It is 35 years since rebellious Iranian students took over
the US embassy, taking hostage over 60 officials and triggering off a chain of
reactions, over which they had little control. The world was never going to be
the same after that.
Author Mark Bowden calls it the first challenge of militant
Islam to western civilization. His Guests of the Ayatollah, published nine
years ago, is a masterly account of all that went into the making of that
epoch-making event.
Originally a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer, he
says he interviewed the various personalities
And as repeatedly reviewers point out it is a most gripping
account, the book reads like a thriller, almost unputdownable.
But am mentioning the book here more to express my
admiration for the author‘ s perspective.
A quintessential liberal, Bowden doesn’t
spare anyone – readily concedes the atrocities of the Shah and the US
complicity even while denouncing in no uncertain terms the mad mullahs.
Even more important, he reveals that presidential candidate
Ronald Reagan had sought to delay the release of the hostages, in a clumsy attempt to cash
in on the resentment of the voters at large.
Yet again he posits possibly the eventual delay had little
to do with the initiatives of the Reagan camp, but with the seething hatred of
the mullahs for Carter, little realizing what they were doing to their own country in the process.
Remember the damage inflicted on the larger world by
Reagan-Thatcher duo. To think that Khomeini and co had paved the way for it all…Jimmy
Carter comes through as an eminently decent man who does his best to defuse the
crisis, without provoking any larger confrontation, and who refuses to make use of
the crisis to bolster his plummeting ratings. He had returned the Panama canal
and was behind the Camp David accord. He could have done a lot more had he
continued for another term.
But to me what stands out is the sheer cussedness of the
protesting Islamic students. I too had derived some satisfaction at the time that
Uncle Sam was being so hugely embarrassed and humiliated though I was queasy
about the fundamentalist forces at work.
Bowden remarks that arrogance and ignorance
were the two most outstanding traits of the hostage-takers. Their revolutionary
fervor is as touching as their naivete. They are convinced that the Great Satan
was out to destroy the revolution and the embassy was a den of spies. They also
wonder why the Blacks and other oppressed minorities would not raise
in revolt.
(Funnily some Iranian leaders later insist that the embassy seizure was itself engineered
by the CIA with a view to bringing a bad name to Iran!)
They ill-treat the hostages like hell to the end. Even when they are all released, students and
fellow fanatics line up to insult the officials, push and shove them, as they
walk towards the waiting aircraft. As one of the hostages muses, "They have
neither decency, nor style..."
They could have seen them off with flowers, “Sorry, no hard
feelings…” No, they won’t.
Such traits one can see in many activists on the Left to
this day. Sad.
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