Meanwhile, Attitudes Shifting Iran

Former American Embassy, Tehran (AP)

At the time of the Islamic Revolution, 22 years ago, the U.S. was the Great Satan. Now, a comparatively temperate view of the U.S. is becoming common. So much so that hardliners felt they needed to educate young Iranians about the true nature of what they call "global arrogance." A recently-opened an exhibition in Tehran celebrates the Revolution's most glorious moment, the seizure of the American embassy.

Called Smashing the Glassy Palace, it turns the embassy into a kind of museum of American horrors.

In the first part of the exhibit, there is a sequence of rooms dedicated to each of the countries where America has committed what the organizers consider evil: Korea, Japan, Palestine. The displays are like 1960's agit prop run amok.

The corridor's are filled with high school students bussed in for the afternoon. They giggle and chatter and seem grateful for the opportunity for getting out of class.

After visiting the various rooms of American wrongdoing, we went to the perfectly preserved security and intelligence wing of the Embassy. Behind the thick steel doors we saw the glass room, which gives the exhibition its name. In this perfectly secure, unbugged environment, America's ambassador and his intelligence team discussed the crumbling regime of the Shah.

Statue of American soldier outside Embassy Exhibition(AP)

Curiously, there is no room dedicated to what is arguably America's one true crime in Iran: the 1953 CIA-backed coup that toppled the popular nationalist Mohammed Mossadegh and placed the Shah on the Iranian throne. Those politics must seem ancient history to the organizers. The hardliners have other, more contemporary political points to make. The exhibition continues in a temporary building behind the embassy. There at various stands, Iranian youth can learn more about America and its alleged Zionist paymasters

The magical mystery tour ends at a couple of amusement arcade games. You could shoot tennis balls at a grotesque caricature of a Jew or you could test your strength by bashing Uncle Sam on the top of his top hat and listening to the recorded message.

On the top of Uncle Sam's hat the target area was a Star of David.

As I wound around to the end of the exhibition, I spoke with high school student Saparieh Yevi.

I took a great deal of comfort in my conversation with the schoolboy. It was a relief to know that this 14-year old could still express feelings of good will towards Americans.

"In this exhibition, there are many things here that I don't know where they are coming from," he said, pointing out an exhibit that illustrates supposed Zionist symbols hidden on American currency.
He says the show makes him Angry at America, but, "about the government, about the presidents and the capitalism, not about the people, not at the people."

Signs of hardline, Anti-American views are still evident in Tehran.(AP)

Visiting the exhibition I felt like I was standing in the center of a circle violently squared. Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini called America the Great Satan. When his young followers seized this embassy, it was an attack on the United States. It did me no good to remind myself that the power of the Ayatollah is ebbing away because what they started is mutating around the Muslim world. The success of the Iranian Revolution inspired Egypt's Islamic radicals. The leaders of Egypt's Islamic revolutionaries provided the theoretical brains of Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda launched a more deadly attack on the U.S. than Ayatollah Khomeini could ever have imagined.

I would love to meet Saperieh Yevi again to try and explain all this to him and tell him more about the U.S. I think he could understand.