My how times have changed. Iran was the #1 enemy of the US after the Ayatolah Khomeini ordered his minions to hold Americans hostage in the US Embassy there. And Iran was in a war with Iraq. The hostages were released after Reagan took office in 1980, 444 days after their ordeal started. Where were you went the hostages were finally released? How did you feel afterward? And can it happen again with Iraq?  

Things haven't changed that much have they? Iran is still part of the Axis of Evil. Interesting that Iran actually did more with its hostage-taking to incite the US than Saddam's mere sabre-rattling. And Iran actually has a nuclear capacity; Iraq was merely suspected of it.

Can't remember precisely where I was, Indy - but do remember watching the aircraft landing on TV...yes, Iran really was the pariah of the western world at the time...

We had a run-in with 'em first hand in the previous year (1980) - when the SAS stormed the Iranian embassy in Knightsbridge which had been laid seige to for almost a week by gunmen demanding the release of Iranian political prisoners...things got slightly nasty when they started picking off the hostages...

The "rescue mission" was broadcast live on TV, with explosives blowing the windows out, the sound of gunfire and men in balaclavas storming the building - and all at teatime! Amazing stuff! The school playground was talking about nothing else for days afterward!

But...

...without (hopefully) sounding too churlish, sadly I suppose there'll always be someone, regardless of nationality, willing to attack the way of life we know and love...

Regards...

  I remember it well.

  The Iranian hostage situation was really the first time I became aware of world events and actually started to follow them, well, to the extent that a nine-year-old is able to follow world events.  The first thing I did was to break out the world atlas and locate Iran on a map.

  Images of bound and blindfolded Americans being led through throngs of young, fist waving Iranians come to mind.  Then of rumors of a failed military extraction with pictures of smoking, wrecked helicoptors in the Iranian outback.

  Three other events abroad in the 80's that utterly fascinated me was the late-1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (sometimes referred to as "Russia's Vietnam"), the 1982 Israeli incursion into Lebanon and the 1982 Falklands War (Britain/Argentina) which I intend to read-up on and learn more about.  I'm currently looking for books on the subject.  

  Anyway, back OT...where was I when the hostages were released?  I vaguely recall being home from school (sixth grade), sick with the flu, when I lived in southern Illinois.  How did I feel about the release?  I can't remember.  probably, generally, relieved.

I was in high school when someone made announcement over the P.A. that the hostages were airborne. They entire school erupted in cheers. I remember saying to a friend of mine, "Look at all the history that is being made today-AND WE DON'T HAVE TO LEARN IT!"


Unfotunately, the mess in Iran was created mainly because of the U.S. involvement. If the U.S. just let Iran form the kind of government they wanted, instead of putting a figure head like the Shah in to do the U.S.'s bidding, the hostage situation wouldn't have happened. Either would have the fact that the U.S. gave $$ to Suddam Hussan in his war against Iran that has now led to the mess in Iraq. People do not realize that much of the conflict that the U.S. has overseas, is because of its own doing.  ::)



Cat