Essays in Idleness

The “Proverbs of Hell,” to which I, at least, concede some authority, hold that, “A dead body revenges not injuries.” Indeed, William Blake is among my leading quasi-Christian prophets.

There is possibly no exception to this Proverb. However, the leading tactical experts observe, that the body may not be dead yet. A supplementary beating may still be necessary.

I thought I should render my thoughts on Iran, and on Mr. Trump’s employment of more than a dozen gleaming “bunker busters” on Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, in the present news cycle. Surely he did not use them on the archaeological vestiges of Isfahan, which I have visited and by which I was aesthetically pleased, but only on Isfahan’s uranium conversion plant, which is, or was, slick, modern, and probably ideal to be “blowed up real good.” Veritably, Iran has so many of these “miracles of modern engineering,” that we should keep up the production of high explosives.

But will there be a “live one” left, now all the bunker busters have exploded? Or will some supplementary beatings be required?

For the principal threat of any monster regime (one thinks, for instance, of China and North Korea) is not its possession of nuclear weapons, but that its rulers try to use them, if not for war then for blackmail. It is the same issue with guns: no problem at all, except in the hands of criminals or worse. (Religious fanatics are generally worse.) The ayatollahs of Persian Shia Islam, i.e. “Twelvers,” have consistently fit this description — Worse.

But this is not a new thing. The Zoroastrians, who seem to be making a comeback in Iran, after many centuries, could be just as bad (read their history, sometime); but had no nuclear weapons. Ahura Mazda could be just as troubling as Allah, when he was invoked aggressively, and Zarathustra could be as annoying as Muhammad. Thus we must all remain Christian Crusaders, with our elbows ever up, in Prime Minister Carney’s awkward hockey metaphor.

And, in this case, “Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.” … Or, one might add, “Gung ho!”