Sunday, February 3, 2013

Iran: President Ahmadinejad unveils new fighter jet

First China and now Iran has announced a new fighter jet.  A separate story on Business Insider shows a jet that is a combination of the F-22 and F-35.  Analysts have questioned the lack of wiring and extremely small air intakes.  It seems this prototype to be more mock-up than actually production model.

Yes, I'm sure the F-35 can more than handle Qaher 313 but that's not really the point of this aircraft.  Iran has relied on others (including the United States) for its fighter technology.  The 34th anniversary of the Tehran Embassy Crisis is only 10 days away.  Ahmadinejad is invoking the past to legitimize the future of Iran.  Tehran stood up to Washington once before and it was Carter who blinked.

The Obama administration is heavily influenced by by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who will go to his grave believing nothing is more threatening than a nuclear Iran.  Translated, Kissinger is the most pro-Israel former Secretary of State the United States has ever known.  His views were shaped by his experience during WWII (a German born Jew who served in the United States Army) and he did not enjoy the same level of success with Nixon regarding Israel as he did with China and the Soviet Union.  Kissinger would find much more success in first with President Clinton and then later Secretary Clinton.

It is Kissinger who has convinced Hillary Clinton to use a heavy hand when dealing with Tehran.  Israel's relationship has not cooled fears in Tehran that Tel Aviv would not hesitate to launch a pre-emptive strike. Iran not being an Arab country sees itself as being only able to rely on itself for protection.

The Qaher 313 is more bluff than reality.  Iran does not want to be seen as overly relying on Russia for its defense.  It also sees the Obama administration as tiring of the war in Afghanistan and unwilling (thus far) to commit troops to the Syrian crisis.  The Obama administration is facing several domestic challenges with the true cost of Obama Care causing unions to start questioning their support and firearms legislation causing more divisions.  The issue of more vets demonstrating PTSD is slowly becoming a major topic and reason against deploying more ground troops.  In part this is why the President has started talking about using a "surgical approach" in dealing with future crisis.

Iran is going to continue its high stake poker.  The United States is going to have to somehow quell the fears of Kissinger and Israel yet not get drawn into any more conflicts.

Jerusalem Post

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