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Comment by einszwei | Hacker News Reader

Your comment made me realise that while Iran has attacked a dozen countries, they have yet to attack a school or a hospital.

Not condoning anyone but shows the priority of both sides.

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They obliterated a kindergarten in Israel just this morning, and several others since the start of the war. Last week a missile landed right behind my house, just between a kindergarten and an elementary school, damaging both.

Literally all Israeli casualties were civilian.

Your comment made me realize international media doesn't care to even publish this, leading to this incredibly skewed view.

Doesn't Isreal have a ban on reporting of strikes inside their borders?

No, only specifics like exact locations are not publicized.

The ban is on reporting the exact locations (i.e. coordinates) of where missiles land, because it's information that is useful in helping the enemy to calibrate where missiles will land. Reporting on other details is perfectly acceptable.

Thanks for correction. I looked up the news and could find reporting that some fragments of a missile did hit kindergarten. Thankfully no kids were there.

I'd edit my previous comment but I can't.

They did however murder thousands of protesters in their own streets in January, and who knows how much more dissidents over the years.

This one was just this week: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-execution-teen-wrestler-ja...

So there's that.

Strategically, it makes no sense to corner and threaten people. Murdering their own citizens shows the degree to which they'll go to preserve their power. If anything, that's a reason to slowly bleed them instead of cornering and escalating.

The evil of your enemy does not excuse your own strategic stupidity or cruelty.

Arguably the country that has done the most to cement the Iranian regime is the United States with its sanctions. If Iran had been left to develop into a normal Middle Eastern oil-rich country then things might have turned out differently. The more money people have the harder it is to control them.

You're being disingenuous - the "protestor" was caught on camera literally hacking a policeman to pieces. He murdered a policeman, and will now be executed.

Can you back this with linking the said videos and maybe some info on legal proceedings of the fair trial in which this person was convicted? I’m curious.

From that article, on CBS News which isn't exactly known for being a fan of this administration:

"Rights groups said the trio were executed without a fair trial and had given confessions under torture."

Allegedly, according to the same political factions that aggressively bombed Iran just weeks later.

No, not just according to those factions. From the same CBS News article:

> The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has recorded more than 7,000 killings, with the vast majority being protesters, while warning the toll could be far higher.

Neither CBS News nor this agency are friends of the factions you mention. Facts are stubborn things.

Critics of the Iranian government, primarily in the West, claim that thousands of people have died in the protests. In particular, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) put the death toll at 2,615 on Wednesday.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/15/what-is-hrana-the-u...

Are you seriously suggesting that Ellison-owned CBS News and US-based "human rights" orgs are not geopolitically aligned with the US government? They are 100% in cahoots.

The internal conflict over corruption, water issues and handling of the protesters had a decent chance to cause meaningful changes in government. Starting a war and attacking their civilians put those chances to bed.

Exactly. And this also want' just a protest. They were protest in the big cities and uprising from suppressed minoritiesm which explain the death toll among people from the regime.

Iran might have at best have a self-regime change, at worst split in 3. Now that the war is on, the regime consolidated.

Considering theyre now doing airstrikes, there was 100% pre-invasion action that included agitating these protests. Like they're literally bombing them now but we think we werent already doing CIA activity there 6 months ago? Im not saying civilians love the government they probably hate it but... its complicated, what if the person rallying and pushing 1000 people was actually a deep cover agent

Before I get downvoted to hell Im not conding anything or taking any side, just pointing out an obvious deduction

How does that compare with putting hundreds of thousands of people into cages for arbitrary reasons, I wonder. Or depositing them in random countries to be killed because they are e.g. homosexual.

Breaking a country's immigration laws does come with consequences, yes, at least if the government is willing to enforce to said laws, as it should be. Previously we had governments that weren't.

If you have a problem with those laws and think our borders should be wide open, that's of course a different matter, and one you should take up with Congress, which makes the laws.

I think those laws should be changed by the way, to be much friendlier towards Hispanic immigrants. They share our cultural values and are easy for the US to assimilate in my opinion, so long as they're properly vetted for obvious criminal behavior, ability and motivation to work, etc.

And that gives US people the right to go there and murder a few thousand extra people?

What it gave the US was an added incentive to take down what is unarguably one of the world's most evil and dangerous regimes.

Would you attack the US because they "murdered" thousands of Germans to take down Hitler in WW2?

I you want to point at evil and dangerous regimes I have a list and Iran wouldn't even be in the top 3...

