ago, the Iranian wartime chief of staff was killed as a result of this. And so they replaced him with alini. He was killed four days after his appointment. Ooh. And then after that, the Israeli like, I don't know, one of their, their talking voices for like, the government came up and, and they said we don't know who is under consideration next with a very, like, the guy next to 'em gave a, like a smile after that.

Like, because you'd be dead if we did.

Simone Collins: And this sounds like the beginning of one of your isaka fiction books Yeah. That I write where it's like, well, we, you're the fourth person. We're bringing in all the, the

Malcolm Collins: previous three died. Then they go, we would advise them not to take the job, but if they do, we advise them to be extremely cautious.

Simone Collins: Well, I can only imagine that Mossad knows in general enough to know who would be the logical next pick for a couple rungs down the ladder. Right.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. But I also understand waiting until they take the job, just as they de thing Sure. To not

Simone Collins: be a jerk. Yeah. To, you know, yeah. Have some courtesy. But I, I imagine the, the more important thing is you have to know all these things ahead of time because you have to know where they live.

You have to know how to target their apartment. Like all these, this homework has been done which is what I find even more impressive. So let's

Malcolm Collins: start with the homework. You know, we're talk Yes. Fic. I'm so curious. Israel's decapitation strike on Iran's military leadership.

Israel's surprise offensive wiped out a significant portion of Iran's military high command in the early hours of June 13th. Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, over 200 , Israeli jets struck at least 100 targets across Iran in five waves.

Among those killed were major General Mohammed Bagari, the Chief of staff of Iran's armed Forces and General Hassi salami commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. This is like their core other, it'd be like if, if they killed the head of the Navy and the head of the Army and the head of the, you know, Marines all in one day is, is what the equivalent is here.

These two were Iran's most senior military officers. Bagari effectively the second most powerful figure in Iran's military hierarchy. And Sami, the head of the elite IRGC. The strikes also eliminated other top commanders, general Gal Rashad, deputy of the Armed Forces Commander General Amar Ali Hasday, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force, and at least four additional senior IRGC leaders in total Israeli attacks killed at least 20 Iranian military commanders.

A quote unquote stunning decapitation of Iran's defense leadership, and by the way, that stunning decapitation came from routers, which is otherwise a fairly progressive outlet. Even a, a Reuters.

Simone Collins: Yes. Okay.

Malcolm Collins: Even a close advisor to Iran's Supreme leader . Ali Shaka Manni was reportedly caught in a strike on Tehran's apartment block and gravely injured.

The coordinated assassination campaign. Effectively gutted Iran's military leadership mirroring Israeli's previous elimination of Hezbollah's top command in Lebanon. The year prior, teran swiftly appointed replacements. For example, IRGC, GE General Ahad Vadi was named a successor to salami, but the loss of so many seasoned leaders with a severe blow.

And even since then, many of the successors have been killed. So the degree of, like, you can't imagine, like imagine if in the United States, like every top leader across every top department was gone. Right in one day. And people can be like, I, I've seen people be like, I'm not pro assassinations. Well, what are you prolonged drawn out wars?

Like, are you, you would rather, instead of the generals who effed up and let it get to this point, be the ones who are dispropo