An Iranian military flight carrying a commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards and 10 others crashed Monday while trying to make an emergency landing, killing all aboard, official media reported.
Call me suspicious, but when military action seems like it could be imminent, a crash that kills one of the mullah's loyal minions is good luck to say the least.
Second, however, I want to protest the term "elite" when referring to the Revolutionary Guards (aka Pasdaran). This is a common journalistic error that has been used for the Republican Guards and Special Republican Guards of Iraq and even the palace guards in Third World Hell holes.
They are not elite in the western military sense of our Special Forces or Rangers. They are only elite in the sense of either loyal or pampered--and usually pampered to ensure loyalty. In regards to the Iraqi Republican Guards the term elite merely meant passable soldiers compared to the regular rabble. For their Special Republican Guard it just meant pampered. Ditto for the Third World guys.
And for the Revolutionary Guards of Iran it may mean neither. Originally created as a counter-weight to the regular Iranian military as a sort of Waffen SS, now the Revolutionary Guard troops aren't fully trusted by the regime. Now the Basij rabble are the loyal thugs loyal to the regime.
But don't call these guys "elite."
