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 ...
“Have you noticed who is Potus Now?”
You think it stupidity or calculated evil?
Jimmy seemed to have good intentions at least, although he was so incompetent as to never be able to execute.
Zer0 is another thing. He hates this country and will do anything he can to destroy it.
“Mr. Carter is garbage. Just like this elephant eared marxist p.o.s.”
Years later, many of his cabinet appointees said he was mentally unstable, and a dangerous man.
Heh, heh... Is that the bunny who attacked him in the river?
Carter Who?
Wasn't there an inept, unprofessional, niave (sp?), lacking in common sense, former president with that name?
If this is the same person, why is he being given any press time? He's certainly not improved over the years.
Maybe it's time he stuck with his peanuts; he'll get all the trouble with them he's capable of handling.
I was 8 years old when Carter was elected. My dad lost his job a year later and was out of work for 14 months. I remember the stress, my parents fighting and sitting in lines with my mom waiting to buy gas on “odd-number” days. I get physically nauseous whenever I see Carter’s creepy old face.
Carter forgets that he was the one who threw the Shah under the bus and caused the hostage taking to happen. He also forgets when he determines what caused his defeat things like “Malaise”, double digit unemployment, double digit interest rates and double digit inflation. He will go down as probably the worst President ever and the worst Ex-President.
I was on the fid during the ‘80 med cruise...we went to battle stations for 2 weeks during the rescue attempt...
What an A$$wipe! still trying to make President Oba? look good by comparison...big of him, isn’t it! if he keeps it up, President Oba? will have to keep bowing to become the #1 A$$wipe president, after all!
Sometimes, when I look at my children, I wish I had remained a virgin.
Lillian, millions of Americans wished that you had remained a virgin!
He should meet with the former hostages and tell them this. Say on Nightline (a program launched out of the hostage crisis).
EXCELLENT IDEA
bump...
Jimmy Carter is cool with the format, he’d just like to change venue and sit in the comfy chair on Al Jazeera...
*sigh* You know you’re old when...
...you can remember a democrat president who actually LIKED America.
Thanks for the ping!
Whether it was misguided or not is certainly debatable, but poorly planned? I would give the military a break on that.
They were planning an operation that was at the very extreme limit of projection capability we had at the time.
They had neither the capabilities nor the infrastructure at the time to do it well, and the military was given a $hit sandwich to eat...I think they did the best they could with what they had, and doing something like that which left no room for error, well...if it can go wrong it will, and did.
Just my opinion...
And one more thing...this is typical behavior from scummy liberals.
They demean, disparage, defund and vilify the military. Then, when they need them to pull their sorry ass out of a fire, the military doesn’t have the funding, equipment or the training to do the task which they must perform (or at least, try) regardless.
Failures are then blamed on the military. That is the pattern. And that is why Ann Coulter is spot on when she says Democrats should never be allowed near the levers of power in the government.
“my weaponry”. Fiberals are consistent in their entitlement mentality.
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