Roosting Chickens and Outraged Humiliation
Figures that Iran would have a hate-on for Britain. After all, if the ayatollahs have long memories of imperialistic abuse against their country it's hardly surprising. For centuries Britain - in its colonizing mode of conquest and imposed trade on countries in the near east, brutalizing and subjugating, spreading their empire, absorbing the material wealth of those countries - made enemies as well as dependents among those formerly within the embrace of the British Empire.Although still members of the Commonwealth there is bitterness and anger in countries like India and Pakistan, Turkey and Iran against the military defeats of a conquering army furnished with superior technology and weaponry, along with the humiliation known by a country under foreign occupation and administration. Persia wasn't occupied in the way that India was but it was in continual push by Britain and Russia. But that was then, this is now.
With their long and glorious history of owning the high seas, their splendid Admiralty, and well-trained fleet, Britain earned the grudging admiration of countries anxious to unseat her powerful navy and domination of the marine geographies she triumphed over. But this is a different Britain, albeit one which, from time to time, can still trot out her high-seas experience to bully countries like Argentina, over her conquest of the Malvinas.
Given the incendiary situation in the Persian Gulf and frayed relationships in the geography it's mind-boggling that experienced British sailors and marines and their commanding officers would let their guards down to the extent that they would make themselves vulnerable to a hostage taking yet again. Lesson not learned first time around, evidently.
That the expertise of the Royal Navy would have fallen to such a professional low that their mother ship would lose binocular-sight of their personnel in danger-fraught waters; that the helicopter support would be allowed to return to the ship before the Zodiac crews did likewise boggles the mind. If some Royal Navy commander doesn't lose his professional future over this failure in protocol it would be fairly surprising.
But here is noble Britain having its nose tweaked by hysterical-but-cunning eastern potentates. Wouldn't they have known their movements were under surveillance by Iranian patrol boats, mightn't the possibility have occurred to them? If not, they have a problem of supreme arrogance, a condition formerly ascribed to the Iranian political elite.
Now there's a shrill war of words, of accusations, however baseless they are, having sufficient clout of embarrassing humiliation for the country and its hapless sailors. And here are Iranian protesters declaring "Death to Britain", while ironically enough, in the photograph showing fist-raised Iranians demanding the death penalty for the British sailors intent on sabotage and worse, there is signage behind the assembly on the side of a cement-block building, reading "Oxford University Press".
Hate, blame, fame, gain, defame - it's the way of this world.
Labels: World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Monday, April 02, 2007
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