A Strange Day Regarding Iran

Following the death of Major General Qassem Soleimani, for which the fake news media is still in mourning, Iran promised to retaliate harshly and “vengefully” for that. However, their retaliatory strike ended in nothing more than a face-saving move for the terrorist regime.
 
According to multiple sources, Iran fired fifteen missiles targeting two Iraqi military bases that host American military, with four of the fifteen having failed. While many Leftists celebrated this with smugness, once the dust had settled, we found that there have been no American casualties and very minimal, if any, damage was caused.
 
The President of the United States tweeted: “All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.”
 
In his statement the following morning, the POTUS said: “As long as I am President of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. I am pleased to inform you, the American people should be extremely grateful and happy: No Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases.”
 
“Our great American forces are prepared for anything. Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned, and a very good thing for the world. No American or Iraqi lives were lost because of the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces, and an early warning system that worked very well. I salute the incredible skill and courage of America’s men and women in uniform.”
 
“For far too long, all the way back to 1979, to be exact, nations have tolerated Iran’s destructive and destabilizing behavior in the Middle East. Those days are over. Iran has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen.” In the statement, he also emphasized that the only reason Iran was even capable of launching ballistic missiles is because of the Iran Nuke Deal: “Iran’s hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013 and they were given $150 billion. The missiles fired last night at us & our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration.”
 
Assistant to Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan Hoffman also issued a statement: “At approximately 5:30 p.m. (EST) on January 7, Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq. It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. military and coalition personnel at Al-Assad and Irbil…”
 
This stands in stark contrast with Iranian state TV (parroted by MSNBC, because fake news media will always give us fake news if it hurts Donald Trump) which claims there were around 30 U.S. casualties as a result of the strikes. Now, I wonder just why exactly it is that, while we say there are no U.S. casualties, Iran is saying there are as part of their retaliatory strike.
 
And before anyone tries to suggest that we are the ones trying to save-face here, keep in mind just who is POTUS right now. If there were U.S. casualties, Trump wouldn’t lie about it and we would retaliate in turn. What appears to be reality here is that Iran tried to save-face by “retaliating” for the death of Soleimani, intentionally avoided American casualties and then tried to claim it was an Iranian victory in their state-owned television stations to lie to their own people and claim that they “avenged” Soleimani.
 
This way, they can avoid a full-blown war with the U.S., as they know they don’t have the military capability to fight us and they can pretend to their own people that Soleimani has been avenged and can claim victory while working towards de-escalation, which even Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, following the “retaliation” strikes, said: “We [Iran] do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”
 
Rich coming from Iran that they would claim victimhood over the killing of a terrorist who killed hundreds of our soldiers, but the important part is the beginning: they do not want war or further escalations. Granted, these words are pretty much contradicted by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said that the strikes were “not enough”, though did not suggest that more immediate military action would be taken.
 
What do I think the story here is? Again, an attempt to save face for Iran. Their state-owned news stations claim that there were multiple casualties and, given that everyone expects Trump not to do anything because no American lives were lost, they can claim that Trump was “scared to act” in response and that Iran has achieved a “great victory”, as we were “slapped” the night of the strikes, as Khamenei tweeted, but in reality, it’s entirely possible that Iran will seek to de-escalate from here on out, even if it outwardly claims that further “vengeance” will be taken.
 
Of course, time will tell if peace will be achieved with Iran, but if THAT was their retaliation for killing their most VALUABLE terrorist General, I think World War III is a long way off, to the dismay of the American Left.
 
But this is not really why I am writing this piece. Read the title again: “A Strange Day Regarding Iran”. Iran attacking our military bases and strutting around like they achieved something major is par for the course and far from strange. Delusional dictators always pretend that any battle with an enemy goes their way and is a great “victory” for them. But there are other developments that have occurred on the very day of these strikes.
 
Let’s begin with what I think is the most normal of the two, but the timing is fairly brow-raising: Iran being hit with two earthquakes, one of them being close to a nuclear power plant. Hearing this, I immediately thought a couple of things: either this was A) a test of nuclear weapons by Iran (though that thought was shot down as soon as I found out this was a power plant, not a testing facility), or B) this was God punishing Iran and setting their nuclear program back a ways.
 
