The brass deserves some flack for the debacle. Every service wanted a piece of the pie. What should have been an Army and Air Force mission from start to finish had portions carved out for the Navy and Marines, and the result was bad.
Wouldn’t of mattered. The forces couldn’t, and didn’t execute. Poor plan, bad inter service tension, mediocre pilots, divided operational and tactical command.... Basically a cluster in search of hope. All with in the military, with Generals and Colonels piled ten feet high.
Carter insisted on minimal force and minimal footprint. There was absolutely no margin for error. Anyone who has ever been close to the military knows that screw ups and error are inevitable on an operation of this nature. Zero margin for error is a risk worth taking only when there is no alternative.
A disaster of this magnitude was NOT inevitable but it WAS possible. We had other resources in the region which could have turned this disaster into a diversion rather than complete mission failure.
Carter had opted to go against military advice for a larger operation to allow for margin of error because he said any failure would alert the Iranians and cause them to disperse the hostages, making any further rescue attempt impossible. Of course, the press tried their best to cover for him, but it didn't take the public long to learn the sickening truth.
Of course, I do not know whether the bigger plan recommended by the military would have succeeded. But we do know that the worst case scenario envisioned by Carter as a reason to scale down the operation is exactly what happened anyway. Too many good men had to die to ensure the worthless CIC wouldn't be elected to a second term.
Carter did not micromanage the rescue mission, General James Vaught almost had free reign