FOX News carried a brief story (see link below) which indicated that US Special Forces may already be conducting clandestine missions inside Iran. The report stated that a new Pentagon policy has approved “an expansion of clandestine military [missions] to counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and elsewhere in the Middle East region” (emphasis added). The New York Times was the first media outlet to report that General Petraeus “had authorized Special Operations forces to conduct surveillance missions in those countries,” and one of their missions is to “‘prepare the environment’ for future attacks.”
This new directive allows for the possibility that US Special Forces may already be inside Iran to carry out these surveillance missions to scout out the best ways to attack Iranian military or nuclear facilities in the event a war breaks out. The report specifically states that “the order does allow for intelligence-gathering missions in Iran.” Of course if a war breaks out, those implanted US Special Forces are no doubt equipped with weaponry to start taking out Iranian military targets as soon as hostilities begin. I would think Iranian air-defense facilities and cruise-missile launching bases would be some of the prime targets of any such operations to clear the way for US warplanes to attack targets as soon as air defense targets are disabled by implanted US Special Forces.
I’m actually surprised that this new directive was announced publicly as it seems to me that it endangers US Special Forces that may already be concealed inside Iran. However, since major media outlets have already reported that this new directive permits US Special Forces to be inserted into Iran, I will comment on it as well. Readers of this blog surely realize by now that what is being reported in the mainstream media (that there is almost no chance of a US attack vs. Iran under President Obama) may not reflect the truth of what is going on behind the scenes.
There is one other possibility. Even if no US Special Forces have actually yet been inserted into Iran (or if they already performed their missions and were withdrawn from Iran just before these press reports were published), the media reports that they might be there already will surely reach the ears and eyes of the Iranian military commanders. They will likely tear the countryside apart outside each key Iranian military facility in order to look for the US Special Forces which might be there. US satellites and active/passive sensors will watch every Iranian move as they search for the US Special Forces. This will provide the US military with information about how and where Iran searches for the supposed US Special Forces that may be inside Iran. The USA will gain valuable information as it watches the Iranian search activities, and this information will be very useful later when/if the USA inserts its Special Forces troops inside Iran in advance of a military strike.
The entire Mideast/Persian Gulf region is like a cauldron ready to boil over. Iran seems to be spoiling for a fight. When a nation is rapidly expanding its military power, threatening other nations and acts like it is spoiling for a fight (as Iran is doing), that fight generally takes place. I wonder how much time we left before that war occurs.
