Book Review: "Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam" by Mark Bowden (2006)
This is an extremely dramatic look at the taking of over 50 American hostages by student radicals in Iran during the post-revolutionary period in 1979 once the US-backed Shah was overthrown.
"Guests of the Ayatollah" is so ambitious, so well-written and so deftly captures the emotions of what that time was like, from inside the gates of the American consulate where the hostages were held, to the Oval Office where a well-meaning yet effectively impotent Jimmy Carter was trying to manage the crisis, to the military bases where those who were part of the ill-fated rescue attempt were being trained, that it's hard to do justice to it in a review here. Despite a little bit of creative licence (how are we to know what those hostages now deceased were feeling?), suffice it to say that this is probably the pinnacle of Bowden's career, which is no small feat considering he wrote "Black Hawk Down". This is an intense read but it will provide many insights into the origins and aims of Iran's mullahtocracy, the goals of which are having an immense impact on international security today, and much better than the other books on the market (Pollack and Timmerman) which attempt to get to the heart of Iran's machinations against the United States and Israel over the past thirty years.
(It's also interesting that many of the American "peace activists" of that time, especially the clergy, were squarely not only on the side, but in the camp of, the Islamic fundamentalist hostage takers. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose, especially considering that Hezbollah svengali and current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is believed to have participated.)
A page-turner that all people interested in international affairs will be much smarter for reading, I believe this is destined to become a classic. Give it the time and consideration it deserves and you will be richly rewarded.
Overall rating: 9.95/10
posted by Road Hammer @ 1:43 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Canadian ambassador at the time, right?
Didn't it eventually come out that it was actually the CIA that got the Americans out, and Taylor just acted as the front?
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