Once again we note that that nice US president has been watching 'Fox News' again. We can tell be cause he has discovered that Iran is a problem and he must declare war on that ancient land. The war he is now working on, between MacDonald's and Coke, is one that continues the Syrian war the Saudi's and that nice Israeli president started and failed with. They had intended to curtail Iran by attacking the proxy Syria but having failed, thanks to Russia's intervention, another nice man the Mr Putin, the Middle East rulers now wish a direct US attack on Persia.
The Persians will tell you they go back to Cyrus the Great which means they have been around since he died, at war, in 530 BC. As such they consider all nations around bar China and India and newcomers and the variety of Arab states they treat with undisguised contempt. This is not helped when Iran takes the Shia Muslim line and the majority of the rest take the Sunni line, something ignored when Britain and France and the rest divided up the middle east after the Great War.
Today the west's interference has removed almost all Christians from the area, most Jews and all those of lesser faiths either diminish or suffer according to passing fashion. Such interference continues, with Trump following whatever he is told, a 'hawk' or two in the White House demanding action similar to that dealt to Iraq and again uncaring re the millions who will suffer and die, including their own men of course, they have never been considered by leading politicians.
World War 3 will begin on Twitter...
Getting away from that I have put aside all my other reading and become captive to this small book. This is one of several found in Waterstones, the 'Penguin Monarchs' series, and so far I have rushed through this easy to read history of William the Conqueror. Ideal for train journeys, flights, sitting in the loo, the short easy chapters inform, educate and bring to life well known monarchs, all from the past obviously, and appear worth the £4:99.
I have got one or two others to read also and I think this is a good way to get to know the past. One thing I wonder concerns the rumours of how he married his wife Matilda. Nothing is said re him pulling her off a horse or battering her or raping her to ensure a marriage. Maybe these rumours were out of place or too much of a rumour to put into a short book? Being short it cannot cover all ground right enough.
Enough good information is given however to review the character of the man. Usually we hear a little half hearted basic information concerning some great man and once we investigate for ourselves we quickly discover things are not quite as we have been told. William was indeed a religious man, not just for show either. He placed reforming Archbishops into Canterbury and Rouen and listened to their spiritual counsel. This enabled him to rule humanely and judge justly. We forget or know little about what went before but William improved life for many, even when treating this who opposed him severely. One aspect unknown to me was the vast degree of slavery in England and Wales at the time, this William outlawed! Once again a foreigner came to England and freed the English from themselves! His piety was real but his wrath no less real, opponents felt this but I suspect the reason many disliked him in England was the tax he raised, mostly from those who had the money to spare.
I have finished this book, unputdownable and quickly read.
I like this one.
It is most unfortunate that the Electoral Commission, a somewhat tardy organisation today, has been forced by one time Prime Minister Gordon Brown to step in and investigate the flow of money onto the Brexit Party coffers. It appears money is coming from outside the UK via PayPal which converts the cash into £s from whatever source and in Brexit eyes does no wrong. Foreign cash as you know is not acceptable in funding political parties at an election. It could be our man might be forced out, tsk the 'establishment' again!
The new man in Iran is one Hassan Rouhani, a Muslim cleric and now President of Iran. He replaces the renowned rabblerouser Ahmadinejad. This will please many but will it really make any difference I wonder? The world appeared to believe every word spoken by Ahmadinejad, or at least the worlds media believed this, but he was, like the new man, merely a front. The real power lies with the Mullahs and Ayatollah Khameni makes the decisions, not the President. While demanding an end to Israel filled the press the words lacked substance, there was no movement within Iran to do this merely eye catching words that pleased the general Arab population but not their leaders. Talk like that allied to building nuclear weapons, no matter how many scientists Mossad bump off, does not make for peaceful co-existence.
Rouhani already talks well. He has convinced the leadership, with whom he has worked for many years, that he is a conservative, he has convinced the populace that he is a reformer, and now he will no doubt spend time making the West feel he is a man with whom they 'could do business.'
We fail to understand Iran. There are many who see this proud nation as just another Arab block. Mad Islamic types who threaten the world while controlling the oil. Whether this lot are mad I will leave you to ponder but one thing is sure, they are not Arabs. Iran, or Persia if you prefer, sees itself as one of the two big nations in Asia, China being the other. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the rest are less than a hundred years old, Persia goes back all the way to Cyrus the Great two thousand five hundred years ago! This is one small but pertinent attitude far too many fail to grasp. Persians are not Arabs and are more than willing to indicate the difference.
In Persian minds Cyrus was the first leader, in spite of the arrival of Christianity and then Islam and all those passing years this belief is still found in their psyche. The West gives the impression this nation can just be kicked around, but as Saddam found, even though aided by the US and others, that is not so. The fear caused by the arrival of the late Khomani in 1979 has not departed some minds. While they fear a radical Islam arriving on their territory it has come in the back door through straight forward immigration policies allied to inept handling of the Middle East and later George W's needless Iraq invasion. Persia is not Iraq. While both were well educated nations Iran does not suffer from major sectarian rifts, all are Shia here, any attack by the West in any form will turn the entire nation against it, a land war here would be worse than Iraq! The Ayatollahs men died in their millions during Saddams war, yet they still came on. The young well educated who strongly oppose much of the present leadership will suddenly become loyal if attacked.
Rouhani talks of moderation, Rouhani has been around a long time and is no fool (he was part-educated in Glasgow, so he must have learnt something about the real world there!), Rouhani knows that he will have to offer something different to the people and to the world, but in the end the Ayatollah holds all the keys and he remains the front man, nothing more. He will also know how Rafsanji, a one time president, talked of change and now is banned from standing and has been roughly pushed aside. He may well be the 'right' man from both sides point of view but he will always have to be the Ayatollahs man or he will be removed.
At 11:40 this morning the house shook with what I later discovered was a sonic boom! I thought at the time it was either the neighbours dancing or thunder but would never have guessed at a sonic boom here. It just does not happen over the UK and RAF pilots, this one flying the Typhoon, are only given permission for breaking the sound barrier in emergency situations. One happened last year way 'up north' when a helicopter transmitted on the wrong frequency and caused an emergency situation response. Essex police and the MOD have claimed this incident was 'routine!' With hundreds of flights over our head or in fifty miles of us daily they refer to Typhoons going supersonic as routine? Aye right!
The only other time I heard such a sound was while in Israel where it can be a daily occurrence. I asked the Arab in the coffee shop what the artillery were firing at only to discover it was the fighter planes above. In a small nation some discomfort is to be expected, but I could do without that one! Today 'our boy' was right overhead having travelled across Hertfordshire and ourselves to get to wherever he was headed. Seventy odd years ago we had B 17s, Wellingtons, Lancaster's, Spitfires and the rest over our heads daily (Well not mine you understand) and I suspect their noise was worse than an occasional 'bang' just before lunchtime.
I wonder if we will ever discover the reason for the panic?
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