http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100425/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_us
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 25, 5:40 pm ET
On Sunday, April 25, hundreds of hard-line Iranians marked the 30th Anniversary of the failed US rescue attempt (of the Americans held hostage at the embassy. The 1980 attempt, Operation Eagle Claw, caused major embarrassment for the US when a helicopter crashed during a sandstorm, killing 8 US servicemen. The crash was (and is) a cause for celebration for some Iranians, however, who saw the event as a "divine miracle" to protect Iran from the "evil" US. Hundreds of people gathered at the crash site, as they have in previous years, nearly 400 southeast of Tehran, to remember and celebrate the event. A "Mosque of Thanks" had been built on the site, and there are plans for a museum on the site as well.
This fits well with the blog theme of "What in the 'past' is not really past?"
It also goes well with Derek Gregory's "The Colonial Present." It goes to show that events that happen in the past (even "one-time" events, like a specific accident) can have great relevance to the present. As Gregory's book implies, when one country intervenes in another there are profound consequences, often unanticipated but nonetheless long-lasting. The chain of events that led to that crash (and the response of some Iranians) is very complex. It is also interesting to think that while the US framed the conflict as Good vs. Evil (with the US being the force of good, of course), some Iranians saw it the opposite way. This just goes to show the extent that rhetoric of war is portrayed as narrative.
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I think the case of Iran in this "past not really in the past" is a really good one. You can even go back further and look at the US-back coup of Prime Minister Mosaddegh in the early 1950's. This case, along with the intervention to save the US hostages, were reflected in the 2009 elections in Iran. Ahmadinejad said that the protests were spurred by Westerners trying to overthrow the government again, and this argument gained some support in Iran because of the past interferences.
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