Iran: Not Quite Together

Interesting opinion piece by Michael Ledeen in the Wall Street Journal "Cracks in the Iranian Monolith" which is well worth reading as we consider the wounded beast of the Iranian thugocracy.

In light of yesterday's hype over Iran's new "drone bomber" (see here), an sidebar worth noting:

A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to find proof of high-altitude spying. Instead, the Guards had to report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the air force had blasted Iran's own unmanned aircraft out of the sky.

Apparently, according to official Iranian press accounts, the Iranian military had created a special unit to deploy the drones—some for surveillance and others, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bragged on Sunday, to carry bombs—but hadn't informed the air force.

Makes you wonder about their ability to coordinate anything big militarily, though they have the "sponsoring of terrorists" thing going fairly well, I suppose.