IRAN REDUX

SPECIAL POST

The Iran hostage crisis, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981 after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution, bears some eerie resemblance to the modern day Iranian nuclear threat.   

The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation on April 24, 1980 which resulted in a failed mission, the destruction of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian. Jimmy Carter was President at the time and seemed to be impotent in dealing with the Iranians.  The hostage situation drug on and on and Carter’s popularity plummeted.  

The crisis ultimately ended on January 20, 1981, when the hostages were formally released into United States custody, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in.  Reagan, of course, always dealt from a position of strength.  

Now we have the Iranians in the very verge of being able to launch a nuke at Israel or at U.S. forces in Afghanistan.  Our current President, Barack Obama, seems to be impotent in dealing with the situation and it appears to me that only the Israeli government is prepared to deal with the threat.  Obama has made big news by letting it slip in public that he has a great disrespect and dislike of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.  

It’s a different kind of hostage situation, to be sure.  But, it appears to me that Iran once again has the upper hand and we once again have a weak and incompetent President.  

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.