4th November was the anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran, in 1979, by Student Followers of Imam Khomeini's Path. US diplomats were taken hostage for 444 days and finally released when President Reagan was elected by the US voters.
I remember as a young teenager in those days, going outside the US embassy building in Tehran where I joined the discussion groups on the pavements, as was the custom in those days. There was still relative freedom in the aftermath of the revolution but up to a point. You could not, for example, publicly support the monarchy or Dr. Bakhtiar but Marxists groups and the MeK openly sold their newspapers in the streets. The Islamo-Socialists like MeK, supported the takeover from the very beginning and called it a heroic action against the US imperialism. They were still doing their futile best to win Khomeini's favour. The pro-Soviet Communist Tudeh party was also over the moon about what had happened as you can imagine. They too wanted to win Khomeini's favour and in their publications, Ayatollah Khomeini was always revered as Imam Khomeini in enlarged bold letters. Later when the moment was right, Khomeini did not hesitate to massacre any of their members and supporters, whether they had used bold letters to describe him or otherwise.
The other major Marxist organisation at the time, the Fedayeen took their time in deciding whether to support the takeover or not. In fact it was not until Khomeini referred to them as American Marxists that they decided it was in their best interests to go along with everyone else. This delay in supporting the take over, later played a key part in the split in the Fedayeen organisation into the Majority(Bolshevik) and Minority(Menshevik) factions, with the Majority becoming even more pro-Soviet and pro-Khomeini than the Tudeh party itself.
For days and weeks, the embassy became the focus of different political parties marching in support of the embassy take over and the occasion was exploited as a PR exercise to make themselves and their support for the take over known to the public. The Islamist groups would pledge in their slogans 'If America Attacks, We Shall Turn All of Iran into Karbala' while the Marxists would pledge in their slogans 'If America Attacks, We Shall Turn All of Iran into Vietnam'. Marxists argued sincerely that Vietnam was more contemporary and appropriate in the slogan than what had happened in Karbala 1300 years ago, while the Islamists would argue that this was an Islamic revolution and the Vietnamese were not Shiite Muslims.
It all seems like a comedy when I look back on those days and remember the slogans. Each group wanted to sound even more radical and uncompromising than the others, coming up with more and more heroic slogans. 'Savour that day that Khomeini will give me the Jihad Order, The Army of the World will not be able to match me!"
What was forgotten as usual in the midst of all this frenzy and excitement amongst the Iranians who were arguing the appropriateness of Vietnam or Karbala, was the national interest. When I joined the discussion groups outside the US embassy building, it was not expedient for my health and safety to publicly argue against the take over, instead I used to pose the question as a young innocent teenager would 'what is in our national interest to hold these Americans here?'. The question was asked in a way that it did not deny there was a national interest but was simply asked by a kid who wanted to learn the facts from his 'wiser' all knowing elders. Watching these 'wiser' elders dither and fluster in their replies on the rare occasions where my question was not ignored was often just as comical as the slogans I heard in those days.
Perhaps the one slogan that now has a serious ring to it was:
'Cannons, Tanks and Machine Guns Have no Effect Any More,
Carter has no idea of the joyous moment of martyrdom'
Carter and his diplomats who had called Ayatollah Khomeini a Saint and 'Iran's Gandhi', had no idea what a can of worms they had opened up.
I have been browsing the blogs these days, and a lot of the blogs by the younger generation of Iranians have been apologising for what happened back in 1980. Perhaps if they had watched former top ranking US embassy hostage, Bruce Langdon, on VOA Persian, they would not feel so apologetic. On his VOA Persian appearance, he seemed more apologetic and compromising to the mullahs than anyone else.
I watched with disbelief when Bruce Langdon tried to exonerate even Khomeini, saying his information! was that Ayatollah Khomeini was not so keen on the takeover but just wanted to go along with the power in the street :) Such a statement is typical of the deluded naive illusions of the Carter era officials. Khomeini did not need to go along with the power in the streets, Khomeini WAS the power in the streets. What Khomeini said happened, simple as that. The sad thing is Bruce Langdon is still so flimflammed after 444 days of being a hostage and 28 years after the event.
