Those Juvenile Delinquents - At It Again
There they go again. We think we're living in a real world of adults worrying about all the things that can possibly go wrong with our plans to globally advance societal interests, to ward off the deleterious effects of our neglect toward the environment, trying to come to terms with diverse religious misunderstandings, living up to our responsibilities toward less developed nations, and just generally resolving to be decent world citizens.But here are these neighbourhood kids, bullies who just don't seem to understand that if they keep behaving in the manner they've grown accustomed to, they'll never achieve adulthood, just keep making the rest of us infuriatingly frustrated with the efforts required to keep them from one another's territories, those rough little street toughs that they are.
Playing at their bloody silly tit-for-tat games of one-upsmanship. Each side doing their best to irritate the neighbours, ringing doorbells, bashing in car windshields, setting firecrackers on doorsteps. Can you believe it? Adults behaving like juveniles in arrested development. Maybe we're all taking these matters entirely too seriously; they're all spoiled brats, after all.
There's the United States in Iraq, discovering post-hasty-invasion that they're in another part of the world, one whose customs, traditions, religion/s, animosities they don't really fathom, and trying to impose their expectations onto an unwilling population, outraged at the other gang's presence in their territory. That's life for you. Now, this hyperactive, hyper-technical invader is discovering that they're not invincible, and they're worried.
Worried, for example, about how to keep explaining back home about all those mortal casualties that keep popping up and shipped back home. Perplexed by the loss of expensive helicopters to an enemy that isn't supposed to have the ability and technical devices to detonate them out of their airspace. So, it's the neighbours' unwarranted interference that's at fault.
Gee, isn't that what neighbours do; get involved to help those living next to them in the hopes that when the bad boys come around to their home turf the ones they helped with extend their helping hand? Even if, under normal circumstances they hate their guts? So the U.S. is accusing Iran of supplying advanced weaponry to Iraqi insurgents.
It isn't at all odd that antagonists detest one another, is it? Reflective of human nature, after all. Roving gangs of ill-doers aren't particularly welcome in anyone's neighbourhood, all the more so when they're far from their home base, and then they're double-intruders, doubly unwelcome, bringing with them all the nasty habits of an alien society in the view of the put-upon society.
Ha, ha, the joke's on who? A war of words? Well, that can't be too awful, words wound, but they don't kill, right? But then things can get kind of nasty too, don't forget that. Then where's the joke? Still, how about this for symbolic gamesmanship? Revolutionary Guards Grounds Forces Chief Nur Ali Shushkari claiming that Iranian commandos engraved the Revolutionary Guard's emblem on the side of a U.S. naval vessel undetected.
After all, they're in Iran's territory, the Persian Gulf, throwing their weight around. Evidently the Iranian commandos used a submarine to approach the vessel. And, one imagines, everyone aboard the U.S. ship was drinking beer, doing popcorn in the microwave, reading comics, playing poker on the Internet. Guys will be guys. Hey, fooled you, didn't we? You're not so tough after all, are you? Tweaked your nose without your even blinking an eyelash.
Careful now, don't keep celebrating too loudly. There's always the danger of upsetting your adversary and he'll resort to the same stupid tactics, only more so. Which is why Iran is now crying that the U.S. is behind a booby-trapped car that blew up a bus belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards killing 11 people; which is to say Revolutionary Guards.
Jundollah (God's Soldiers: why is it in the MidEast that God has so many militias all eager to do His will, killing all those others who also worship Him?) has claimed responsibility, but Iran knows who is really behind these shenanigans. This counterpunch to Iran's little naval stunt stung sufficiently to cause the death of eleven Revolutionary Guards and injury to some 31 others. Coming so soon after the revelation of the stunt, Iran is suspicious.
To the extent that an Iranian official claims the attack was unequivocally carried out by a U.S.-backed group "based on evidence gathered", and five suspects were arrested. "A group which has been on the spotlight of U.S. media propaganda was responsible for the blast," the official said, whatever that means.
He appears to have more confidence than President Bush who admits his administration has no definitive proof: "I can say with certainty that the Quds Force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that have harmed our troops," the president said at a White House news conference.
What's the next little trick in the arsenal? Headache coming on.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, February 16, 2007
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