I have waited a half century for this.
When I was a teen-ager in the late 1970s and starting to get interested in politics and the world situation (not to mention girls), Khomeini's Iranian Revolution took place, followed by the American Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran and Jimmy Carter's disastrous attempt to free the diplomatic hostages.
In the aftermath of the Desert One catastrophe, I remember the Soviets (and even the USA's Western European friends) more or less openly mocking Uncle Sam. (Also, not long after, there was a story of a handful of Russian diplomats being also taken hostage by the Iranians, and Moscow either sent a rescue team or simply made strong threats, which lead to their immediate release.)
After he left the White House, the naïve Carter had the gall to declare that during his four years in the White House, no American soldier's life had been lost in combat. (Well, true enough, the burnt remains of the eight soldiers killed in the Desert One accident were not lost in combat — although they were displayed on TV by an Iranian — the country's PM? — cutting into them with a pocket knife.)
This was not the America I had been taught about by movies, history, and legend. (Mamnun babat Instalink, Sarah.)
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