The capacity of national security experts for self-delusion in the name of supposed sophistication has always been amazing. Some diplomats and self-professed experts suggest that Hamas is now moderate, regardless of what Khaled Meshaal says. Likewise, diplomats embraced Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as deep-thinker, not a coarse, anti-American and anti-Semitic zealot, as his early rants indicate.
Apologists like Juan Cole argue that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn’t truly incite genocide, because the threat to wipe Israel off the map was simply a mistranslation. No matter that’s how the Iranian government translated it, and the speech Cole disputes is only one among several dozens. Well, hopefully this will put a stop to the self-delusion regarding Iran’s intentions:
Commander Names Israel as Iran’s Long-Range Target
TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian commander said the distance between Iran and Israel is the maximum range that Tehran wants for its missiles, saying that Iran does not need missiles with a longer range.
“We don’t need missiles with over 2,000 km but we have the technology to build them,” Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told reporters today.
“Israel is our longest-range target,” the commander underscored.
