Britain's Response to the Sacking of their Embassy in Iran and Various Sundries

I have been tied up with firewood-stacking in preparation for the next three months or so of Northern New Jersey winter and have consequently been off of the posting schedule. Yes, I know that some may react with laughter and compare New Jersey to Canada and other much colder areas. In my defense, not only does firewood in my Norwegian-made Jotyl wood stove make for a much more comfortable house, it is also a safeguard in the event of a problem with the furnace, fuel supply, and other unexpected problems. It is of course nice to know every year that my work is going to save some money in heating costs.

On top of that, in the words of the old guys when speaking of the attributes of turning big pieces of wood into small pieces to burn, "Firewood warms you twice". Stacking the wood also allows me to something relatively quietly in the yard while my son engages in the horrid activity of deer hunting; an act for which no doubt many would gladly cause injury or worse to me for introducing him to such an abominable crime.

With Britain's response to the neo-1979 embassy sacking - The House of Commons took decisive action and gave the Iranian diplomatic staff 48 hours to leave Britain. It was a bold move and the right one. According to news reports today, the actual exit occurred less than an hour ago. Maybe I was reading too much into this, but the mood of the members of the House seemed different from the usual as I watched a video of the announcement on Thursday. They looked like the indignant Brits that I had hoped to see after the 2005 bombings. This time they looked serious. Good old-fashioned shouts of “Here, Here!” could be clearly heard in affirmation of the speaker’s words. I would like to hold out hope that the Lion is being stirred into action. The time is past due for Britain to reassert her identity, especially on her own island.

As I have noted, Islam has a tendency to mob-type action. There is no room for moderates in a religion that is also the government and the bedrock of one’s civil society and family. It permeates every aspect of one's life, including washing and more. Individual Muslims may very well live in fear of being perceived as not Muslim enough. During the height of the Mohammed turban cartoons, I watched photos and videos of extremely angry protests that purported to express outrage at Danish people doing things that are prohibited to Muslims. I could not help but think that many in the crowd were there because they felt that they would be endangering their safety or at least their social standing if they stayed at home. I went further and pictured some of them putting tremendous effort in working themselves into a frenzy in an effort to demonstrate to their neighbors – and quite possibly to themselves, how angry they were.

I can’t come up with one recent event that even could have been stretched into a reason to forcibly enter and takeover an embassy. The sanctions had to occur at some point as the nuclear weapons program of the country Obama described as “tiny” was moving along at pretty good pace. What type of culture does not find other ways of expressing their disagreement and even defiance of sanctions?

British colonial rule in Iran (then Persia) is long past, so I doubt that this was the result of those days when a backwards, stagnant, corrupt country was taken advantage of by a country that was more organized and strong militarily.