I was living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which this incident occurred.
The reaction of the Iranian population at the time was surprising and the
opposite of what you would think.
You would think they would be angry at the USA for shooting down their
airplane.
Instead, they were not angry. Up until this time they believed that Iran
was stronger than America. They could easily defeat us in a war, they
thought.
Because of this incident the Iranians suddenly realized that the USA was
far stronger than Iran. They learned that the USA could easily shoot down
all their airplanes any time we wanted to.
It was only because of our largess that we were allowing their airplanes to
fly, they suddenly realized.
Sam Sloan
Interesting, Sam. If I were a nationalist, that somewhat shocking indication of many people in Iran evidently being quite out of touch with recent world history would make me feel better about the studies that come along every so often showing how a significant percentage of Americans can't find countries such as Canada or in some cases even the United States on a world map. But since I am not a nationalist, and realize those people and the people living in Iran are equally unrelated to me personally, and that it would be irrational for me to feel pride or shame in their knowledge or abilities, it doesn't make me feel any better.
Now if only "we" (people living in the U.S.) and "they" (people living in Iran) would realize that our use of personal pronouns is reinforcing nationalism and drawing lines of division in the wrong places -- in fact the biggest threat to people living in Iran is the government based in Tehran and the biggest threat to people living in the U.S. is the government based in Washington D.C. -- and endeavor henceforward to describe the airliner in question as being downed by the U.S. government, not the USA as a whole, and to distinguish governments from the people they oppress and not lump them together in the same "we" or "they"...
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))