General

Clausewitz, Trump and Soleimani

Gilad Atzmon 09/01/2020
American politics is a continuation of Israel’s wars by different means.

The 19th century military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz observed that war is the continuation of politics by different means. This is an apt description of Iranian military strategy and geo-political affairs. It is consistent with the rationale that guided General Qasem Soleimani for the last two decades.
As a superb military strategist Soleimani grasped that the distance between A to B isn’t necessarily identical to the distance from B to A. Iran and Israel do not share a physical border, Tehran and Tel Aviv are about 1000 miles apart. Despite Israel’s relentless threats to attack Iran, it has never been clear whether Israel has the military capacity to cause significant damage to Iran. It isn’t clear how Israeli pilots are supposed to cover the distance and fly undetected over Jordan, Syria or Iraq. Where, or how would the Israeli plane refuel and so on. Israel has not managed to solve this logistical military riddle. But it has been clever enough to grasp that pushing America into an all out conflict with the Islamic Republic may provide a solution to the riddle. Despite the competition (with Britain, France and Germany), the USA is Israel’s most subservient colony. It has been happily sacrificing its sons and daughters on the Zionist altar for years. 
General Soleimani devised genius military tactics to counter both American and Israeli plans; although Israel doesn’t share a border with Iran, Iran assuredly shares a border with Israel. Deploying the Iranian Revolutionary Guards alongside local pro Iran militias into areas of conflict allowed Soleimani to encircle the Jewish state within a wall of fierce resistance. Iran’s regional allies are superbly trained, ideologically and religiously motivated and they have the benefit of the rich Iranian ballistic arsenal and technology that can deliver lethal punishment to Israel in a conflict. For some time, Israel’s military elite and analysts have had to accept that within the context of such an Israel Iran war, Iran together with its regional allies, is capable of raining thousands of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and precision guided missiles on Israel. Such a development could wipe out Israeli cities in a few days.
Similar tactics were put into action by General Soleimani against American military forces in the region. Iran may not share a border with the USA but pro Iranian Iraqi militias have managed to surround and harass American forces in Iraq. Iran also dominates the most strategic passes in the Persian Gulf through its Shia militias in Yemen.