America's encounter with Islamic terrorism for decades, and her
failure to take decisive actions might have had emboldened
Islamic militants to land us where we are today... The Islamic
terror attacks of September 11, 2001 did not come as a bolt out
of the blue. For close to thirty years, America's record of
dealing with the hydra of Islamic terror was at best abysmal.
Two earlier attacks, however, and the lack of American
retaliation to these attacks, might very well have paved the way
for the atrocity of 9/11. These two attacks were the Iranian
takeover of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the
bombing massacre of the Marines in Beirut in 1983. On November
4, 1979, hundreds of so-called "Muslim students" or "militants"
stormed the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, taking dozens of
Americans hostage. The "Iranian hostage crisis" had begun. After
444 days of brutal captivity, fifty-two American hostages were
released on January 20, 1981. The attack, sanctioned by the
government of Iran, may be conside