This blog is not concerned with international events but the terrible tragedy in Iran has me so angry this morning, probably because it has hit so close to home.
I was just over at my favourite coffee shop which is on Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver. Almost across the street is the memorial outside the bakery owned by Amir Pasavand who lost his wife and daughter when the plane went down. Next door is one of the community's largest Iranian grocery stores. The North Shore, of course, is home to one of Canada's largest Iranian expat communities. Some of the people sitting around me may well have lost friends, even relations, in the missile strike on the other side of the world.
I note that since this episode began the death toll is one general, 56 people crushed at the general's funeral and 176 passengers and crew in the downed jetliner.
It is always the same. The generals and the politicians throw their weight around, the innocent civilians die in hugely disproportionate numbers.