[spwa4]

> Similarly, I will credit the IRGC with using the blackout to their advantage ...

No it's not. It's just doing what they always do: taking hostages and threatening to damage a LOT of people's lives just so they can feel good, feel strong without of course actually being strong, with both themselves and the Iranian population living in misery just to cause problems for the rest of the world. They have made every last friend they have into enemies. Both the Iraqi and Lebanese governments are attacking them now.

Hostages when you have no way out ... is about as smart as a bank robber taking a hostage. It helps until the snipers arrive. Then, a bullet with your name on it gets loaded and no further comment from you is required. Iran's islamists are creating a situation where the entire world has no other choice but to destroy them.

It is beyond stupid. The outcome they are desperate to create would utterly destroy THEM. And in their desperate attempts to so that they're giving everyone who might have chosen to protect them into enemies screaming at the world that they need to be dealt with.