Jimmy Carter Speaks About Iran Hostage Crisis

Posted: 10/3/2014

Trigger

Apparently former U.S. president Jimmy Carter just gave an interview defending his decision not use more military force against Iran in the Iran hostage crisis.

See e.g. here.

Apparently, it was important to him before he rests in peace to make this statement that he could have beaten Ronald Reagan had he been among other things more manly, but he does not regret his decisions.

What If

Yes, it is damn hard to criticize or condemn someone’s actions or decisions in hindsight.

However:

1. A state sanctioned hostage taking of diplomatic personnel is a very grave foreign policy issue under almost any circumstances
2. A superpower like the U.S. can even less tolerate something like this to happen. The Rubicon was crossed
3. Before the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, there was the grave violation of the Olympic Games of 1972 by Arab terrorists. The Western response was lackluster
4. Before that were other egregious violations like hijackings of civilian airplanes by Arab terrorists and so on

Thus, had democratic U.S. president Jimmy Carter back then already shown more resolve, we the humans would have been spared Hamas, Al Qaeda, ISIS etc. Perhaps, the planet and its inhabitants would be so much better off.

Dictators like Gaddafi or Assad or Hussein would have long gone had U.S. presidents shown more resolve!

History waits for no wimps or naivete! Peace through strength!