Carter Defends Handling of Hostage Crisis

Associated Press ^ | 11/16/09 | MICHAEL CASEY

[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."

[M Kehoe]

Oh, and for posterity's sake, Jimmah, you put me right in the middle of your, "main factors," a$$hole.

5.56mm

[TET1968]

that post should be repeated once a month for the next 20 years.

When Carter says he would have been re elected if he had rescued the hostages he’s really saying he would have been re elected if the military idiots flying those helicopters knew what the hell they were doing.

[FARS]

A much embellished version of Robin Berkeley’s comment posted on American Thinker - with a more complete posting of Psalm 109!

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2009/11/obamas-mind-game-sovietalinsky-plus.html

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[rlmorel]

Deep inside, all liberals think the same way John Kerry does about the military. I had an opportunity to spend some time with a bunch of those Swift Boat guys, and they sure don't like him.

Their contempt for the military just pisses me off, but I must say, I do enjoy it when the troops can show those boneheads what they are made of...:)

[FARS]

greetings all,

Apparently Google has blocked the link of www.antimullah.com and we cannot get onto our own site using this but CAN get on using www.noiri.blogspot.com and post articles etc., - this appears to be a way to preventing visits to the site.

It’s not shut down but you cannot get to us uless you happen to now the blogspot address!

Oba-Hussein’s removal of the freedom of speech in action.

Please use www.noiri.blogspot.com to visit

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

There isn’t any problem getting to your site from here by any of those urls. Google lists you and links to you from all over the place. Suggest you do a tracert and find the cause of your local outage.

[April Lexington]

The fact that Jimmy Carter has ANY credibility these days speaks volumes about the deteriorating IQ level of the Average American...

[April Lexington]

But for the fact that this idiot had ascended to POTUS ans sold the world to Islam...., these good ol’ boys would have been a riot to hang around with!

[April Lexington]

*sigh* You know you’re old when... ...you can remember a democrat president who actually LIKED America.

I think the buck stopped there, friend!

[April Lexington]

Probably all unecessary, as they would never try that BS against any reasonably powerful country with a leader who would respond appropriately.

Had I been in the White House in those days, the "black rock" would have been reduced to ashes... along with a few million bystanders.

[philetus]

What exactly is Jimma defending?
Seems to me the whole operation was a cluster f**k.

[FARS]

All is well again and the reason was.....

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2009/11/cannot-get-o-site-with-wwwantimullahcom.html

Thanks for following it up

[sheik yerbouty]

It seems to be up and running now..

[wastedyears]

He could have destroyed Iran with hisweaponry?

[stevie_d_64]

Yeah Jimmy...Hindsight IS 20/20!!!

What an absolute disengenuous shlup...

Go build a house or something Jimmy...Just fade away, b ecome that afterthought that leaves a really bad taste in our mouths will ya...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

That must have been annoying,even though what was going on was very important(obviously). That’s the media for ya!

[null and void]

Much less annoying that seeing 0bama on every channel every day.

[Tainan]

www.antimullah.com

works for me as of now.