Blind Obedience

Aa post on The Village Hemorrhoid:

Houthi Regime Leadership Demolished In Single Masterful Israeli Attack

references a couple of stories on Red State:

• How Israel Lured Iran's Top Generals to Their Deaths Will Blow Your Mind (June 18)
• Houthi Regime Leadership Demolished in Single Masterful Israeli Attack (August 29)

Somehow Israel got all of enemies generals to all be in the same place at the same time which meant that they could wipe them all out with one blow.

"Still, as impressive as the nuts and bolts of the plot were, it's how thought-out this all was that's truly incredible. It's one thing to place fake calls through Iranian back channels. It's another to have every general who answered the phone fall for the ruse.

"How did that happen? The answer lies in how antiquated and authoritarian Iran's military structure was and remains. When you serve at the behest of an Islamic dictator who tortures and kills people who step out of line, you aren't exactly in a position to question an order. When the calls came in to head to the bunker, wondering if things seemed a little suspicious wasn't an option. So all the generals blindly listened."

Which reminds me of this episode from Midnight in Europe by Alan Furst:

Our hero, Ferrar, is a Spaniard living and working as a lawyer in Paris, France. A civil war is going on in Spain between Franco and the Republic. Ferrar's sympathies lie with the Republic. Somehow he gets roped into working for the Oficia Tecnica in the Spanish Embassy who are charged with buying armaments for the forces of the Republic. This is a little difficult because of the non-intervention treaty that most western countries have signed.

The war is not going well for the Republic. They are preparing for the battle of Ebro which will be their last chance of defeating the Franco. The Fascists have a big advantage - they have aircraft, the Republic doesn't have any. The Republican forces do have a bunch of Soviet anti-aircraft guns, but they don't have any ammunition. The Soviets, as you might expect, have plenty of this ammo, but they won't sell any. They are hoarding it against the prospect of going to war against Hitler, which is likely to happen any day now. Nobody else has any because they are all geared up for making ammo for their own anti-aircraft guns. The machinery could be modified to make the Soviet ammo, but that would take time, time they do not have.

76 mm Air Defense Gun M1938 – Russian Anti-Air Gun

Ferrar is working with Max, and Max comes up with the idea of hiring some gangsters in Odessa to steal the ammo from a Soviet warehouse. The gangsters are very clever. They pose as agents of Stalin's secret police, tell the warehouse manager this is a secret operation and he is not to discuss it with anyone. And since everyone is terrified of the secret police and dare not question anything they say, the manager gladly complies. And then the gangsters show up with a fleet of trucks and haul all 60 tons of this aircraft ammo to a ship waiting at the dock.

The ship sails to Valencia, the ammo is off loaded and delivered to the army of the Republic, so now they have a fighting chance against the Fascists. The battle does not go well, the Republic is defeated and Franco takes over for the next 30 odd years.