Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Carter Defends Handling of Hostage Crisis
Associated Press ^ | 11/16/09 | MICHAEL CASEY

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 ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dumbass; fail; iranhostagecrisis; islam; jimmycarter; libtards; peanuthead
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 201-211 next last
To: goldstategop
Damned senile old drooler!

And that was when he was IN the White House.

61 posted on 11/16/2009 3:06:47 PM PST by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
Great, now there's a newer version of this in the WH - goes to show you that you can't teach an old (and senile) dog new tricks.

Photobucket

62 posted on 11/16/2009 3:27:32 PM PST by b4its2late (Before you can control a horse, you have to break it. Sound familiar?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
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

In other words, he saved or created 20,000 lives.

63 posted on 11/16/2009 3:30:33 PM PST by NotSoModerate
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zman516
>>The Khomeini radical revolution would have been suppressed
 
Uh, yeah.  That's an understatement.
 
Given that Carter FUNDED the islamic revolution of 1979.
 
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Brzezinski+Carter+Cyclone&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
 
The Taliban, Afghanistan, The Hostage Crisis, Al Queda - ALL OF IT goes back to the Peanut Farmer and his NSA, ZBigniew Brzenski.
 
So, unless he wants to fess up and take responsibility, Jimmuh should just HANG THE ALBATROSS AROUND HIS NECK AND STFU!
 
 

64 posted on 11/16/2009 3:31:30 PM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
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.

Bu!!shirt!

It was just a small portion of his failures as POTUS.

65 posted on 11/16/2009 3:36:06 PM PST by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas

66 posted on 11/16/2009 3:40:46 PM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

notice how he says he could have destroyed Iran with HIS weaponry. What an egotistical lout. It’s not his weaponry. the same ego Obama has.


67 posted on 11/16/2009 3:44:04 PM PST by jeltz25
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
hay seed jimmy carter gets full credit for ushering in radical islam into iran and byond. he created a vacuum that allowed komini to return to Iran after the us failed to support the shah. all radical islamic activity in the middle east is the result of carters recklessness.
68 posted on 11/16/2009 3:49:52 PM PST by IGBT (..it's the Carbon-Con. A green slime license to purge you of all your money.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
"Obviously, if I had rescued the hostages or they had not been taken, I would have been re-elected."
69 posted on 11/16/2009 3:56:35 PM PST by John W (There Is No Normal Anymore)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


70 posted on 11/16/2009 4:07:56 PM PST by devolve ( . "I would caution you against jumping to conclusions!" - Barack Hasan Osama Junior - mmm mmm mmm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
"Obviously, if I had rescued the hostages or they had not been taken, I would have been re-elected."

That's a bold-faced lie. He mishandled the economy big time and people looked at him as an idealist fool yapping about human rights all the time.

71 posted on 11/16/2009 4:13:30 PM PST by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasDeb
Maybe if he had attacked Iran back then we wouldn’t be having the problems we have today.

Maybe if Ford and Carter hadn't signed EO's taking assassination of foreign heads of state off the ALLOWED acts list we would not have seen a sudden huge increase in state sponsored terrorism that followed immediately afterward. Carter was pathetic as POTUS but Ford was his political twin brother.

72 posted on 11/16/2009 4:15:02 PM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Baladas

I am taking a history class from Stephan Bacon, he was THERE at Desert 1. I take offense at Carters remarks for his sake, and the sake of all the heroes that were there, and those who lost their lives.

Carter was a micro managing incompetent jerk. He still is.


73 posted on 11/16/2009 4:16:31 PM PST by Danae (No political party should pick candidates. That's the voters job.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: plain talk

Exactly. This must be the rationalization he uses to avoid having to deal with some hard facts about the failure of his philosophy and his presidency. He failed because he was arrogant, and he continues to climb on the world stage because he is somewhat narcissistic.


74 posted on 11/16/2009 4:16:55 PM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Baladas

Sadly, Obama is making Carter look good, politically speaking.


75 posted on 11/16/2009 4:20:15 PM PST by johnthebaptistmoore (If leftist legislation that's already in place really can't be ended by non-leftists, then what?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas

OK! What I get from the article is that ole Jimmuh is still a complete idiot! Some things never change.


76 posted on 11/16/2009 4:21:26 PM PST by Road Warrior ‘04 ( I'll miss President Bush greatly! Palin in 2012! The "other" Jim Thompson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
“Obviously, if I had rescued the hostages or they had not been taken, I would have been re-elected.”

Yeah, sure, Jimmuh. The more you try to save your legacy, the more pathetic you sound. You weren't re-elected mainly because of massive inflation and because of a certain unstoppable political tidal wave called Reagan Country.

77 posted on 11/16/2009 4:22:01 PM PST by RepublitarianRoger2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baladas
"Obviously, if I had rescued the hostages or they had not been taken, I would have been re-elected."




Right, you horse's ass... and if you hadn't been elected, the Shah wouldn't have been overthrown by islamofascists, and we'd still have Panama.

78 posted on 11/16/2009 4:23:04 PM PST by glock rocks (Wait, what?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hoodat

Lester was ten times the man Carter was and in the end
he found his heart in the right place. The same can’t
be said for Carter.


79 posted on 11/16/2009 4:27:52 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Hoodat
Jimmuh was not fit to shine Lester Maddox's shoes.

I knew Maddox personally, and he was an old school seg in politics but he was a good, honest man. If that seems contradictory, welcome to the South. You had plenty of good men in that generation who talked the segregationist line, but would have given their shirt to anybody in trouble -- white OR black.

He was the first governor to appoint a black man to statewide office (he said even though he believed in segregation that the government was supposed to be by and for ALL the people), his office door was open to all (you could just give your name to his secretary and walk on in), and he left office poorer than he came in.

The news media just repeat "Lester Maddox was an evil racist" ad nauseam, and far too many people have bought into it.

I'd have trusted him in a minute rather than a snake like Carter who talks a sanctimonious line of bilge but was (and is) a closet racist. He stabbed plenty of folks in the back in his day.

80 posted on 11/16/2009 4:31:44 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 201-211 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson