30 years later, Iran still holds us hostage
Washington Post / Ted Koppel
23-Jan-2011 (3 comments)

On Jan. 20, 1981, 52 American diplomats, intelligence officers and Marines were finally released after being held hostage for nearly 15 months at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Americans saw it as the end of a long national nightmare. Iranians saw it as a successful phase in what the Pentagon would come to call the Long War.
We were wrong; they were right.
On the face of it, the Iranians achieved what they wanted. President Jimmy Carter had labored with key advisers through the last night of his presidency, desperately trying to bring about the hostages' release before Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president. The Iranians, though, were determined to humiliate our 39th president and were not about to free the captives on Carter's watch.

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mahmoudg

I agree

by mahmoudg on Sun Jan 23, 2011 08:00 PM PST

should have gone in full force.  The world would have been a safer place, and reluctantly i have to say, much less Muslims would have died in all of the last 30 years, had we cleansed Iran of the filth ruling it at the moment.


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John

Hide the facts Ted

by John on Sun Jan 23, 2011 07:19 PM PST

Interesting to read the thoughts of an intelligent man who gives us a thorough condemnation of Iran's military activities, yet who disingenuously glosses over just one of his own nation's perfidious and illegal actions, putting it in parentheses as if to minimize its importance: "(The U.S. invasion of Grenada, occurring at the same time, consumed much of the public's attention.)"


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vildemose

Thank you for posting this,

by vildemose on Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:10 AM PST

Thank you for posting this, Shifeh jan. Very interesting.


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