Hostage taking didn't start on Oct. 7
It was always at the center of Iran's project to topple American power


The Iran hostage crisis is my first memory of international politics. When the U.S. Embassy was seized in Tehran in 1979, I was in third grade; I would probably not have really been aware of it until it had stretched on for months. My parents watched news of it on Nightline, after my bedtime. The Iran hostage crisis gets fewer mentions now than it seems to merit. Maybe that's because Sept. 11 was the greater national trauma, but the hostage crisis was the greater national humiliation.
For more than a year, Iranian revolutionaries kept 52 Americans captive and the U.S. could do nothing. So, it's a memory that the country flinches from. In retrospect, though, that crisis may have reshaped the world even more than Sept. 11. It was the seizure of the U.S. Embassy that set Iran and its brand of religious expansion on a collision course with the United States. The project of toppling American power and replacing it with Islamic fundamentalism continues today.
Seen in this light, it's not really a coincidence that hostages are at the center of the Oct. 7 massacre and the war in Gaza and Lebanon. Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies for Iran, devoted far less to any individual interests than to prosecuting the vision of world revolution that has animated the Iranian regime from the start. Like other messianic ideologies, that vision has gathered both junior allies who see political advantage and fellow travelers who see salvation.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
At home, Iran's government is out of touch with its populace and stumbling under the weight of its thorough corruption, yet among backers flooding the streets and campuses of the West, Iran's banner has never flown higher.
And so, a year after Oct. 7, the Middle East is on the verge of an even greater inferno, as the campaign that the Iranian revolutionaries initiated 45 years ago takes its course. It seems almost miraculous now that America's post-WWII conflict with the Soviet Union — played out over just about the same length of time — never led to a more direct confrontation. I fear that this time we will not be so lucky.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Mark Gimein is a managing editor at the print edition of The Week. His work on business and culture has appeared in Bloomberg, The New Yorker, The New York Times and other outlets. A Russian immigrant, and has lived in the United States since the age of five, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
-
Is this the end for India's Maoist insurgency?
Under The Radar Narendra Modi clamps down on Naxalite jungle rebels in move some see as attempt to seize mineral wealth
-
Discrimination: Expanding the definition
Feature The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a straight woman who sued her gay boss for discrimination
-
Crime: Why murder rates are plummeting
Feature Despite public fears, murder rates have dropped nationwide for the third year in a row
-
Qatar's power play
Feature The tiny Arab nation is buying friends and influence in Washington. What does it want?
-
'The bilateral relationship has eroded'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'We need solutions that prioritize both safety and sustainability'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'The pattern is similar across America'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'The benefits of such a program go beyond just the data'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Baby bonus: Can Trump boost the birth rate?
Feature The Trump administration is encouraging Americans to have more babies while also cutting funding for maternal and postpartum care
-
Reining in Iran: Talks instead of bombs
Feature Trump edges closer to a nuclear deal with Iran—but is it too similar to former President Barack Obama's pact?
-
Trade war with China threatens U.S. economy
Feature Trump's tariff battle with China is hitting U.S. businesses hard and raising fears of a global recession