We are tired of the Big Surprise watch and Splash has taken to sitting on the Patio until he is confident everyone else has gone to bed before he can press his phone screen to display: “Not Last Night” and burn a last cigarillo in the crisp dark air, Orion’s bright arm rising about the trees on the East Wing of Big Pink’s sprawl. In a gesture of grace.

Press reports said dozens of IAF fighter jets, re-fuelers and spy planes participated in the “complex” operation some 1,000 miles from Israel. That would be a little more aggressive than launching strikes out of Andrews AFB across the river to the big SAC complex in Omaha.

Preferred direction naturally would be open to discussion about who gets to go first.

This morning was a Sunday featuring a clear empty bottle on the picnic table that all the Saturday had leaked out of. Next to it was a Kindle and a phone that still glowed with a chart and access routes executed without loss, which means the third target set- the S-300s- were successfully dealt a blow without specific geolocation.

There is a lot of symbolism that flew with the Israeli jets. Socotra House Management is determined to look informed without conveying advocacy, as opposed to the engaged parties, so we are only permitted to reference the fact that one of the three Patriarchal Faiths- we think we are permitted to say that- commemorates this time of season as one of atonement.

We all have our approaches to that, you know? Individual reconciliation with the Almighty by means of repentance and confession can be useful. Got a minute?

Anyway, last Friday was one of the ones with special significance, and it looks like this one was performed with violent moderation. That is to say, kinetic weapons were not randomly distributed for terror but warning. They were directed with precision against the specific sites used to prepare the hundreds of ballistic weapons used on Israel around Yom Kippur.

The Israeli attack occurred in three major waves, with the second and third waves targeting Iranian drone and missile production sites, with over 20 individual aim-points in missile factories and other sites near Tehran and western Iran early on Saturday.

Israel’s Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA) Team was different than the ones we had been on in the Pentagon. The one for public release this morning was based on change from the old two-person. control system for the products of the orbiting national security imagery satellites. These were based on commercial imagery available on the web. It was sone by former UN weapon’s inspector David Albright and Decker Eveleth, a Center for Naval Analysis researcher. We think that is his picture, but it could just be the smile we liked for a morning like this.

Their separate reviews indicate primary targets were Parchin and Khojir. Parchin is where rocket fuel mixing was conducted while Kohjir performed missile production and integration immediately adjacent to Iran’s central government operating locations.

Mr. Eveleth said the Israeli strikes may have “significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles. Not mentioned in their reporting was the status of the operational S-300 air defense missiles. The Iranians had at least four batteries of the mobile rockets, providing relatively comprehensive defensive capability which has now been degraded in capability, permitting flexibility to the Israelis in the next attack.

So, DeMille is letting the Sunday edition be short and light on the wry irony. We have adopted his wide guidance with the confession that this complex and violent event was limited and pointed in messaging.

We don’t know if it means Israel is warning Tehran that the next strike may not be on specific military sites. Maybe instead on the coffee table at which some are sitting right then.

How does that fit with the eight days to the end of election lunacy? Splash had a note on the screen about that, but the device was out of juice. With some added verve from the USB we may be able to figure it out before we hit the one-week mark to repent participation in this whole adventure!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
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