Lusitania
Donor
We keep talking about Khomeini being is charge and when the hostages happen, he and his goons were still not in charge of the country, they were working on it and standing up to the hated SATAN US helped them. If the US had gotten them out quickly even if portion of the hostages were killed it might of weaken him and prevented them from gaining control of country as they did. But the worse thing that could of happen was to declare war or threaten war since that would of played into their hands.I repeat: Lebanon was a very different situation from Iran. Iran's hostage crisis was supported by its true ruler, Khomeini. Meanwhile, the situation in Lebanon was that of a civil war between several militias and with the involvement of other countries. That would make intervening in Lebanon far more complicated than intervening in Iran.
Following the revolution there was a possibility that a real democracy could of taken hold or a more neutral government but the religious fanatics wanted power and the hostages were a means to it.
Also a few people have talked about comparing Iran to Libya but again we talking about two different places. Libya had a leader and government in place that was facilitating terrorism, Iran at time was in flux and nothing the US could do sort of covert operation to free them and strike at the leaders could of resolved the issue.