Obviously your list is different from mine.

Well some civilians have been injured when Iran attacked the hotels where US agents were stationed. Mostly due to them being foreign workers and well we all know how Dubai and the Saudis treat foreign workers. They were not allowed evacuate in time.

Of course it will be hard to completely avoid civilian casualties in the long run, I fear but yeah Iran has been pretty measured. Iran's fight is with the US imperialists and Israel and not the people that live in the region.

> some civilians have been injured when Iran attacked the hotels where US agents were stationed

Surely the US are using civilians as human shields?

Yes, they are absolutely using civilians as human shields. Just like Israel has been doing for ages.

That is why they constantly lie about Hamas using human shields. Every accusation is a confession with these people.

The mullahs and IRGC are not famous for their compassion or kind-heartedness.

They are infamous for fulminating against liberals, plotting to kill enemies, torturing and hanging dissidents from cranes, persecuting minorities and women, funding terror cells, and fleecing their citizens to enrich themselves.

Many of the comments here suffer from a misguided refusal to be impressed by the regime's reputation, as though anyone the American establishment criticises must automatically be righteous.

>from a misguided refusal to be impressed by the regime's reputation

You have to thank the actions of the genocidal State of Israel that anything below it is somewhat acceptable. Reaping what they sow themselves.

> Reaping what they sow

Israel and Iran somewhat independently came to the conclusion that they’re the regional hegemon, and that protecting that position is worth any cost.

I would see this war as the end of a string of wars initiated by Iran through Hamas in October 7.

This left Israel similar to the USA post 9/11 or Peal Harbor. On a streak to make it never happen again in a very decisive/brutal way. Hegemony wasn't the moving factor for Israel, at least until very late in the war, and due to the same reasons

> the end of a string of wars initiated by Iran through Hamas in October 7

Locally, yes. Iran not condemning those attacks was a fuckup.

More broadly, this is the Levant versus Persia, a power contest as old as civilization.

I am talking about direct IRGC planning and training for the attack

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-israel-hamas-stri... https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-fighters-trained...

The attack plan of October 7 is generally so similar to the attack plan prepared for Hezbollah by the IRGC, that it is not surprising it is one and the same.

That's why Israel in this current conflict early on made moves on Iran and why the end game is this war.

> More broadly, this is the Levant versus Persia, a power contest as old as civilization.

Wasn't it more, Egypt and Greece vs Persia while the Levant was rapidly conquered?

That's not particularly enlightening, to be frank.

People always ask here why the community flags every post on these issues. Comments like this are why. Hardly anyone on this site knows even basic information on the nations involved.

If I were in charge of HN, I'd geoblock anyone from commenting on the Middle East who isn't at an IP from the Middle East. I wouldn't be able to comment either, but at least there might be enlightening information in the comments.

That said, the first page of any reputable history on Iran/Israel relations would go over 1979, when Israel went from friend of Iran to foe, based on Khomeini's interpretation of Islam.

They attacked a hospital during the 12 day war. They attacked a school today but it was evacuated due to the early warning system. They attack civilian targets indiscriminately using cluster warheads, in violation of international law.

HN need community notes BAD.

> they have yet to attack a school or a hospital

Most of their ordinance has been intercepted. And a good fraction was unguided enough that it would have hit a school or hospital.

> hit a school

Already has in Azerbaijan [0] and attempted in Israel [1].

Most reporting is hyper-regional and somewhat kept under wraps (eg. Qatar and UAE are actively prosecuting leakers who are using Reddit, and have even taken control of Qatar's subreddit [2]) or reported on in regional languages.

I've found the information control in this conflict to be much more strategic/professional in comparison to what was is seen in Ukraine and Russia.

[0] - https://www.euronews.com/2026/03/06/aliyev-vows-attacks-on-a...

[1] - https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/iranian-cluster-bomb-hi...

[2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/qatar/comments/1rt2fth/timeout/

This is obviously made easier when your opposition doesn’t stockpile their weapons in, nor conduct their military operations from, schools and hopsitals.

Here's a kindergarten Iran attacked just today: https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/iranian-cluster-bomb-hi...

The fact Israel has a very effective defensive system (active and passive) does not mean Iranians avoid civilian targets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMIA_bombing

This is a truly profound insight, the benevolance of Iran's regime is suspiciously proportional to the interception prowess of the nations targeted by Iran. /s

So every time allied militaries protect their schools and hospitals by intercepting missiles, drones etc from Iran, you give credit to Iran?

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