On Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 Iran fired off 9 medium and long range missiles, signaling retaliatory response if attacked by US or Israel. Predictably, Iran immediately drew an international rebuke, as New York Times headline reads. The White House rhetorical response was swift and harsh and filled with the same vitriolic bellicosity seen in the past. The White House deputy press secretary noted that Iran’s conduct was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution. What was conveniently omitted is that threatening a country (Iran), like US-Israel has done in the past 5 years, and particularly in the last several months, with rhetoric, military exercises, building bases on the Iranian border, stationing of troops and aircraft carriers on the borders, is in violation of the UN Charter.

However, what’s more interesting is that the same response was not provided by the US towards Israeli military exercises over the Mediterranean. In fact, the US military experts simply noted that they were likely targeted at Iran. No reprimanding or condemnation of any sort was spoken of. Indeed, other experts have later calmly explained that the exercises themselves were nothing more than psychological warfare, or as in geopolitical world is normally termed, bargaining tool. That Iran’s testing of missiles was a response to consistent threats by US and Israel is hardly mentioned in the mainstream press.

However, there may be a bigger twist here than Iran simply responding to Israeli military air theater last month. While many experts suggested that Israel’s public air show was designed to pressure Iran to concede to US-Israeli pressure to give up its uranium enrichment activity, other experts noted that Iran wouldn’t be able to retaliate to US-Israeli strike in as harsh a way as Iran is signaling. Writing about it in Asia Times Online, Gareth Porter points to pro-Israeli commentators and policy planners, who work for pro-Israel think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), saying in 2 major Israeli newspapers that essentially Iranian response would be weak. It’s worth noting the inherent contradiction in this notion: Israel and its right-wing supporters have for years portrayed Iran as an “existential threat” to Israel’s very survival, citing its awesome military strength and prowess as well as potential nuclear capacity. Yet in the context of attacking Iran, all of a sudden an existential threat mutates into a weak regional power, unable to respond to US-Israeli attack.

Hence the news that Iran demonstrated its ballistic capabilities today should be of no surprise to either Israel or the United States, given rising tensions between these countries and suggestions by various commentators that Iran is incapable of solid retaliation. It also stands to reason that this latest Iranian maneuver is, like Israel’s military exercises, nothing more than a show produced for political domestic and Israeli consumption utilized to persuade the public that Iran is capable of inflicting military damage if attacked. It can also be seen as galvanizing Iranian populace, whose nationalistic character is extremely strong, into preparing for mobilization against what Iranian leadership perceives as its staunch enemies in Israel and the United States.