Friday, July 6, 2001 | 8:45 a.m.
Note to readers: Hank Greenspun's final Where I Stand column was written in 1989, the year he passed away. Over the past weeks, Classic Sun has featured columns written by Hank throughout his tenure at the Sun. In this column, written on Jan. 25, 1981, Hank writes about the return of the U.S. hostages from Iran.
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."
"A time to keep silence, and a time to speak."
It's from Ecclesiastes, and it's a proverb few politicians heed and many abuse.
No one is happier than I to see our hostages back from their captivity in Iran.
But under the belief that they should not have been there in the first place, I am extremely unhappy about submitting to ransom payments for terror and extortion.
I am even more unhappy over the cries of outrage from former President Jimmy Carter and the suggestions of other politicians that President Ronald Reagan should disavow the agreements because of the barbaric treatment the hostages received.
The agreement signed by our government for the releases is probably the most humiliating piece of paper any nation has ever been forced to endorse. It is a pact with the devil and will subject us to every devilish plot that small terror nations will scheme up to extort money from us in the future.
Iran hailed the accord as a U.S. "Final Surrender" and said it would give President Carter no time to indulge in "clowning acts" such as welcoming them to freedom.
Carter went through with the "clowning act" and spoke out sharply against the barbarism of the Iranians.
It was a time for silence and weeping instead of shouting, because the big mouth filled with anger was called for when the hostages were taken 14 months ago.
That was the time to condemn terror and barbarism and declare that the sacking of our embassy and imprisonment of our embassy officials and military people was an act of war. By admitting that the American captives were hostages and not prisoners of war, we left ourselves open to extortion and ransom demands; and we must pay the price for our cowardice and surrender to terrorists.
Although I rejoice with the families of the prisoners of war, I cannot get too exercised over the barbarous treatment they received.
American prisoners have been treated far more barbarously in other wars. The Vietnam prisoners came back almost skeleton-like, with ravaged bodies and minds. The Bataan Death March from Corregidor left the prisoners like concentration camp victims. This was real barbarism and violated every rule of international warfare, yet we paid no ransom for their release.
One of the barbarous acts President Carter complained of was that the hostages were fed a diet of rice, goat cheese and bread. If more Americans kept to such a diet, they would live far longer and enjoy more healthful lives than with their present modes of eating. I watched the hostages debark at Wiesbaden and they looked in fairly good shape. The other ordeals they suffered compared rather favorably with horrendous terror that American prisoners-of-war suffered in battles for our freedoms.
The Iranians are highly civilized compared to some of the other countries in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean area. I would hate to see some of the Iranians who have fallen prisoners to the Iraqis in their little war now going on. Iraq specialized in disemboweling their captives and stuffing the vital organs in the mouth of the dead person.
What we witnessed in Iran is highly civilized compared to what the State of Israel experiences almost nightly with its Arab neighbors since the creation of the state.
The Israelis have to undergo much worse terror against their women and children from Arab infiltrators who kill and maim in an undeclared war that has been going on for over three decades. And there has been no outcry from the United Nations or any other supposedly civilized nation.
Israel recognizes that barbarism is a way of life in Arab nations, not only against their supposed enemies, but among themselves and their different religious sects.
So this small nation has vowed from its beginnings that it will not submit to terror, extortion or blackmail.
The United States must honor the agreement it has made, no matter how wrongful and humiliating the demands. To do less would be getting down to the level of the extortionists and terrorists and no American citizen will be safe in any foreign land.
Let us salvage a little of our honor and live to fight another day in hopes that from this day forward, no nation will ever again goad us or test our weaknesses, because we will once again be strong.
The hostages are home. We all rejoice.
I just hope we have learned a lesson.
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