1979 ALL OVER AGAIN: MORE TROUBLE WITH EMBASSIES IN IRAN: “OK, so this time the Embassy in question is Britain’s not America’s. But the similarities are more significant than the differences. What is happening now is happening for a very particular reason: because the West has lost its authority in the Middle East. By attempting to appease it it has shown the weakness which the Islamic world despises and which it is now exploiting with vicious glee.” See, this problem would be solved with my flamethrower idea.

And, on a more serious note, had Jimmy Carter responded with force instantly in 1979, we’d have been spared a lot of subsequent problems.