M.A. Rothman@MichaelARothman
𝗜𝗦𝗥𝗔𝗘𝗟 𝗜𝗦 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗥𝗚𝗖 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠 — 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦
Victor Davis Hanson just revealed something that stopped me in my tracks.
Israel is not just targeting Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders. They are specifically going after the officers who k!lled protesters — the people who ran checkpoints and shot Iranians in the streets during the January uprisings when the regime massacred thousands of its own citizens.
And they're calling them first.
VDH described one exchange: an Israeli contact reached an IRGC officer and told him he was a d∗ad man. The officer's response: 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.
He did do something wrong. He k!lled protesters. And Israel knows exactly who he is, where he is, and what he did — because Iranians inside the country are feeding them the intelligence. Cell phones. Starlink. A population that h∗tes this regime so deeply that ordinary citizens are calling in GPS coordinates of checkpoints from their apartment windows.
This is what Israeli intelligence penetration of Iran actually looks like in practice. It's not just satellites and signals. It's millions of Iranians who want this regime gone and are willing to risk everything to make it happen.
VDH also reveals the division of labor in this war: 𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹. 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴. Israel wants three to four more weeks to finish the job on command and control.
There's also a sobering note: Iran apparently had significantly more missiles than anyone estimated — possibly 3,000 to 4,000. They're still firing cluster bomb munitions, which are uniquely difficult to defend against because the bomblets scatter on detonation and overwhelm point defenses. That's why residential neighborhoods are still being hit.
But the bigger picture VDH is painting is this: the Iranian people are not bystanders in this war. They are active participants — feeding coordinates, making calls, pointing lasers. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲.
That IRGC officer was wrong about one thing. He did do something wrong. And someone who loved Iran enough to risk their life made sure Israel knew about it.
