Saturday, March 24, 2007

Hostage taking redux...

Just as predictably that night follows day, the lines of this new battle between the rest of the world and the Iranian mullahs have been drawn. So much so that in its absence, we would have been more than perplexed to say the least. What we are referring to is the report (BBC March 24, 2007) that the 15 British sailors have been seized near the Shatt al-Arab, at the Iran-Iraq end of the Persian Gulf, by the Revolutionary Guards. BBC reports that according to the Fars news agency, the sailors have been moved to Tehran.

Mullah Khamenei had warned the world earlier this week that if they "want to treat us with threats and enforcement of coercion and violence, undoubtedly they must know that the Iranian nation and authorities will use all their capacities to strike enemies that attack." (Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2007) Now that the world is warned. As we said, so predictably. What mullah Khamenei is referring to, of course, is the formidable threat of hostage taking and terrorist mischiefs that the grand masters of terror are so adept to.

The world must take his words seriously. Whether it has the gut to respond with resolute voice remains entirely another matter. If the the collective wisdom of the civilized world does not chicken out, as it has in many pasts when confronted with the specter of the mullahs wrath.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Clueless Mr. Dominique Villepin and nonsense...

In the slightest chance that one may have doubts on French Premier, Dominique Villepin, being as comatose as his President, one need not further confirmation that this piece reported by Reuters (March 15, 2007). Mr. Villepin states matter of factly, "Iran today knows and the people of Iran today know that they have a choice,". The choice here refers to the action agreed upon by the UNSC P5+1 on the next installment of sanctions against Iran for its apparent refusal to succumb to the wishes of the UN Security Council.

The point that shall be made is not that the Iranian mullahs deserve to be sanctioned; they deserve to be overthrown and done so in the hands of those suffered the most in their hands. The point to be made is that Mr. Villepin and his likes are completely clueless, when addressing the mullahs, about the nature of this dictatorship. The "people of Iran" do not make the decision to have atomic bombs or not; the mullahs do. Addressing the Iranian people in this fashion only adds to their misery and reinforces the mullahs' manufactured assertion for the right for the Iranians to have access to nuclear technology or weapons. The people of Iran have the right to be free. Period.

It is no wonder that the Europeans have turned to appeasers.