Jimmy Carter: Iran hostage rescue should have worked

Lots of belching going on EasyMoney, you think you know but you don't. Let's stick to what you REALLY know.

EASY MONEY wrote:

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Your observation are pretty much correct but I have to say that if the embassy staff here is any indication of what a de facto spy does, we're in very deep shit. From what I've seen and heard this group could't find their ass if it was in Macy's window and they were outside looking in. Sad!!! There is only one way for the agency to operate and that is without any oversight from congress. They have to get back to the idea that winning is the object and the end justifies the means. Trying to keep our enemies happy isn't the answer. The Russians ubderstand that.

Mr. Carter can point to some circumstances that helped the rescue attempt fail. Things like. engines on choppers not working well in dust storms.

Let's face it. He had to do something about the hostage situation or it would have guaranteed him loosing the White House in 1980 no matter what else would have happened. It seems the safest choice he felt he had was to authorize a small surgical strike that turned out to be too small to be salvaged when something did go wrong though. And any real military man knows you plan on things going wrong.

A large operation would have improved the chances that at least some of the hostages would have been freed and could have harmed the new militant Islamic government much more, giving hope to the opposition inside of Iran. His choice of an anemic operation, added to his past choice to abandon the Shah showed how ignorant he was to the potential threat from militant Islam. And that wasn't a circumstance beyond his control.

Carter did what he felt was best and history shows that wasn't good enough. The Islamic Republic got a public relations boost because charred American aircraft were in their desert and not one hostage was freed.

It would be nice if he stuck to his domestic humanitarian efforts; left Israel alone and just faded out of the national spotlight. But Carter can't do that for reasons only he truly knows.

While that hostage business was going on Iran, little black children were disappearing and being murdered in Atlanta. Not only did the country not make the same fuss about their lives and their rights, but I recall many whites back then actually cheering and remarking that they wished all blacks could be wiped out. One graffito on a college desk read:"Go down to Atlanta for the summer vacation, and help kill n---gers."

What Ayatollah Khomeini and those goons did to our people was criminal, and personally I wish he had been strung up by his own people as Mussolini was. But our much-vaunted concern for justice and the sanctity of life has often been rendered farcical by double standards.

Mr. Carter really cared about racial justice, and fairness to all. My only unhappiness about him is that his constant bashing of Israel is one-sided. As a non-white American, I still think he rocks.

I still think he was and still is a sucker.

Carter never should have been President. His forte is hammering boards together, not planning complex rescue missions on foreign soil.

What a dolt.

That is the way liberal twits are, they tell a lie long enough and pretty soon they even start to believe it. Jimmy and this twit in the WH are on the same chapter and page, it's called failure.

So how did that little experiment in IRAQ go?

GW Bush, some say was in the Air Force.

Was GW Bush a dolt?

Slambo wrote:

Carter never should have been President. His forte is hammering boards together, not planning complex rescue missions on foreign soil.
What a dolt.

Iraq, Afghanistan....It's all pretty much an exercise in futility. These people have been warring for EONS and we, as an arrogant country, dare believe we can stop that. CAN'T BE DONE.

I can't help but draw many similarities to the Viet Nam war where adjoining countries played both sides of the ball. The South was just as corrupt and our answer was to lose over 50,000 of our brave troops and Billions of dollars (real money back then). Just as Pakistan is playing both sides against the middle and getting rich off our tax dollars. Blow the bastards off the face of the earth, call it a done deal and get the Hell outta there. Or make odumba happy and cut our losses now and bring the troops home. It's a lose lose situation and sadly, it will end badly, regardless of which path we choose now. God help us.

GW Bush had the opportunity on September 12, 2001.
GW Bush flowked up the opportunity, like I said before, if I was president on 9/11, Mecca, Tora Bora would be a pile of CRYSTALLIZE sand today.

greg in central va wrote:

Iraq, Afghanistan....It's all pretty much an exercise in futility. These people have been warring for EONS and we, as an arrogant country, dare believe we can stop that. CAN'T BE DONE.
I can't help but draw many similarities to the Viet Nam war where adjoining countries played both sides of the ball. The South was just as corrupt and our answer was to lose over 50,000 of our brave troops and Billions of dollars (real money back then). Just as Pakistan is playing both sides against the middle and getting rich off our tax dollars. Blow the bastards off the face of the earth, call it a done deal and get the Hell outta there. Or make odumba happy and cut our losses now and bring the troops home. It's a lose lose situation and sadly, it will end badly, regardless of which path we choose now. God help us.

Carter says Egyptian military likely to obey will of people
Former U.S. president speaks at LBJ Library about developments in Middle East.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/carter-sa...

This guy really should shut up. Someone stop him from embarrassing himself & Americans any more.
His own mother looked at her offspring & wished that she's stayed a virgin!

Peralta de Peralta wrote:

Carter says Egyptian military likely to obey will of people
Former U.S. president speaks at LBJ Library about developments in Middle East.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/carter-sa...
This guy really should shut up. Someone stop him from embarrassing himself & Americans any more.
His own mother looked at her offspring & wished that she's stayed a virgin!

Or that she had swallowed ...

That old, dody bastard peanut farmer just can't help sticking his foot in his mouth again and again can he. Only difference in him and the idiot in the white house now is the year.

By the way folks. barry won't let folks report on TRUE inflation that he's causing by his carteristic policies. I guess food and gas really isn't getting too expensive at all now ....IS IT?

Viet Nam veterans came home with their arms and legs cut off, and were treated like garbage and blamed for the politicians' mistakes. These hostages returned in one piece and were treated like heroes or martyrs. Now that is hogwash!

Yes, that hostage criis was horrible. But if we care about our citizens, we need to care about all, and not just the fashionable ones.

EASY MONEY wrote:

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At the time of the raid I was working in Saudi and I got that briefing shortly after my return,. The Col. doing the brief was so full of shit on went wrong, that I got up and left. Come on, when was the last time that navy chopper guys trained to land in the desert. at that time never. Those choppers toss up more dirt, rocks and dust and your your totally blinded. You have no idea where your at.
No! The reason IMO is that the politicians tied the military's hands much the same way that they did in Vietnam and I may add the same way they are doing it in Afghanistan. The bottom line is that they really are not there to win as an army should, they are playing at being cops.Sadly the bad guys are playing to win.

They trained countless hours at a US base in the desert at night under the exact same conditions. I know this for a fact. If you did not know this, then maybe you don't know much at all. The reason this failed was once again we tried to tickle our enemy rather than bring hell to his doorstep. We are making the same mistake in Afghanistan today. If the top flag grade officers know their hands are tied, why is it not one has the courage to retire on the spot and address the matter publicly? Westmorland wrote that he KNEW we could not win in Vietnam. The monster Rumsfeld did tie our GO's hands and micromanaged with no idea what he was doing, but our GOs just bent over and took it and let us lose fine soldiers. We need real Generals, not ass-kissing political ones, and we need to wage war in a way that no enemy would ever want to suffer again.