The post-Islamic revolution generation of Iranians do not need to apologise for what happened back then. We had nothing to do with it. We rejected very quickly the tragic mistakes of our previous generation who left us in this mess, and we are not as deluded as the US State Department officials and diplomats about the nature of these clerics ruling our country.
We have stood up to these Ayatollahs and 'useful idiots' all on our own in a variety of ways without any support from anyone or anywhere and we will continue to do so until an Iranian government is returned to our country and our Iranian Sun and Lion flag is raised again.
7 comments:
Did you read Mark Bowden's book on this? Guests of the Ayatollah...
No, I saw it mentioned on your blog. Whats it like?
You are right, those who were too young or not yet born yet do not need to apologize for the acts of others. BUT...
"Sudenly I thought may be these Carter diplomats deserved to have been taken as hostages, after all if the the US ambassador in Iran at the time, described Khomeini as Iran's Gandhi, he must have based his conclusions on the reports from these useless diplomats." -- azarmehr
As you well know, the hostages were not all "diplomats". In addition, Langdon is not representative of all of the hostages, even the "diplomats".
If you care, read Robert Ode's diary kept while a hostage:
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/r_ode/index.phtml
And I can tell you that Ode's description of his treatment is a lot better than that suffered by other hostages.
And none of them DESERVED to be taken hostage for one day, let alone 444 days. The fact that you could think so 28 years later is pathetic.
Carter sucked then and Carter still sucks today. But only a moron blames the victims for the crimes committed against them by others.
You are right anonymous, I did not choose my words well. I was just so infuriated by the patheticness of Langdon's statement on VOA Persian. I do apologise.
Azarmehr, get that book and read it. You'll see what I mean. It's superbly written and done. Highly recommended. I can send it to you if u want. It made me angrier at the mullahs for their criminal act to seize the US embassy.
I know that a lot of people are trying to rewrite the history but the truth of the mater is that Carter's Project from the beginning (being a lefty Basted) was to get ride of the ailing Shah and replace him with a GREEN BELT! (not the ecological kind) and went along with dealing with Fardoust and Khomaini and with the help of the French and English Morons ruined a country that was on the road to becoming a civilised and successful society.
Then Khomaini got greedy and used the leftist marxist to eliminate all the progressive and democratic forces in Iran and set himself up as a Grand Terrorist hoping to bring the end of the world nearer for the arrival of his beloved Mehdi. The War between Iran and America started in Algiers when Bazargan went along with the Grand Bargain and signed the secret Algiers Acord with the Americans and sealed the faith of the Iranian National Interest with that of a bunch of Fascist Mullah's warring GREEN BELTS and pretending to be the messengers of God and his favourite son THE MEHDI.
Now its to late to cry over spilt milk. The Americans have been waiting all this time and WILL take revenge on the poor Iranians. I just hope that it does not have to be as bad as AFGHANISTAN OF iRAQ.
Please see: http://www.iranpressnews.com/source/031954.htm
I know that a lot of people are trying to rewrite the history but the truth of the mater is that Carter's Project from the beginning (being a lefty Basted) was to get ride of the ailing Shah and replace him with a GREEN BELT! (not the ecological kind) and went along with dealing with Fardoust and Khomaini and with the help of the French and English Morons ruined a country that was on the road to becoming a civilised and successful society.
Then Khomaini got greedy and used the leftist marxist to eliminate all the progressive and democratic forces in Iran and set himself up as a Grand Terrorist hoping to bring the end of the world nearer for the arrival of his beloved Mehdi. The War between Iran and America started in Algiers when Bazargan went along with the Grand Bargain and signed the secret Algiers Acord with the Americans and sealed the faith of the Iranian National Interest with that of a bunch of Fascist Mullah's warring GREEN BELTS and pretending to be the messengers of God and his favourite son THE MEHDI.
Now its to late to cry over spilt milk. The Americans have been waiting all this time and WILL take revenge on the poor Iranians. I just hope that it does not have to be as bad as AFGHANISTAN OF iRAQ.
Please see: http://www.iranpressnews.com/source/031954.htm
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