Guests of the Ayatollah

Just recently finished Mark Bowden's excellent latest work Guests of the Ayatollah. It is funny to think there was a time when Americans were surprised and even startled to hear their country referred to as the Great Satan. I don't know what part I liked better; the Marines harassing the guards to the point where the line between captor and captive got a little blurry or when CIA Station Chief Tom Ahern was given a rope and told to beat his guard. See, they had tortured him earlier, and apparently, as a sign that Islam was pure and righteous, he was given the opportunity to do the same to his guard. His response? "We don't do stuff like that" And it couldn't be more perfect. It was very clear in the book that so many of the Iranian students who took over the embassy had no idea what America really was and what she stood for. For example: during one interrogation (or let's be honest...one tirade against the United States) the interrogator complained about America's unjust bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In response to that, the prisoner shrugged and said that they started it and we ended it. The interrogator was flummoxed and first wanted to know where this Pearl Harbor was and then was downright flabbergasted that the Japanese had bombed Hawaii. I'm afraid that this kind of selective ignorance is still extremely prevelant. But no need for you to be ignorant! Go read this book.