Many readers still remember the shock and horror they felt as they watched 52 American citizens were paraded, blind-folded, in front of the TV cameras by their Iranian hostage-takers in 1979. They were held for 444 days after Iranian rebels stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Many readers still remember Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 failed rescue attempt that experts deemed a logistical nightmare and doomed from the start. It left eight servicemen lying dead in an Iranian desert, with images of Iranians dancing on the wreckage of a helicopter and transport aircraft that exploded when one of the coptor’s propeller blades struck the fixed-wing aircraft. Many readers still remember the abuses of the servicemen’s corpse being beamed onto their TV screens.
The Iranian Revolution overthrew the government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi early in 1979 and, facing likely execution, he sought exile in a number of countries. His friends in the U.S. allowed him to temporarily enter the country for treatment of his gallstones. It was during his extended stay in the United States that the storming of the embassy and hostage-taking took place.
It was just eight years ago when then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel must be “wiped of the map.”
The United States Department of State considers Iran the biggest state supporter of terrorism in the world. And, even today, U.S. drones are killing a few terrorists while killing hundreds of civilians in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad is no longer in power but his boss, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, is.
Of the recently signed six-month agreement, the Iranian news agency Fars reported that Iran, in return for sanctions relief, will keep much of its nuclear infrastructure but it is limited to enriching uranium to the 5 percent level for six months; will convert its highly enriched uranium of 20 percent to harmless oxide; and will allow more intrusive inspections of its nuclear plants by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will be limited to only agreed-on facilities. That last item was missed by much of America’s mainstream media or included only on the Iranian copy.
But hopefully this is a first step. Six months is not a long time to wait if officials truly believe that peace is obtainable.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote of peace, penning, “I hope it will be lasting, and that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for, in my opinion, there was never a good war, or a bad peace … What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility.”
Dr. Franklin’s words are wise. We owe it to our nation’s future to give peace a chance.
But United States government officials need to remember another quote. Attributed to many sources, the words are simple: Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.