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When the Students Took the Embassy

from Notes from a Failed State by David Rovics

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These politicians frothing at the mouth to go to war with Iran like to pretend they don't know that the CIA overthrow the democratically-elected government there in 1953. Although they're all young enough to remember what happened when the students occupied the US embassy in Tehran, and the CIA's crimes that were exposed in the process, they like to pretend they don't know about that, either.

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When the Students Took the Embassy

Missile strikes in Baghdad, skies full of fighter jets
The tension in the air, as thick as it gets
Their talking points are loaded, at each press conference
With what passes for an effort at historical reference
They talk of things that happened over forty years before
That they say now bring us to the edge of world war
They talk about the hostages, so let us now rewind
When the students took the embassy, just what did they find?

When the students took the embassy, I was just a kid
But I remember well, the first things they did
Let all the women go, while collecting all the trash
All the shredded documents that weren't yet turned to ash
All the shredded documents that clearly showed
The torture and corruption, how the power flowed
The concept of a captured state was one the Shah defined
When the students took the embassy, just what did they find?

When the students took the embassy, they found the crimes of Savak
Had the CIA hiding under every rock
And that's where they had been, where the agents were based
They had a staff of thousands there, from there they laid to waste
The dreams held by so many for a free society
Like the one they overthrew, back in 1953
Historic crimes exposed, in the shredder once consigned
When the students took the embassy, just what did they find?

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from Notes from a Failed State, released June 4, 2020

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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