While I would certainly attribute things like these to God, who made the Earth, I say that this is the most normal of the two occurrences because, according to Fox News: “Iran lies on major seismic faults and has an average of one earthquake per day.” Earthquakes are very frequent in the country, so that’s why I doubt the earthquakes were caused by nuclear explosions (what’s more, not all nuclear bombs can create earthquakes, particularly ones that read 4.9 on the Richter scale, and it’s not even certain that Iran has any nukes to speak of), so in all likelihood, this one was just a normal earthquake that coincidentally occurred near a nuclear power plant.
 
The second thing that occurred that I think is far more suspicious is the fact that a Ukrainian Boeing 737 single-aisle plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport. The cause was suspected to have been engine failure, and the Ukrainian embassy even initially released a statement pointing to engine failure, but later retracted that statement.
 
BBC reporter Ali Hashem tweeted out a video of the plane being in total fire before eventually crashing.
 
The video is bone-chilling and raises the question: was it really engine failure? Because the entire plane was set ablaze. Usually, when there is an engine fire, only the turbine is on fire and even under such rare circumstances, there are many ways for the crew and the pilots specifically to remedy the situation. The first thing pilots will do when there is an engine fire is switch off the engine, allow the plane to glide and look to land in the nearest airport. But looking at the video again, while the dark of night makes the fire easy to contrast, it looks as though the entire plane was on fire.
 
What’s more, all 176 souls on the flight – the passengers and the crew – perished in this crash. Unless the flight crew was extremely inexperienced and incompetent, an engine fire alone couldn’t have brought down the bird like this, resulting in this many deaths as well. From the video, it’s clear that the plane outright fell out of the sky. It didn’t seem to glide very much and, again, it was completely engulfed in flames. Engine failure is hardly ever a death sentence, particularly in this day and age when aviation technology is so advanced and does not even often result in an engine fire.
 
What makes this entire situation even more suspicious is the fact that Iran is refusing to turn over the black box of the plane to Boeing. If this were just an accident, and Iran knew or at least believed this was an accident, they’d be willing to hand over the black box to try and discern the cause for this tragic and very fatal crash.
 
Now, I know what you may be thinking: “Is this the retaliation that Iran was actually seeking against us?” I honestly doubt it. While 176 people did die on this flight and that is most definitely tragic, there wasn’t a single American on board. According to the Ukrainian minister for foreign affairs, the victims included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians (including the nine crew), 10 Swedes, 4 Afghans, 3 Germans and 3 British.
 
Furthermore, what also makes this unlikely (though admittedly, not impossible) to be engine failure is the fact that the aircraft was serviced two days prior and was less than four years old, according to Ukrainian International Airlines. UIA President Yevgeny Dykhne said in a press briefing: “The aircraft was in good condition… We guarantee the serviceability of our aircraft and the high qualification of our crews.”
 
The aircraft was too new and too recently serviced (and nothing wrong was reported about the craft following service) for engine failure to have been the likely culprit (though, again, it’s not impossible). The fire also, again, consumed the entire plane and there are measures that pilots can take to quickly remedy the situation. And even assuming both engines caught on fire, resulting in the pilots having to cut off both engines, many planes are able to glide for a considerable amount of time while in search of an emergency airport (which they always have to fly close to according to aviation guidelines). This crash happened not too long after takeoff, so there is not much reason for it to not have been able to circle around for an emergency landing. Of course, that would be assuming the plane wasn’t on fire, which it was.
 
If there was an engine fire, I doubt the pilots wouldn’t have had enough time shortly after takeoff to remedy the situation and glide the aircraft to safety. It was engulfed in flames completely and fell out of the sky. This, plus the fact that Iran refuses to turn over the black box, and I can’t help but speculate that they shot it down.
 
Whether it was on accident as a result of the missile strikes or intentional, it’s uncertain, but it’s the most likely reason available – certainly more likely than engine failure (and again “engine failure” does not always even result in a fire). While I don’t want to peddle in conspiracy theories and while I don’t have any evidence to suggest Iran definitely shot the plane down, it makes more sense for that to be the case, even if it was an accident, than for it to have been just from “engine failure”.
 
What makes me think this was also an accident is the fact that not one American was on board, which goes against any idea that this was a retaliatory strike, and the fact that Iran is not outright claiming responsibility for this. They usually claim responsibility for the death and destruction they cause (though not always).
 
Either way, that was a very peculiar day regarding Iran. Their “retaliatory strike” ended up as nothing more than an attempt to save face with zero casualties, one earthquake occurred near a nuclear power plant and Iran might’ve shot down a Ukrainian plane (another reason I don’t think this was a retaliatory strike is because this plane was en route to Kiev, Ukraine) whether on purpose or on accident.
 
Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”