This is the first time I've heard this, but it's from a well known journalist who's been breaking big stories since Vietnam, Seymour Hersh. Naturally, he can't divulge his sources. I'm willing to grant that perhaps he was fooled into believing something that isn't true, but even if that's the case, it's -still- an interesting story. And if it's true, even bigger. Quoting from the beginning of his article:
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A MILITARY SOLUTION TO A POLITICAL PROBLEM
How the Pentagon engineered a fake war to prevent a real one
I’ve spent much of my career reporting on the American military’s misdeeds and worse, especially during the Vietnam War, but it’s time now to applaud the brilliance of the Pentagon planning staff and the operational officers who did what America assured Iran’s religious and military leadership it could do: allow Iran to respond to yet another Israeli assassination by flinging more than three hundred drones and missiles toward Israeli targets that as many as possible would be shot out of the sky before hitting ground there. It was a huge gamble, and it paid off.
The Pentagon was essentially resisting—a word I choose to use—the foreign policy of the Biden White House and NATO by secretly approaching one of Iran’s closest allies—Russia—and persuading a senior general there to reassure Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s 84-year-old supreme leader, that America had the know-how to make the strategy succeed.
Imagine it: two of the Biden administration’s most entrenched enemies—Russia and Iran—trusting and working with the Pentagon and its leadership to prevent a deadly retaliation for yet another Israeli assassination of an Iranian general and six other Iranians in Damascus.
[snip]
The operation “had to have a zero scenario,” the American official told me, in terms of insuring that an Iranian ballistic missile did not escape the international armada and strike a major city in Israel. But, he added, “the guys who fly have a lot of faith and believe they can do anything with the AWACs. There was no margin of error.
“It was gutsy.”
**
Full article (mostly behind a paywall):
A MILITARY SOLUTION TO A POLITICAL PROBLEM | Seymour Hersh
**
A MILITARY SOLUTION TO A POLITICAL PROBLEM
How the Pentagon engineered a fake war to prevent a real one
I’ve spent much of my career reporting on the American military’s misdeeds and worse, especially during the Vietnam War, but it’s time now to applaud the brilliance of the Pentagon planning staff and the operational officers who did what America assured Iran’s religious and military leadership it could do: allow Iran to respond to yet another Israeli assassination by flinging more than three hundred drones and missiles toward Israeli targets that as many as possible would be shot out of the sky before hitting ground there. It was a huge gamble, and it paid off.
The Pentagon was essentially resisting—a word I choose to use—the foreign policy of the Biden White House and NATO by secretly approaching one of Iran’s closest allies—Russia—and persuading a senior general there to reassure Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s 84-year-old supreme leader, that America had the know-how to make the strategy succeed.
Imagine it: two of the Biden administration’s most entrenched enemies—Russia and Iran—trusting and working with the Pentagon and its leadership to prevent a deadly retaliation for yet another Israeli assassination of an Iranian general and six other Iranians in Damascus.
[snip]
The operation “had to have a zero scenario,” the American official told me, in terms of insuring that an Iranian ballistic missile did not escape the international armada and strike a major city in Israel. But, he added, “the guys who fly have a lot of faith and believe they can do anything with the AWACs. There was no margin of error.
“It was gutsy.”
**
Full article (mostly behind a paywall):
A MILITARY SOLUTION TO A POLITICAL PROBLEM | Seymour Hersh
