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Wednesday Morning Rant

Sadly Typical

With Trump's fairly blunt threat to start aggressively targeting Iranian power and transit infrastructure (at the time of writing, anyway - by the time this goes live, it might have started or been obviated with a "deal" of some kind), Iran is doing everything in its power to try to make Trump and Hegseth blink. As Ace covered and various Hordelings expanded yesterday, Iran appears to be leaning heavily on it's fifth column in this country. Such strikes would be evil, or war crimes, or inappropriate, or whatever else. These fifth columnists are always happy to help, but they - much to the chagrin of their masters - appear to have relatively little real influence at the moment.

But Iran is not resting on its laurels and putting all of its chips on its fifth column in isolation. They apparently hope to significantly amplify its Stateside allies and deal a PR blow to the Trump administration in the same way that Islamists always do: by putting people in harm's way. Unable to defend against the American-Israeli attacks due to the latter's air superiority, they will settle for making infrastructure attacks as bloody and graphic as possible. Islamists love human shields because the enemy is usually squeamish about slaughtering civilians, and various sources are awash with claims that Iran is gearing up to burn through a lot of them.

India Today:

Iranian citizens gathered on the White Bridge in Ahvaz, forming a human chain to protect key infrastructure amid US-Israel threats, stressing that attacks on civilian facilities are widely regarded as violations of international law.
A video shared by the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mumbai highlighted the civilian-led effort, underscoring that ordinary Iranians do not want to see their country’s infrastructure damaged in the escalating conflict.

Civilian-led? Place your bets.

The Hill:

Iranian officials on Tuesday urged their people to form human chains around power plants as the country faces a deadline set by President Trump to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or risk major strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure.

The regime called on "all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors" to protect power plants threatened by Trump, according to The Associated Press.

"Power plants that are our national assets and capital," Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, reportedly said in a video statement.

Go collect your winnings. I guess the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents isn't the IRGC and so is "civilian" but this ain't exactly the grassroots movement that Consulate General implied. That video, assuming it's real, is available on X. This is an altogether typical play by what's left of the Iranian government to slaughter young people in order to then cry crocodile tears in the "international community" while their fifth column calls Trump and our soldiers, sailors and airmen a bunch of diabolical baby-killers. They always do this.

That isn't all Iran is threatening and staging. Per the Jerusalem Post, Iran is also threatening retaliation:

Iran has also signaled that any attack on its energy network could trigger retaliation against civilian infrastructure elsewhere in the region. Previous reports said Iranian and IRGC officials had warned that if Iran’s fuel and energy facilities were hit, Tehran could target Israeli power plants, gas rigs, desalination systems, and other strategic civilian sites.

They will surely try, though Iran's recent efficacy has not been particularly great and hopefully will remain that way. But that is beside the point. Even if Iran has the capability to effectively retaliate, the state-sponsored sacrifice of Iranians would still happen. This is what Islamists do. They do it by choice even in the face of alternatives. It is the preferred tactic, not a desperation move.

There is a reason they store and manufacture arms in hospitals and mosques and schools, and use the same as operational bases. They love ensuring that their own will die during their glorious jihad. There is much in it for them, after all. Dead kids rile people up and so long as they can successfully blame the enemy for the death and deflect away from their own culpability, it's a powerful tool on the homefront. It also, crucially, is a powerful tool for their fifth columns to use. You can be sure the pre-printed signs about Trump and Hegseth's war crimes for targeting civilians are already staged and ready to go, and countless column-inches about their evil are already written. It's as predictable as the sunrise.

The blame for the coming civilian casualties will almost entirely rest with the regime, just as it does for Hamas and Hezbollah and the Taliban and all the rest - but the propaganda blitz to come will likely be a thing to behold. It's the real point. It's why, despicable and cynical as it is, the Islamists' love of human shields is entirely predictable and wholly typical.