I don't believe the Iran hostage incident was in any way an acceptable response to what was done a few decades earlier, but I do not believe that should preclude any notion of apologizing and making up for a reprehensible action on the part of our government — an action that set Iran on the fast track to religious fanaticism, set Saddam Hussein up as the head of a puppet government in Iraq to watch over Iran and led to our current predicament and now has our country fighting a war more about oil and religion than one about liberating peoples and fostering democracy.

The easy way out is hatred, mistrust and holding a grudge. I fully abhor what the Iranian hostage-takers did and understand that the majority of people in our country remember that chapter in our recent history with anguish, anger and hatred. But there are always two sides to any story and the fact is that our interference in Iran has set that country and its people back severely. We are lying in the horrible bed we made for ourselves in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan. We cannot move forward by refusing to acknowledge the huge mistakes our government has made; look how that has gone in Iraq.

We can stand firm with our condemnation of hostage-taking and terrorism while still acknowledging that we have not always acted judiciously. Our country needs to get out of the government-overthrowing business. People in my generation were born into a world of absolutes but are already weary of the constant antagonism and mindless violence on both sides of the conflict and seeing the huge cracks in the facade of the United States as a liberator and nation-builder and we are tired of it –we are more informed and more connected and less willing to accept that Muslim automatically equals bad.

Something's got to give and it'd be a lot less dangerous and a lot more wise to take a new tact and review our past actions and present attitudes and temper them with the truth. Read up on the history for yourself and think on how virginal and blameless the US is in these affairs.

No? Pity.

But this would be great, if the US can humble itself slightly by admitting we're not always right, and work some things out with the Iranians.

Obama, if president, might become a busy man with visiting many countries for talks if this works out positively.