"A stupid war launched by Israel": Austrian analyst Tom Cooper on West Asia Conflict

New Delhi [India], March 21 (ANI): Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian Tom Cooper criticised the ongoing conflict in West Asia, calling it a "stupid war" initiated by Israel and supported by the United States, while assessing the aerial campaign and Iranian retaliation.
In an interview with ANI, Cooper said the conflict was aimed at reshaping the political and diplomatic landscape of West Asia.
"As for how do I assess this war, it's a stupid war launched by Israel, actually, which subverted the White House into doing part of the job for it, at least supporting it with plenty of its own firepower and aerial tankers, tanker aircraft and bases", Cooper said.
He said Israel's objective was to weaken the government in Iran rather than overthrow it entirely.
"It is actually a war launched by Israel in order to reconfigure the future political and diplomatic landscape of the Middle East, because Israel has recognized that US power is waning, and it needs to secure itself in the future. Therefore, it has decided to, well, disable the regime in Iran--not so much to remove it, because it knows it cannot remove it by bombing alone, but to disable it," he added.
Cooper said the air campaign carried out by Israeli and US forces had demonstrated high levels of precision.
"As for precision and effectiveness of the campaign run by US and Israeli air force, well, primarily Israeli air force, it is highly precise. No dispute about this," he said.
However, he argued that many of Iran's key underground military facilities remain difficult to destroy due to their depth and construction.
"They cannot reach them because their bunker-buster bombs cannot penetrate deep enough to destroy these facilities. So they have first targeted the entrances. The Americans are meanwhile doing the same, which is hindering the Iranians in the regards of moving their launchers out of these facilities, launching missiles and returning them inside. They have attempted to target the launchers as well. They have over-claimed wildly, exaggerated their success in this regard, and so on and so on," Cooper said.
At the same time, he accused both sides of exaggerating battlefield claims.
"Problem is the following: meanwhile the Israelis and Americans are lying so much--and I mean professional military sources in Israel and the United States are lying so much--that even the IRGC is more dependable, which is absurd. More dependable in this regard, in regards what is it doing, what kind of losses it is suffering, and so on. The IRGC, for example, is always reporting every single of its top commanders killed. It is reporting every single of its missile strikes, whether on Israel or any other country in the area. The IRGC is reporting even some of the, or most of, US and Israeli airstrikes, and that in a fashion which can be confirmed through visual means, " he claimed, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Cooper also criticised what he described as strikes on civilian and non-military sites in Iran.
"On the other hand, we see Israelis claiming to have destroyed an Mi-17 helicopter, which is actually a Bell 214 of the Iranian Red Crescent, which means emergency responders, and they are boasting with this. We see the Israelis destroying old palaces around Iran, which are actually memorials and tourist sites. We see them damaging over 150 hospitals or hitting over 150 hospitals and medical facilities around Iran. We see them killing, who knows, over 1,500 civilians as far as I know, the last in a matter of two weeks," he said.
He also warned that strikes on energy infrastructure such as the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field could have wider regional consequences, including for India.
"And then we see the Israelis striking, doing such nonsensical things like striking South Pars gas field--the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field--which is absolutely mindless, because of course this is provoking Iran into striking back upon similar facilities in Qatar," Cooper said.
"As you know, in India, not only India, but plenty of other countries are heavily dependable on sourcing their gas from Qatar, and not only gas, but also fertilizers for production of food," he said.
"So it is absolutely mindless, psychopathic attack aiming to destroy everything there is to destroy in Iran, while knowing this is not going to effect a downfall of the IRGC regime," he added. (ANI)