Thirty-eight years ago today, Iranian "students" occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage.  Ultimately, 52 were held for 444 days before being released on the day President Reagan was inaugurated.

November 4 is a red-letter day for the Islamic Republic, and they celebrate it with a huge parade that passes by the former U.S. embassy, which is now a museum dedicated to the revolution. 

Today was a little different.  The Iranians paraded a new ICBM with a 2,000-mile range.

Associated Press:

Thousands gathered at the former U.S. embassy in downtown Tehran where a missile, believed to be a 2,000-kilometer (1,243-mile)-range solid-fuel Sejjil, was on display. It was the first time Iran displayed a missile during the annual gathering.

Later in the day, the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which has ties to the elite Revolutionary Guard, said the missile was a Qadr-F that has the same range.

Hundreds of Iranian militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy following the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. They took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after Washington refused to hand over the shah, who was in the U.S.

A crowd chanted "Down with the U.S." and "Death to Israel" during the anniversary celebration. State TV said similar celebrations were being held in other Iranian cities and towns. They also burned flags of both the U.S. and Israel as well as an effigy of President Donald Trump.

President Trump refused to re-certify the 2015 landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in October and the U.S. has imposed more sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

The U.S. Congress must now make a decision regarding the 2015 nuclear deal, in which Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council, addressed the crowd, saying Iran will make any sanctions imposed by the U.S. "ineffective" even as the U.S. targets Iran's economic, nuclear and defensive power.

Shamkhani, alluding to Trump's threats against North Korea, said even U.S. allies know that Trump "has no power to realize his bluffs, against Iran, too." He called the U.S. the "eternal enemy" of Iran.

Obviously, the Iranians decided to deliver a slap in the face to the U.S. by parading their illegal missile.  In fact, the entire exercise of honoring the most egregious violation of international law in centuries is unspeakably crass.  Iran never suffered any reprisals for taking and holding Americans as hostage.  Neither are they suffering any pushback from the U.S. today when they seize innocent Americans and hold them for years on trumped up charges.

Will there ever be a reckoning for this humiliation?  Almost certainly not, or at least not directly.  We may be forced to take out the Iranian nuclear program eventually but the inaction of Jimmy Carter in the face of the most serious provocation to our national honor in the 20th century will ultimately define our lack of response.

As for the missile, Europe is too busy making money from the opening of trade with Iran to care if the Islamic Republic has missiles capable of leveling their cities.  We will receive no backing for fresh sanctions from the E.U., which means that, as usual, the U.S. will face the threat to our security alone.