Posted on 11/16/2009 12:54:51 PM PST by Baladas
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Nov. 16) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday that he had no regrets about his handling of the Iran hostage crisis more than 30 years ago, saying he didn't attack the country as his advisers proposed because thousands of people would have died.
Islamic militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and seized its occupants. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
Carter acknowledged that his failure to bring the hostages home — including a botched rescue mission in which eight U.S. servicemen died — led to his election defeat to President Ronald Reagan in 1980. The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981, just minutes after Reagan was sworn in as the new president.
"I don't have any doubt that was the main factor in my defeat," Carter told reporters in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, where he was helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity. "Obviously, if I had rescued the hostages or they had not been taken, I would have been re-elected."
Carter said one proposed option was a military strike on Iran, but he chose to stick with negotiations to prevent bloodshed and bring the hostages home safely.
"My main advisers insisted that I should attack Iran," he said. "I could have destroyed Iran with my weaponry. But I felt in the process it was likely the hostages' lives would be lost, and I didn't want to kill 20,000 Iranians. So I didn't attack."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Maybe if he had attacked Iran back then we wouldn’t be having the problems we have today.
>> “Obviously, if I had rescued the hostages or they had not been taken, I would have been re-elected.”
Yeah, sure, Jimmuh. The 19% inflation wasn’t all that painful. I’m sure no one noticed it.
Let’s see - if he was president during Pearl Harbor I guess he would say he didn’t want to kill a lot of Japanese just for a few thousand Americans lost during the attack .... to him it would have been an over reaction .....
Yep - there was the huge inflation rate, and you telling us we’re at fault - great way to get re-elected NOT!
This just shows that he is STILL a weak, ineffectual idiot that should NOT be listened too.
If he had indeed BOMBED Iran for their illegal taking of US diplomats, we likely wouldn’t be having the problems we’re having right now with Iran. We’ve been living with his mistakes for decades.
He is the most clueless person who ever served as POTUS. The whole world knows how stupid he sounds.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Thousands of people did die, but they were Americans not Iranian.
This event set in motion all the events in the Middle-East since that day of appeasement.
He even thinks that the Nobel POS prize is an honor.
Like I've said, when Carter kicks off, it'll be like an alcoholic parent dying. Yeah, you're sort of sad, but you're glad you don't have to apologize for such an embarrassing individual anymore.
Don’t worry Jimmy zero is doing a far worse job so far than you, smile you are finally vidicated and a new man will take your place as the worst ever!
God God, he took an oath to defend the United States. He violated that oath.
Carter is too stupid to have regrets.
Still crazy after all these years.
Silly of me.
Jimmy was bought and paid for before he ever hit the Oval Office. Remember when his brother Billy was caught taking bribes from Libyans?
Carter may have been clueless, but to this day he's done what his masters told him to do.
And about our people dying in the desert in a misguided, poorly planned rescue attempt?
If Carter had been President in 1941 we who alive then would either be a lamp shade or a bar of soap. The ones living in what once was the U.S.A. would be speaking German and Japanese.
Actually, Jimmuh, we probably could have saved tens of thousands of lives in the long run by cutting the islamist’s throats in Tehran while we still had the chance to.
The end result of your chicken-shit diplomacy is the blossoming of terrorist movements across the Middle East who are bankrolled by the mullahs in Iran and who are, even now, engaged in bloody terrorist actions against governments and innocent civilians acrosss the globe.
Some legacy - eh, Jimmuh?
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