Latitude & Attitude - Iranian miscalculations

It never ceases to amaze me how some governments have a complete end utter lack of understanding of what is clever and what is definitely not, when it comes to dealing with the western civilisation.

It is often, but not always, regimes with cultural roots in Islam that make the biggest blunders and this time around is no different. Iran has taken hostage 15 British service men/women in the Persian Gulf.

Let there be no mistake: this is an act of hostage taking. It is not a matter of taking prisoners of war, as there are no hostilities between the two countries. The act has been conducted purely as a means of extracting concessions of one kind or another on the part of Britain, this is clear for all to see.

What those concessions might be is a matter of pure speculation, but the fact that the US has a number of Iranian prisoners in Iraq, supposedly intelligence staff from the Revolutionary Guard aiding insurgents in the war torn country is as good a guess as any other.

Why is it doubtlessly an act of hostage taking? Because if - hypothetically - the service men had for any reason ventured into Iranian waters, lets say as a result of poor navigation skills, it would be the simplest matter in the world to order them out of the waters. There is absolutely no reason why the men and one woman should be sequestered and kept isolated from diplomats of the UK. But the Iranians decided to create a diplomatic crisis on purpose.

Doing that is bad enough. But to add further stupidity to an already unnecessary act, the Iranian government has decided to use the service men as a propaganda tool, parading them on national TV. And continuing down the path of stupidity, they present the world with a letter from one of the captives, apologising for the intrusion into Iranian waters and urging the UK to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Of course we are all to believe that the letter is a spontaneous production by a remorseful soldier. To make matters even worse, the government then decides not to release the female hostage as previously promised. This, of course, further strengthens our trust in their words.

Every single act described here is head-shakingly stupid and what the Iranian regime does not understand is that those acts just fills westerners with disgust. Not fear, not awe, not admiration, but utter disgust.

It was exactly the same mistake Saddam Hussein made, when he held Westerners hostage in Iraq prior to the first Gulf War, parading little children in front of the cameras, patting them on their heads.

By every political act whether supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, Muqtada el Sadr, or refusing to comply with the UN on the matter of uranium enrichment, the Iranian government establishes itself as an enemy of the West and indeed of the most of the civilized world. If not exactly respected, at least that type of stance can be reluctantly understood as political positioning. It does not attract disgust.

Creating disgust is much more dangerous for the Iranians. The feeling of disgust feeds the feeling of worthlessness towards all Iranians. This is especially true as the regime does not allow voices of dissent to remind us that the Iranian people are not its government.

But by filling our minds with disgust for them, the Iranians have without realising it created a mental space in our brains that will much easier tolerate an eventual act of war against them.

Only the future will show if a Third Gulf War will take place as the result of the Iranian government's insistence on developing uranium enrichment. I hope not. But one thing is sure, if it does take place, I will feel less bad about it because the Iranian government has given me the mental space to despise them and be disgusted with them.

That is the true miscalculation by Iran.

"Freedom of expression is important, but more important is what is holy for me"

Now there is truly a statement that can feed your thoughts ...

These were the words used by the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and they were caused by cartoonists' impressions of the profet Muhammed in a Danish newspaper.

Denmark - represented by it's prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen - one of the countries achieving the highest scores in the world on press freedom is currently under verbal and diplomatic attack from most major muslim nations in the world, those amongst the lowest scorers in this category, exactly on the issue of press freedom. The problem? There is simply too much of it in Denmark.

According to muslims it is a sacrilege to depict the profet and the Turkish Prime Minister is very upset that the "Danish government did not express solidarity. If someone had said, that this was not the official position [what exactly "this" refers to is unclear - N.M.] then we would have felt that the newspaper was isolated. When you don't say anything it is either because you are ashamed [sic] or because you agree. [again, exactly with what one agrees is unclear N.M.] If you had been opposed to the cartoons, you would have said it."

The problem is, of course, that there is nothing to oppose. You may like the cartoons or not or maybe just be indifferent, just as with any other cartoon, but what is there to oppose? If the Danish Prime MinisteR were to officially oppose the fact that they appeared in a newspaper it would constitute an attempt to gag the press or require it to impose self censorship.

It seems as if the part of the muslim community, which has spoken out against Mr. Rasmussen has not understood this, or simply refuses to acknowledge this as a problem. The latter reason would be less surprising than the former.

Freedom of Expression is perhaps the crux of the culture clash which is becoming increasingly more evident between democracies (not the ones that just pay lipservice to the term) and the world, currently the muslim part, in which faith matters more than free thinking people.

Lack of this basic freedom is arguably the main cause for individual suffering imposed by governments on their citizens in the Middle East and Africa but also in Russia and even more so in China.

On a much smaller scale look at the suffering of Valerie Plame and her husband. It is based on the fact that Mr. Wilson used his freedom of speach against his own government. To that government their version of the story of Iraq is holy... I want to mention that case, but let us be careful not to let anybody use it as a cover excuse for much worse suffering in other places around the world.

I would really like to ask Mr. Erdogan what should happen to freedom of expression when confronted with a ruler to whom power is holy, or to whom his fortunes aquired through criminal activities are holy, or to whom the one-party state is holy. I could go on.

The thing is Mr. Erdogan, I would explain politely, there is no conjugation for the term "freedom of expression".

"Freedom of expression is important, but more important is freedom of expression" I would say.

But hey, that's just me talking.

Let's face it

There is an abundance of individuals and organizations in the world that are attempting to influence our lives by the use of words or deeds without asking for our permission. Sometimes they do it directly but mostly it happens indirectly.

Unfortunately, in most cases they can best be described as absurd, laughable, tragic, ridiculous, horrendous, incomprehensible, and/or grotesque. On a few occasions they are OK - however, when I come across one of those I become highly suspicious.

Since they so interfere with my life and my thoughts without asking my permission I think it is my right and my obligation to speak up and let it be known what I think of it all. That is what I intend to use this blog for.

Now, since I know you are here reading this posting I might as well make a few things clear:

1. I obviously do not belong in any of the above categories - except the OK one, naturally.
2. I expect you to be highly suspicious of that statement too.
3. ... let's just leave it at two.

I am not at all a public person so I am not sure this is what I really want to do. Yet I am here now and only time will tell whether this will be a quickly dying fad or a regular let-out for my rantings.