Good lunch-time surfing…

John Noonan at The Officer’s Club reflects on the 25th anniversary of the end of the Iran Hostage crisis:

While the Iranian regime was still taking its baby-steps, we revealed to the Ayatollahs our greatest weakness: upsetting the American public is our Achilles heel. Two years later, Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists twice bombed US interests in Lebanon, exploiting that weakness. Again, the American public cried foul, and once again America conceded, removing the Marine presence from Beruit.

And now America’s squeaky-wheel, our domestic anti-war movement, has emboldened Iran to repeat its successes of the past two and half decades. Sensing deja vu all over again, the Ayatollahs aggressively support terrorists in Iraq while recklessly pursuing nuclear weapons in Natanz and Busher. Iran’s ruling elite has learned that a few dead Marines on CNN is all that it takes for the likes of Michael Moore and Code Pink to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of anti-war onto the American political scene. The self-doubt that Moore and his ilk sow in America is Tehran’s 5th column, so why shouldn’t the Mullahs support terrorists in Iraq if chaos there weakens American resolve to open a front in Iran?

The Iran-Hostage Crisis is the very root of the tough-spot that we are in today. We can either learn from our mistakes now, or face nuclear Ayatollahs later.

Mark Tapscott has posted the text and audio link to President Reagan’s First Inaugural Address, delivered 25 years ago today.