The New World War
The following is the first in what will be a series of posted essays on the topic of the new world war, which I believe started Nov. 4th, 1979. I have been writing off and on about the subject in my weekly newspaper column for quite some time. Lately, others in the media are beginning to suggest a similar analysis.
—————————————————————————————————————
In 1980, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie featured a memorable scene in which actor Paul Reubens, aka PeeWee Herman, played a wimpy, whiney desk clerk at a dingy hotel. Soon after the arrival of Cheech’s cousin, Dwayne ‘Red’ Mendoza, complete with a duffel bag filled with “illegal substance” slung over his shoulder, the hotel and its guests found themselves in a classic slapstick uproar. The hilarious scene showed a panicked PeeWee on the phone trying unsuccessfully to get the local police to respond to the mayhem. He then shouted his famous line from that movie, “I think they’re Iranians!” Suddenly the movie showed hundreds of police cars, including SWAT and paramilitary units, helicopters and all, converging on the seedy hotel. Such was the atmosphere in Jimmy Carter’s America in the summer of 1980- Iran was public enemy number one…
.
Of course, with Commander-In-Chief Carter at the helm, taking cheap comedic potshots at the hostage-holding Iranians in stoner movies was about as much as America was able to muster as a response to this overt act of war. At least it brought some laughter to a nation otherwise gripped by near military and diplomatic paralysis. You know the story… no, wait- maybe you don’t, or perhaps you’ve forgotten- the hostage crisis that many believe set the stage for Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy to the Oval Office has seemingly been erased from the nation’s collective memory. Why is that? Is it that it was such an awful period in American history that everyone just wishes to forget it ever happened?
.
The Wikipedia tells us
On November 1, 1979 Iran’s new leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged his people to demonstrate against United States and Israeli interests. Ruhollah Khomeini was anti-American in his rhetoric, denouncing the American government as the ‘Great Satan’ and ‘Enemies of Islam.’ Thousands of them gathered around the U.S. embassy in Tehran, protesting. The embassy grounds had been briefly occupied before, during the revolution, and protest crowds outside the fence were common. Iranian police were less and less helpful.
On November 4, amid another chaotic occupation of the grounds, a mob of around 500 Iranian students calling themselves the Imam’s Disciples (although reported numbers vary from 300 to 2000) seized the main embassy building. The token guard of Marines was thoroughly outnumbered, and staff rushed to destroy communications equipment and sensitive documents. Out of 90 occupants, 66 were taken captive, including three who were taken from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Ayatollah Khomeini was not aware of the students’ plan, but he approved the action afterwards.
In high school at the time, I remember that story overshadowed all else going on in the country (and the world, for that matter). “Day 75 of ‘America Held Hostage’… Day 193 of ‘America Held Hostage’… Day 309 of ‘America Held Hostage’…” On and on and on it went. Then, finally, we got word of a military rescue attempt. Unfortunately, it failed almost from its outset. At a secret desert site within Iran, two helicopters broke down in a sandstorm, with another damaged during landing. At this point, the mission was aborted. Unfortunately, as the aircraft took off again, one helicopter collided with a C-130 and crashed, injuring four and killing eight U.S. servicemen. The TV flashed images of the charred wreckage of America’s most recent military failure. America’s prestige was as low as it could get.
.
Last October, the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, caused a minor furor by declaring in a speech that
“Israel must be wiped off the map.”
You probably heard about that. What you probably didn’t hear is another statement from the same speech:
“Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?…You had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.”
In May 0f 2004, the the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported it had obtained a tape with a speech by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards intelligence theoretician, who teaches at the Revolutionary Guards’ Al-Hussein University. Among his words were these:
We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization and for the uprooting of the Americans and the English. Our missiles are now ready to strike at their civilization, and as soon as the instructions arrive from Leader Ali Khamenei, we will launch our missiles at their cities and installations.
The global infidel front is a front against Allah and the Muslims, and we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front, by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them.
Rockets & missiles are flying into Israel, North Korea fires nuclear-capable guided missiles over Japan, possibly aimed at Hawaii! China stirs. The Russians are, well, the Russians. Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela just took delivery of 100,000 AK47s. The dominoes have been stood up. When will the "flick" come?
.
PeeWee knew it had started: The world war that began November, 1979 lurches ever onward…
.
Authored by Doug Lambert and published in the Laconia Daily Sun on Jan. 26th, 2006. Updated & posted July 14, 2006.
