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2012-02-06 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

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Posted by Steve White 2012-02-06 07:50|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 Relatively young men. Mainly (maybe entirely) not 'natural' deaths. Someone doing coup-preventative maintainence?

Posted by Glenmore 2012-02-06 09:17|| 2012-02-06 09:17|| Front Page Top

#2 seems the regime survived a mini operation valkyrie

Posted by Lord Garth 2012-02-06 11:11|| 2012-02-06 11:11|| Front Page Top

#3 Hey Khamenei, checked under your bed lately?

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-02-06 12:31|| 2012-02-06 12:31|| Front Page Top

#4 All 4 dead in the span of 5 days (Jan 20 - Jan 24)!

Posted by Twobyfour 2012-02-06 13:13|| 2012-02-06 13:13|| Front Page Top

#5 They save the sticky bombs and drive-bys for the scientists.

Posted by Pappy 2012-02-06 13:31|| 2012-02-06 13:31|| Front Page Top

#6 Sounds like a Night of Long Knives. Near the end of his life, Brezhnev conducted a military command purge, from the most hard liners to the least, that had pestered him from before the time he took office, after they had deposed Khrushchev.

He had spent all his years in office getting ready for that purge, which with his death, knocked the Soviet military out of dominance and elevated the KGB, which has effectively ruled since, with the exception of Yeltsin.

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-06 15:44|| 2012-02-06 15:44|| Front Page Top

#7 On a practical note, I wonder if all of these guys were with the "Mullah faction", or the "Nutjob faction", or a "third faction"? I seem to recall that Nutjob replaced a lot of commanders with his fellow cultists, loyal only to him and their cult.

The trouble is that such loyalties only become obvious to outsiders long after the fact.

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-06 15:52|| 2012-02-06 15:52|| Front Page Top

#8 Oh, well. There's more where they came from...

Posted by The MOSSAD 2012-02-06 20:56|| 2012-02-06 20:56|| Front Page Top

#9 It's been said that Stalin's prewar purge of the officer corps--I don't recall the numbers but I recall being astonished--was one of the reasons the Red Army did so poorly early in the war. Mostly--not always, agreed--if we don't have the best man for the job in the job, we probably have one of the best three of those who might logically have it. Knock those guys off, and you have the regimental commander who scared Stalin least jumped up to command the division--for example. Without the necessary time, experience, staff schools, evaluations. Even if he were going to be a good division commander in, say, three years, he's not good now.
So it depends on whether you intend to use the tool whose upper ranks you are purging. Stalin was, and barely got away with it. Khamanei....this is the IRGC. Can he do without it?

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2012-02-06 21:22|| 2012-02-06 21:22|| Front Page Top

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