Iran’s Stunning Incompetence

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/06/iran-israel-attack/683173/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo

Posted by theatlantic

8 comments

  1. Now is the time for the Iranian people to take their country back.

  3. Lack of airforce is their main problem. If they could get their SU-35’s with R-37M’s it would actually give them the ability to shoot down Israeli F-16’s and f-15’s.

  4. I’m from India and used to work with Iran, when its relationship with the West was better.
    On my visits, I got to interact with senior Iranian officials.
    There are two structural problems with the Iranian armed forces.

    The country is ruled by unelected clerics. The elected President has little power, particularly on foreign policy. The clerics are ideologically guided and not bothered about the common man – enforcing compulsory hijab is more important than negotiating an end to sanctions. Sanctions are a means for personal enrichment of a few. They supported Hamas when most of the Sunni world did not bother. The clerics tend to make brash statements and make threats they cannot carry out. They don’t understand the military, but don’t want to listen to feedback, so my sense is the generals tell them what they want to hear.

    The armed forces is divided between the regular armed forces, the Revolutionary guards and the Basij (mostly unskilled volunteers).
    The best resources go to the IRGC, who are ideologically motivated but not as professional as the army. If an army general says something is not possible, but a IRGC officer says it is, he will get resources for what is in reality an expensive and ineffective project.

    They don’t learn from failure. The Houthi missile and drone attacks against ships, has been a disaster. Missiles fired at defenceless merchant ships with little room to move, have not sunk a single ship. Hezbollah’s thousands of rockets and drones also caused negligible damage.
    I wonder if anyone told the Supreme leader that the Houthis and Hezbollah failed – or if a 85 y.o is capable of understanding.

  6. Short of somehow taking down Israeli leadership in much the same manner, there’s not much Iran can do to dissuade the notion that Israel has them squarely beaten.

    Iran’s proxies throughout the Middle East are battered and weakened. Now even Tehran is proven to be vulnerable. There’s no doubt this is the weakest the current regime has been in recent memory. Whether or not this is a turning point in the regime’s stability remains to be seen.

  7. The new “Axis of Evil” are paper tigers. Russia can’t even take on Ukraine, Iran is stuck in the 1900s, North Korea can’t even launch a ship properly. The only real threat to the US/EU world order is China; but again their allies are wet sandwiches.

  8. >It could also make the fateful decision to dash for a nuclear bomb—but that’s a process that could take years.

    Funny, Israelis have been screaming that Iran is mere weeks away from a nuclear bomb… could Israel really be lying?!? I’m shocked I tell you, shocked!

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