Posted on 04/02/2026 8:24:45 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
“For Americans who came of age before the Iranian revolution, the defining event regarding Iran was the hostage crisis of 1979-1981, in which 52 of their countrymen were held prisoner for over a year at the captured U.S. Embassy in Tehran...”
“That crisis dominated news in the United States for an extended period. It even spawned a nightly television program (which became ABC Nightline)..."
American children who came of age in as late as the 1970s and early 80s will likely recall the Iran of their childhood as an infamous adversary, much in the same vein as the Soviet Union, so much so that the World Wrestling Federation’s top villain for a time was the Iranian-American “Iron Sheik...”
But for many born in later decades, "(they) are too young to have lived through news of that crisis and have not had the same perception-forming experience..."
Beyond growing up in the shadow of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, they are now in their 20’s and see how war could affect them personally. “Younger respondents are also more likely to be of fighting age, which could color their views of war..."
Beyond the formative experiences, how the different generations consume media matters too.
President Donald Trump is 79 years old. Vice President JD Vance is 41. Both men have been known to have different and even seemingly contradictory views on occasion regarding Iran, at least in the past.
They’re not alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at responsiblestatecraft.org ...
They prefer to wait for a ICBM from Iran before becoming alarmed?
Concern about an Iran with A-bombs is not a “hangup”. Gen-Z cities like DC and New York will be targets.
I wasn’t on the planet during the American Revolution, the Bolshevik revolution, or during WW1, or WWII, etc., but I know what the threats were. I think the problem is that we have become complacent and intellectually lazy. Combine that with the liberal bias that comes from our current educational system and you have a formula for unawareness.
In all fairness, they are not as smart about world affairs as “older Americans” are.
2. You claim that Iran has been "in CONTINUOUS conflict with the U.S. for 47 years" ... and then proceed to list a bunch of incidents that would never have happened if the U.S. had just minded its own business and didn't station military assets in these Islamic sh!t-holes in the first place.
You make a terrible case for this stupid war, in other words.
It's like the different between the guy who breaks into your house and murders you in your sleep, and the guy who shoots you for trespassing on or near his property. Neither is acceptable, but the first is far worse. The bottom line is that you have to be in Iran or its vicinity poking a hornet's nest for it to be a threat.
The only reason that US policy is obsessed with Iran while coddling an Al Quaeda fighter as President of Syria is that Israel is obsessed with Iran - i.e. Iran is Israel's problem, not ours. Al Quaeda and ISIS are our problem, and the whole western world's.
If "Gen Z" conservatives smart enough to see this but aging Boomers are not, good for them.
Every month for the past several decades, Iran has always been just “months away” from a nuke. I dislike the Iranian regime as I dislike all Muslims, but I also know the story of the boy who cried wolf well enough to recognize agitprop and hysteria when I see it.
Well said!
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