Iran unleashed a missile barrage Tuesday night at the U.S.-occupied  Al-Azraq air base in Jordan in retaliation for the destruction of five tankers; see CENTCOM Now Says the Latest Strike 'Destroyed' 5 Iranian Tankers, and They Aren't Kidding Around – RedState.

The attack seemed to carry a certain Shakespearean quality as it was "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

According to Jordanian reports, 20 missiles were fired at Al-Azraq air base. Eighteen were successfully intercepted by defending Patriot missiles; two fell into uninhabited areas. The Iranian claim they launched over 30 missiles. Whatever.

The video of the attack shows the incoming missile stream swamped by a ripple fire of about 60 Patriot missiles. The absence of explosions on the ground seems to validate the Jordanian report.

Along with the missile attack, Iran made another wild-eyed claim.

The IRGC said in a statement on Tuesday that it attacked US Navy destroyers DDG-119 and DDG-53 with ballistic missiles in response to what it described as US military actions against Iranian tankers and vessels. 

According to the statement carried by state media, the IRGC said the destroyers were carrying cruise missiles and equipped with Aegis systems, and added that the strikes caused significant damage to the vessels.

The ships allegedly struck were Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) and USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53).

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U.S. Central Command batted down this Iranian claim.

So this was the promised Iranian retaliation. This is the product of Iran's optimism; see NYTimes Parrots IRGC Talking Points Despite Massive Evidence to the Contrary – RedState.

These are the takeaways.

1. If this is the best they can do, then Iran is out of gas. This is nothing like the early days of Operation Epic Fury, when Iran fired about 480 missiles in a single day (the largest single attack was 167 missiles fired at the UAE).

2. There were claims that some of the ballistic missiles used cluster munitions. I have my doubts based on the video evidence. If so, it suggests the mission was to build a body count. How that works, as everyone would have been in shelters based on the incoming missile warning, is anyone's guess. But long ago I stopped attributing second-order reasoning to Iranian actions. Creating American casualties is probably viewed as the surest way to make Trump back off.

3. The interceptor shortage obviously wasn't a concern. The Patriot crews were probably told to shoot as many as they needed and not to worry about the supply. Preventing an Iranian media victory mattered more than the number of weapons available. The message that we have more interceptors than the Iranians have missiles was sent to the entire region in the most forceful way possible.

4. The lack of damage from the attack is going to shake Iranian morale. More than that, it will shake the morale of Hezbollah (see IDF Wipes Out Hezbollah-IRGC Underground Bunker Complex After Iran’s Latest Empty 'Red Line' – RedState) and the Houthis, neither of which can exist without Iranian money and support.

5. On the whole, to have your end-of-the-world retaliatory attack flame out under an avalanche of Patriot interceptors sends a message of impotence, not strength.