A little behind the herd here, I know but what can I say? I’ve been away for a bit. The recent act of war by Iran against Britain has, understandably, created more than a little bit of navel-gazing in its wake. Not a big surprise, when you take a minute to think about it. There was once a time when Britain would have never stood for that kind of crap (anybody out there remember the Falkland Islands?). Not now, it seems.

I was going to go on at some length about this but, as happens from time to time, somebody else not only beat me to it, they did it a lot better than I would have. So, just what do I do when someone has the audacity to outdo me like that? Simple: I steal their stuff and put it here for you to look at.

The following is from last Saturday’s TO Sun and is by UWO prof Salim Mansur; a man who quite probably has the firmest — and arguably, the bluntest — grasp of the Islamofascist mind of anyone in the country. Here’s his take on the issue, with no further needless commentary from yours truly:

Iran finds weak West

By SALIM MANSUR

The insolence of the thuggish regime in Iran is rising in inverse proportion to the self-abasement of the West and, in particular, the European Union.

The hostage taking of British sailors by Tehran was a move to test the resolve of Britain and its allies in responding to provocation bordering on an act of war.

Tony Blair’s failure to respond in a manner that could not be misread by Tehran for the immediate unconditional release of British sailors only confirmed the clerical regime’s estimate of the West as unwilling to contend with Iran’s expansionist ambitions in the Persian Gulf region.

Tehran learned from its experience of taking American diplomats hostage for 444 days that the West could be shown for being a paper tiger as China’s Mao had once described it.

The latest Iranian hostage taking should be seen in a wider context of Tehran’s strategic objective of being recognized as the leading Islamic power in a multipolar world wherein Europe and the United States are no longer dominant, and in the United Nations the countries of Asia and Africa provide for the majority bloc of voting members.

Iran’s ascent to the position Tehran’s clerical regime aspires might only be realized by dividing the Arab opposition to its ambition, defying the Security Council’s various resolutions to stop its bid to acquire nuclear capability, and securing Russian-Chinese support to nullify any threat of EU singly or in combination with the U.S.

From the outset of Iran’s 1979 revolution the regime’s supreme clerical guide, Ayatollah Khomeini, maintained the road to Jerusalem and the “liberation” of Palestine was through Karbala, the Iraqi site of martyrdom for the Shiite Imam Hussein and his family. In other words, the Persian Khomeini offered the Arab-Palestinian nationalists the example of Shiite martyrdom as the means for waging war against Israel.

Iran has succeeded in dividing the Arab states by positioning Hezbollah as its fifth column in the heart of the Arab east, and by financing the Hamas among Palestinians. A fragmented Arab world nursing innumerable grievances is unable to counter Iran’s age-old Persian ambition reincarnated in Islamist ideology and financed by bulging oil revenue.

The EU negotiations with Tehran to cease its no longer secret nuclear program in return for assistance to construct nuclear reactor for civilian use has proven to be a charade.

European trade with Iran has grown over time, and commercial interests of France, Germany and Italy trump any EU concerns over Iran’s race to become a nuclear power.

Nuclear capability is the guarantee the clerics seek to make Iran’s position in the Middle East invulnerable to external challenge. Domestically it would make the clerical regime more formidable even as Iranians increasingly loathe the totalitarian rule of Khomeini and his political progeny.

Tehran’s probing of Britain’s resolve by kidnapping its sailors could be indicative of the British mood being the same as in the rest of Europe, of appeasing and accommodating Iran. If this is so and clerical rulers of Iran are proven right, then only President George Bush stands between Tehran’s ambition and its consummation.

But the Bush administration is beset with problems exacerbated by a swing in American mood in the direction of European appeasers.

The clerics in Tehran will wait out the remaining months of Bush in the White House for they know too well the Democratic party of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and taking British sailors hostage is their endgame move to run the West out of the Middle East.

Dang; willya lookit all this? I take a few days off and, lo & behold, a total buttload of interesting stuff all pops up all over the place.

The Poor Little Rich Girl of Canadian politics has decided that, since nobody will let her be in charge, she’s running back home to Daddy’s company to… well, be in charge. Because of her overwhelming qualifications, of course. Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya on the way out.

The Torys put yet another nail in the now almost all-nail coffin of the billion-buck bugger-up of the long gun registry and the Liebrals, naturally, were miffed that it was done outside of Parliament where they could have huffed and puffed — but actually done sweet bugger all — about it:

“It says the Conservatives are trying to do by stealth what they can’t do out in the open — which is kill the long gun registry,” said Liberal Justice Critic Marlene Jennings.

“But by doing it by stealth, they are attempting to ensure that the vast majority of Canadians won’t know what they’re doing, and so they get away with it.”

No, dipshit; it means that the Tories — along with most other people in this country that have two non-partisan brain cells to rub together — are sick and God damned tired of worthless, self-serving, Grit grandstanding on this issue and have decided to take away one of your favourite horns. Go toot something else. Have some beans.

Our boys in Afghanistan had a bad day over the Easter weekend. Perhaps in something of a telling portent of changing values, the deaths of six of our men came almost right on top of the 90th anniversary of the assault on Vimy Ridge where losing six men would have happened about every seven minutes. 3,598 dead in three days; do the math. And none of them came home. But look to get innundated with a fresh volly of “body of fallen soldier begins/continues/ends long journey home” stories in the MSM for the next while (unless there’s something more Lefty-friendly to blab about for a few minutes).

All charges were finally dropped agains the lacrosse players from Duke University, which must have totally baffled the lib-left because hey, the accuser was black and the accused were white. Which means they’re clearly guilty, right?

Hockey season ended. Early.

And much, much more. Dang. Well, I’m back now and seeing as how I’m laid off for a while, that should mean that I’m going to have a lot more time to dish out all the little nuggets of wisdom that you have all come to know, love and depend on to get through your days.

Had this been an actual post… blah, blah, blah. Just trying to figure out some audio fiddling for the site for future posts. Wish me luck. This is actually something that I’ve had clunking around in my cranium for some time now but never had the opportunity to actually play around with until now.

See? Even getting laid off can have an upside. 😛

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