US and Israel strike Iran. (title edited by MNHQ at request of the OP)

[Twiglets1]

Israel attacked Iran early on Saturday morning, saying it had “launched a pre-emptive strike against Iran to remove threats to the state of Israel,” according to a military spokesman.

Israel closed its airspace and declared a state of emergency, in anticipation of
Iranian drone and missile strikes in response.

Explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday, Iranian media reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/28/israel-launches-attack-on-iran-as-explosions-heard-in-tehran

I expect that the US and Israel have reduced massively Iran’s capability to attack anyone with, or supply any terrorist group with, significant weaponry.

That doesn’t stop sleepers and embedded terrorists, obviously, but Iran is likely now to be a state without any meaningful offensive military.

The other obvious problem is that guns will still be in the hands of the IRGC butchers. But I’m hoping that Israel can find a way to undermine the IRGC and put weapons in the hands of opponents of this wicked Iranian regime.

I am a chrsitian and am appalled by this.

It feels like distortion of scripture to meet political ends, which has been done for hundreds, if not thousands of years, so nothing new, but stil awful.

I do not want to derail the thread into one about personal beliefs or the validity of scripture, but I do want it to be noted that the Bible does not teach that end times must be ushered in. It teaches that no one knows when they will happen. As Christians our job is to love God and love one another.

I don't want to cast judgement on others salvation, but we should be able to tell who is a true follower of Jesus by their fruit, their love for God and others should produce loving works and selfless deeds.

I am disgusted that such hate and pain and greed and pride is carried out under name of christianity. But nothing is new under the sun.

The US evangelicals believe it though. This is why they voted for Trump.

US evangelicals very different from UK Christians.

US evangelicals are extreme, UK Christians normally not extreme but conservative in their views (small c, nothing to do with Conservative party).

Yup. That is my point.

I'm an American Episcopalian, which is the Anglican/C of E protestant church in the US. We broke away from the C of E during the American Revolution. We are not considered evangelicals.

The view of American evangelicals being monolithically extreme is, of course, wrong and a gross oversimplification. The closest thing to a unifying belief they have is that most hold that the Bible is literally true. There are politically conservative evangelicals and "social justice" evangelicals.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/who-are-evangelicals-pew-study

Stereotyping doesn't yield useful insights.

Is this piece also.not part of the manipulation....

There are extremists Christians as there are extremists Islamists. Neither are good.

Iran lobbing missiles at Turkey now.

Stereotyping is bad for sure. It is the raptureist style of evangelicals that are in Trumps cabinet.

Pete Hegseth’s Crusade to Turn the Military into a Christian Weapon - POLITICO

And remember the US born Anglican Bishop who spoke at his last inauguration. They wanted to deport her.

The extremist Christians are his base.

I've been trying to get my head around this.

Firstly given the size of its military, picking a fight with Turkey is really not a good idea.

Secondly Turkey has actually been one of the more sympathetic countries towards Iran.

My only guess currently (and it is very much an unsubstantiated guess) is that maybe Iran is thinking that if they fire enough drones / missiles at Turkey then maybe Turkey will invoke protection and intervention under NATO, thereby widening the conflict much further. But would countries like the UK, France and Spain really come to the aid of Turkey? So thereby potentially fracturing NATO?

But to be honest I am genuinely puzzled and have absolutely no idea on what Iran's logic is on attacking Turkey. Clearly I'm missing something as at face value it doesn't seem to make any sense

I would say some US evangelicals are getting behind the "bring about the end times" narrative. I've seen many others denouncing it.

I think they are trying to use up ammo, and spread the defenses.

It appears to be a race. If Iran can force other nations to use up their patriot etc stocks first, or if the strikes on Iran get their missile and drone stockpiles first.

Iran know their kit is no match for western defence kit, but they have a lot more missiles than the US has defensive missiles.

It's like the drone attack on Cyprus. Little damage, But for the cost of some cheap drones it ties up other navies and defenses.

And the more military tied up defending, the less striking of targets in Iran.

But Turkey was never intending to join in on the strikes against Iran nor as it currently seems the the UK. So it doesn't seem to make sense.

There clearly is a reason / logic, Iran thought this one through and didn't do it for giggles, but I really can't figure out what it is.

I'm as confused as you with this one. I wonder - will there have to actually be a joint NATO response to this now?
I don't see Spain joining either in after making such a thing of refusing their bases to the US.

Given the size of Turkey's military compared to that of Spain, I don't think that the Turks would be that troubled by the absence of Spain or for that matter any other country.

They can quite easily manage any response on their own!

It might not be Iran proper, it might be some overenthusiastic splinter groups.

Which would be no less worrying.

It does make sense in a way though for the reason I just said, NATO are down a couple of anti missile defense rockets, and assets will need to be kept in place for defence.

I don't see Turkey getting involved, because of the Kurds.

There’s a military base in Turkey hosting / hosted ( ?) US troops. Aparently so they are going for that
I don’t think it’s that deep

‘ One is Incirlik, a key NATO air base used for decades by US troops near the southern city of Adana, another is Kurecik, a base in central Turkey which has a NATO early-warning radar system that can detect Iranian missile launches.’

This from the article below
of note Ankara has denied there is a base

I’d imagine that’s what they’re going for

On Tuesday, Turkey's President
called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
"We do not wish to witness conflict, war, tension, and massacre right next door. Our stance on the illegal attacks targeting Iran is also in this direction," the Turkish leader wrote on X.
He described the Iranian people
"brothers and sisters" and added,
"Our priority is to secure a ceasefire and open the door to dialogue."
politico

I would imagine Turkey will defend and not attack

It’s a desperation move. Iran has no place to go except to suggest to its neighbours that they’d better not side with the US and Israel or they’ll get stones thrown at their windows.

I cannot see the Arab world or Turkey getting excited by this. They know it’s the death throes of a fanatical, awful regime of crazy mullahs.

Apologies. The only US evangelical Christians I ever hear about/read about about in the UK are extreme in their views but you've educated me and I genuinely am sorry for stereotyping.

So strange ... why are they getting on the wrong side of everyone?

I know there are military bases there but still ... they do seem to have lost the plot attacking several countries at once in what seems an indiscriminate fashion.

Maybe you're right about Incirlik base and that I am over thinking it and it really is that simple.

I guess we will find out for sure over the coming days if there are any new attacks on Turkey and what is targeted.

But unless there are serious civilian casualties then I agree that I really can't see Turkey getting involved or invoking NATO support (not that they even need it).

Question worth asking is how degraded is the Iranian Command and Control chain and how much of.the targetting now is being decreed by the politicians?

Because if they keep as much of the war away from Iran as they can, then there will be less strikes on Iran itself. And they tie up more enemy assets.