Trump's current war on Iran picks up where a longstanding enmity left off

"The underlying mutual resentments that have fueled tensions between the United States and Iran are indeed epic and have simmered dangerously for nearly half a century before, finally, boiling over into open warfare. Iran has occupied a place deep in the American national psyche since the Islamic revolution of 1979, one of the most momentous events of the 20th century."

"The militant takeover of the US embassy in Tehran by Islamist revolutionaries in November 1979 brought America humiliation on the global stage to rank with defeat in Vietnam. The subsequent holding for 444 days of 52 US hostages who were frequently publicly paraded wearing blindfolds and subjected to numerous mistreatments that included mock executions belittled American power and doomed the presidency of Jimmy Carter."

"Carter's failed attempt to free the hostages with a quixotic rescue came to grief catastrophically in the Iranian desert, leaving eight US servicemen dead, and crystallizing the sense of national obloquy."

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran fundamentally altered U.S.-Iran relations and American consciousness. The revolution overthrew the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and inspired radical political Islamism globally. The November 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and subsequent 444-day hostage crisis, where 52 Americans were held and publicly humiliated, inflicted lasting national trauma comparable to Vietnam. The failed rescue attempt resulted in eight American deaths and damaged President Jimmy Carter's presidency. The revolution's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, embodied the strangeness and alienation Americans felt toward Iran. These historical grievances have simmered for nearly fifty years, creating deep-seated tensions that have now escalated into military operations.

Read at www.theguardian.com