Re-setting the rules of the game

The “United Nations” sure knows which side its bread is buttered on. It has been so very prompt in demanding the release of the British soldiers who are being held (in luxury) in Iran. Last year, though, the same “United Nations” was so very careful not to condemn Israel’s destruction of Lebanon, even though thousands of people were being killed, and hundreds of thousands of other people were wantonly being made homeless. When it finally, and very politely, begged Israel to please leave Lebanon, it did it in the most courteous possible terms, observing all possible protocols, including, most especially, the required mantra about the blame that falls on both sides.

This time, though, there is no mention of the blame that falls on both sides. Are the British soldiers guilty of any crime? That does not seem to concern the United Nations. Are Britain’s military operations in the Persian Gulf legitimate? Ditto. Does the American scare tactic of sending naval carriers with hundreds of cruise missiles, including nuclear ones, into the Persian Gulf accord with any kind of international law, especially when we are really talking about a minor dispute between two other nations? Ditto again.

Britain and the United States must understand that the days of empires are over. The sun has set over both of their empires, and the sooner they accept that fact, the fewer people will get killed because of their imperial adventures. If the “United Nations” is unwilling and unable, and essentially lacking the courage, to make this point, it has become the Iranian government’s reluctant duty to substitute itself for the United Nations, and to speak as the representative of a future humanity when logic and good will, not the irrationality of superior force, will guide world affairs.