Clenched With Campaigns To "Provoke And Humiliate" Obama -- Michael Ledeen

Don’t Tell Me You Were Surprised at Iran’s Operation:

Third, despite a welter of doubletalk from the administration, it is ridiculous to speculate that such an operation could be carried out without the explicit approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to whom the commanders of the Quds Force report. Indeed, as my brilliant colleague Tom Joscelyn has reported, the top man in Quds, General Suleimani, sits atop the chain of command for this operation, and he is an intimate of Khamenei. So, to answer the often-asked question (how could the leaders of the Iranian regime have approved such a provocative action in this country?): they do not fear us, they do not believe that Obama is capable of doing anything that would threaten their grip on power, and they viewed the operation as both a provocation and a humiliation of him and his administration. So far, the pathetic lack of anything approaching a serious response – not even a hint of support for regime change in Tehran — combined with empty ritualistic incantations a la “nothing is off the table” suggest that their assessment is correct.

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