It was a week that started very much with snow outside being followed by really bad ice which I had a major battle with on Wednesday just trying very much to get as far as the local bus stop so obviously you do check on things such as the conditions in your area but, if you're like most of us, we soon look into other things in the news.
This whole "story" is evolving so won't be exactly definitive but for the last week or so people were out in Iran protesting which isn't given that countries rule something you see much at all in fairly large numbers in large towns and cities.
They were protesting many things, the faltering state of that countries economy impact on peoples welfare and public services, the lack of freedom of expression politically as well as cultural and in terms of dress where you may be fined or beaten for breaching bans and generally the feeling the Religious and Political ruler since the revolution of 1979 that saw the Shah overthrown by a fundamentalist islamic leader who promise to remove corruption but take total control had really lost his way.
Gulf States whatever you personal beliefs might be have managed to mix a fairly strict form of Islam with some aspects of modern life and here things were going nowhere fast.
Hundreds of thousands protested, men, women who are more impacted by dress restrictions and children too, initially in a more token form before a few days ago going in literally all guns blazing resulting in over a thousand killed and a good number more with serious injuries.
World reaction split from relative silence in the Gulf States to condemnation across Europe and North America but of itself what does it achieve?
Another thing was President Trump had encouraged the protesters, which you can't argue with, but where was the support and my the middle of this week had condemned the loss of life saying "Help is on it's way" sounding more like the tag line of the second Beatles films poster than a promise of something tangible.
To threaten sanctions to countries trading with Iran is fine, while risking further issues with China, a major trading partner of Iran what is needed more is reducing the ability of the regime in Iran to suppress and repress its own people by targeting communications, missile attacks on detection and interrogation facilities and using Stargate to enable Iran's to bypass internal media restrictions.
To just appear to backdown with a unverified promise not to execute those arrested is just inadequate in my opinion
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