Jake, maybe you're too young a feller to remember, but those crazy iranians also took our embassy captive back in 1979. Did you ever hear of that?
Do we know why they did this?
How about, the fact that they were taking control of their country from an oppressive leader that we, the United States, had (re)installed into power. It seems only logical to me that they would want to rid their country of the influence that gave them the "Shaw", as well.
The fight for Iranian oil is not a new battle.
In 1951 the Iranian parliament voted unanimously to nationalize the oil industry. This push was led by Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, who a month later was elected prime minister of Iran. This did not please England, as they lost the Anglo-Iranian oil company. Consequently they placed an embargo on Iranian oil. Then U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, directed the C.I.A. to work with British intelligence in masterminding a coup that eventually toppled Mossadegh from power.
The overthrow of Mossadegh put the Shaw (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) back into power (1953). In 1975 he (the Shaw) abolished the multi-party system of government and ruled through a one-party state, in autocratic fashion.
In 1979 the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran, and established a revolution that brought about the dissolution of the monarchy. The Ayatollah appointed an interim government of his own, and the Shaw was forced to flee Iran.
The Shaw became a man without a country after that. He went to Egypt, later lived in Morocco, the Bahamas and Mexico. But he became ill with lymphoma and needed medical treatment. President Jimmy Carter gave him permission to enter the United States for treatment, the decision angered the Iranian revolutionaries.
The revolutionaries demanded the Shaws return to Iran, to face trial. President Carter's refusal led to the (Nov. 4, 1979) kidnapping of workers at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. It is interesting to note that this was not the first time the revolutionaries took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The first time was Feb. 14, 1979 but the revolutionaries withdrew. They came back only after we (the U.S.) refused to extradite the Shaw back to Iran to face a trail.
Here is another point to ponder.
On July 3, 1988 the USS Vincinnes (US Navy Guided Missile Cruiser) while in Iranian waters shot down an Iranian airliner (Iran Air Flight 655).
In reference to this downing of the airliner, then Vice President George HW Bush said "I will never apologize for America, I don't care what the facts are..."
The Iranians historically have far more to fear from western powers than "we" have to fear from them.
Jake
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
- Julius Caesar -
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