Iran and the jaws of a trap

Judging from the rather frantic behind-the-scenes efforts of Russia and China in Iran, they seem to appreciate that the Iranian leadership is in for a big and probably deadly surprise.

This is interesting – it’s almost to the point where the rocks are starting to roll down the mountain, and the ChiComs and Russkies are trying to not get in the way.

The Russians saw the writing on the wall when France, Germany and Britain began to march in lockstep with the United States. In particular, the widely but wrongly discounted nuclear belligerence of President Jacques Chirac last month implied that France was ready to accept the US use of nuclear weapons in a war against Iran if they saw fit to do so.

If Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad is as fixated with his own worldview as he fully seems to be, he may well be convinced that he can get away with all this stuff, in spite of the trends – an apparent case of poor situational awareness.

There is an interesting war scenario spelled out by this writer, with a background in the German intel service. Sounds like a great Plot for a Tom Clancy type novel.

An initial Israeli air attack against some Iranian nuclear targets, command and control targets and Shahab missile sites. Iran retaliates with its remaining missiles, tries to close the Gulf, attacks US naval assets and American and British forces in Iraq. If Iranian missiles have chemical warheads (in fact or presumed), the US will immediately use nuclear weapons to destroy the Iranian military and industrial infrastructure. If not, an air campaign of up to two weeks will prepare the ground campaign for the occupation of the Iranian oil and gas fields.

Mass mobilization in Iraq against US-British forces will be at most a nuisance – easily suppressed by the ruthless employment of massive firepower. And Israel will use the opportunity to deal with Syria and South Lebanon, and possibly with its Palestinian problem.

Chief’s comment: A Clancy scenario is the alternative that is REQUIRED if Jack Bauer isn’t sent in to do the job! Heh heh heh!

The Paris Hilton School of Political Science

…Britain is being governed according to the Paris Hilton school of political science. When asked if any articles about her had appeared in the UK, Hilton replied no, but there had been some in London. When told that London is in the UK, she answered, “Whatever. UK. Right.” Tony Blair couldn’t have put it any better himself.

Unlike his long line of predecessors, Blair is curiously uninterested in the history and traditions of the countries which make up the United Kingdom and the historical development of laws, including the freedom of speech and thought that the British have enjoyed — in sharp contrast to citizens of European countries — for 800 years.

This piece from TCS goes on with more chilling detail on the current state of what passes for law enforcement in the new Britain, and an ugly picture it is!

Most alarming is the New Labour focus on controlling not only speech, but thought. Political correctness is thought-control under a less threatening name, and The Times of London’s Europe correspondent Anthony Browne has described the descent into a Kafkaesque world in his new pamphlet, The Retreat of Reason, published by conservative think tank Civitas. He demonstrates that the new ideology has effectively stifled public debate on topics the government doesn’t want discussed. He adds that throughout all levels of government now, “there is an intellectually dishonest response by people who preferred political correctness over factual correctness”.

Folks, as bad as the P.C. gets over here, it’s nothing compared to the situation the Brits have – their lack of a First Amendment is starting to really bite! There’s more specific detail with examples in the article, and is well worth the look.

For comparative reference, the Chief offers the following definitions from the Newspeak Dictionary:

crimethink – To even consider any thought not in line with the principles of Ingsoc. Doubting any of the principles of Ingsoc. All crimes begin with a thought. So, if you control thought, you can control crime. “Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death, Thoughtcrime is death…. The essential crime that contains all others in itself.”

“I complained that I had no shoes, but then I met a man that had no feet.”

F.I.R.S.T. Robotics

Yikes! The Chief’s time is being devoured by the building season for this years’ F.I.R.S.T. robotics competition. It’s after school into the evening, every night during the week, and on Sat. PM. The admin. part of running the team is making a dent in time during the day also.

Please excuse the partial hiatus from regular blog entries – there will be some as time allows. This is necessitated by the need to design and build from a generic pile of parts, a robot device capable of playing the game for the year, within a 6 week window (3 weeks to go, more or less).

One of the F.I.R.S.T. teams had a motto that is too accurate to be funny: “Don’t eat! Don’t sleep! Make the robot!”

(At least I didn’t miss “24”, due to use of satellite time-zone differences!