By Jose Mario D. De Vega, Philippine Normal University
“It always seems impossible until it’s done” -- widely attributed to Nelson Mandela
Since 1979, when the Islamic revolution erupted in Iran that led to the present republic, it was promptly subjected by the US and the collective West to sanction, isolation and black propaganda.
In 2001, the US attacked Afghanistan, Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011 and joined the so-called Saudi coalition in trying to wipe out the Houthis in Yemen in 2015. All those years, Iran is closely watching, taking notice and laboriously studying its enemies’ moves, tactics, weaponry and styles.
As numerously narrated by Professor Seyed Marandi and I wholly concurred: Iran has prepared for its turn to be attacked. It has spent the last two and a half decades in preparation for the coming war with the US and the Zionist entity. To paraphrase the French philosopher Voltaire:
Every nation is a creature of the age in which it lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.
Iran has shown the whole world that it can humble and defeat the empire including its comical minions and miserable cohorts.
It is important to lay down the reasons behind this victory.
Self-reliance. Iran rightly believes that other powers and empires are ganging up against it. Hence, it decided to rely on itself, its own military, native technology, indigenous weaponry, vast resources, its higher threshold of pain and endurance and the united resilience of its people.
Asymmetric warfare. Iran knows that it does not have the money (due to the crippling sanctions) and the overseas technology to match up with the US military. Hence, what it did is truly astonishing. It relied on its indigenous technology. For the last two decades, it improved and further perfected its arsenal of drones, rockets and missiles. It anticipated precisely that when the time has come for the war, its tactics will be to swarm the US and its allies with its unlimited stocks of drones and missiles. Further, we must also note its crucial decision to decentralize its military operations.
The Resistance Forces. Corollary to the principle of asymmetric warfare, Iran received help, assistance and solidarity to the resistance forces that it has cultivated, trained and funded meticulously through the years from Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Iraqi resistance, Hamas in Gaza and the other resistance forces in the region. These resistance forces have widened the theater of war, made the battle zones multi-layered and created a war zone that is regional in its scope.
The Strategic Nuclear Geography. Iran, indeed, has no nuclear bomb, but it got the Strait of Hormuz. By shutting it off to international commerce, it effectively strangles the global economy to a standstill. Besides its Strait, its allies in Yemen control the Bab-Al-Mandeb, which is another critical choke point for global trade.
The US empire’s alleged unstoppable power has met its match in Iran’s immovable force. The defeat of US and its cohorts in this war has led to the reshaping of the West Asian region. The Gulf states had already learned the hard and brutal truth: the US does not have the capacity nor the capability to protect their security. This war has exposed the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of the empire. Its army was designed to fight wars of an old epoch. It does not have the power to confront the modern era of warfare; namely asymmetric warfare via relentless attacks and swarm of drones and missiles that is maneuverable, precise and accurate. The Mecca Accord signed a week ago between the Saudis, the Turks and the Pakistanis is not directed at Tehran, but because of the result of the war, a warning to the Zionist entity, the subtle way of the Saudis saying goodbye to Uncle Sam and indubitably their acknowledgement of Iranian power and victory. Iran now is the latest regional power and an emerging superpower in the world.
