Author's Note: I originally intended to submit this 2 weeks ago. Sorry for the delay, it's been a hectic two weeks.
Rising gas prices, strong anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, fear of anhiliation from weapons of mass destruction. These sound like topics of today's headlines. Strangely, enough, they were also among the top stories of 1979. Leading the headlines of that eventful year was the Iran hostage crisis.
It is 27 years later and many Americans are too young or put the ugly incident behind them. Most Iranians, on the other hand, probably still hold the resentment towards the U.S. that stemmed from the 1970's Shah of Iran.
I remember discussions in my youth of the Cold War. I remember the fear and anxiety of nuclear war. The discussion was about the Soviets bombing us. Many of my classmates were really scared that one day, the Soviet Premier would just decide to push the button and launch a massive attack on the United States. I, and a few others, didn't hold so much fear because we believed that the Soviets would know they would lose as much as we would had such an event ever occurred. I remember pointing out that I didn't fear the Soviets. I was much more afraid of a country like Iran ever getting hold of nuclear weapons. I remember the chills that ran down our collective spines at such a thought.
2 comments:
I would like to quote the famous Lex Luthor from the last Superman movie "no one wants nuclear war they just want to keep the threat alive" I myself was always more afraid of countries like North Korea (who has nuclear weapons and Bush is negotiating with) and China. I honestly feel our next world war will be due to oil.
The quote works in the case of superpowers. North Korea/China will most likely remain in a similar state of detente with the U.S. as was with the Soviet Union.
Countries like Iran and Syria, (and Iraq, a few years ago) are really scary.
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