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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 30, 2023

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Talk about apples and oranges. The Pueblo incident happened, and then it was over. The hostages were held for more than a year. Of course there is going to be vastly more coverage of the latter than to the former; eg, compare the coverage of "girl killed in fall" with "girl trapped in well," or "coal miners killed in mine accident" with "coal miners trapped in mine." Not to mention that the hostage crisis took place during an election year, while the incumbent was running for election.

Iran is still blockaded and starved.

  1. It is hardly starved, and 2) it has done some other shady stuff since then, no?

honestly, Iranians had incredibly good justification to be mad at Americans.

That is not really the point. The Iran incident involved an embassy. Americans had incredibly good justification to be mad at Japan after Pearl Harbor, but Japan's embassies and consulates were protected by US police after the attack.

That is not really the point. The Iran incident involved an embassy. Americans had incredibly good justification to be mad at Japan after Pearl Harbor, but Japan's embassies and consulates were protected by US police after the attack.

Was it the Iranian government that attacked the embassy? Because I'm pretty sure it was the Japanese government that attacked Peal Harbor.

Talk about apples and oranges.

No one is comparing Pearl Harbor to the embassy attack. The comparisons are between:

  1. Americans being upset at Pearl Harbor, and Iranians being upset at US policy re the Shah. Pearl Harbor was an act of the Japanese govt, and US policy the Shah the actions of the US govt.
  2. The response of the respective govts to threats to their enemy's embassy.

And, for the record, the Iranian govt ended up supporting the holding of the hostages and using them as bargaining chips.