Jimmy Carter: Former Failed President and Still a Failure:

Jimmy Carter is still living in the dream world where the “good guys “ can sit down with the “bad guys” and have tea and crumpets while coming to a peaceful agreement on all things.

I believe that one Neville Chamberlin was of the same mold in his thinking as Carter when he thought that he could appease Hitler by allowing him just “one small piece of Czechoslovakia.” Evidently Carter was not a student of history or felt that he could change what many before him had failed in doing, and that was to appease tyrants. Today, we are still paying the price for his failure 32 years ago, and we now have another demagogue running for President in Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., who feels he can accomplish the impossible simply by holding hands and talking with the “bad guys.”

On November 4, 1979, four hundred Khomeini followers, armed with sticks and chains, broke down the door of the American embassy in Tehran, stormed the compound, and took hostage all the Americans on the grounds.

These same hostage-takers posed for the cameras next to a poster with a caricature of Jimmy Carter, and the slogan read ”American cannot do a damn thing.” Khomeini did not release his prisoners until January 1981.

In Mark Bowden’s account of the hostage crisis, Guest of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in American’s war with Militant Islam, the “guests” in question were certainly no guests. The American hostages were robbed of their liberty, subjected to mock executions and beatings, and none of them believed that they would walk out of the compound alive. While this was described as the “first battle,” the battle was never actually joined. Bowden’s account reveals up close and ugly the helplessness of the Carter administration. Carter attempted to send appeasement messages to the Khomeni, and the more humiliating the appeasement offers were, the more he was mocked by Khomeni.

Had the Russians seized our embassy during this period, the US would have declared war, as well as the rest of the world, for they would have seen it as a crime against the whole of civilized nations. However, this was not the case with the Carter Administration, for they saw it as a “misunderstanding” and felt that more talks could solve the problem. However, this was not the case with the situation. Some saw this as an attempt by Khomeni and Iran to extradite the shah back to Iran but to Khomeni and his band of Islamic thugs, this was a declaration of war against the US. Khomeni expressed such in his radio address in November of 1979. He stated that this amounts to a “war between Muslims and pagans”: The Muslims must rise up in this struggle, which is more a struggle between unbelievers and Islam than one between Iran and America: between all unbelievers and the Muslims. The Muslims must rise up and triumph in this struggle.” It was this precise aim that resulted in the Islamic Republic's disregard for diplomatic custom.

Carter attempted appeasement by sending William Miller and Ramsey Clark, both of whom disliked the shah, to carry a letter in which Carter offered to: 1. Only allow the shah to remain in the US for medical treatment; 2. Explicitly recognize the independence and territorial integrity of Iran and guaranteed to resume arms exports. 3. He “politely” asked Khomeini to have the hostages released (“I ask that you release unharmed all Americans presently detained in Iran”) and pleaded for dialogue”: I have asked both men (referring to Clark and Miller) to meet with you and to hear from you your perspective on events in Iran and the problems which have arisen between out two countries. The people of the United States desire to have relations with Iran based on equality, mutual respect and friendship.” After this failure, Carter sent the French to further beg and plead, but to no avail. He then, 154 days after the hostage seizure, finally took economic action and made noises that the US would not stand for such further action. The carrot and sticks did not phase the Khomeini for he knew he was up against a “paper tiger”. In almost a dare, shortly after the hostage-taking, he dismissed the possibility of any military response by the US and said: “We will destroy you all, even if we ourselves die in the process.” Later on he totally rejected the primacy of national interest.” We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah,” he declared in a speech in 1980. “For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.”

Carter evidently does not remember these words. Similar words have been spoken by the Hamas, the very terror group spawned out of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, as was the Khomeini and his followers, with which Carter wished to have “dialogue”. The man is evidently suffering from selective amnesia to even undertake such a foolish attempt to reason with terrorists.

Carter summed up his attempts in these words, words of one who has not learned from history: “When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people. But in a democracy like Israel, there is a wide range of opinions and that counterbalances the disappointment that I have in not meeting with the people shaping Israeli power now in the government.” He also said; “I can’t say that [Hamas] will be amenable to any suggestions, but at least after I meet with them I can go back and relay what they say, as just a communicator, to the leaders of the United States.” Carter’s words have not changed, nor has his failed thinking. It’s time for Jimmy Carter to come home, go back to building Habitat houses, and leave diplomacy to those who at least understand that tea and crumpets with terror groups does not work. Frank Gaffney, Jr. summed up Carter, shall we say in a nutshell, when he stated recently; “It seems there is scarcely a serious bad actor on the planet with whom Jimmy Carter has not met. He is a serial tyrant-enabler, the very personification of Rodney King’s risible appeal, ‘Can’t we all get along?’ Mr. Carter has come to epitomize the notion that ‘dialogue’ is always in order, no matter how odious or dangerous the interlocutor — or the extent to which they or their agendas will benefit from such interactions.”

"Suppose history repeats: Obama wins and has a failed one-term presidency. Will he be jetting around the world meeting with terrorists and despots and denouncing America in 2040? Maybe not, but the thought gives us a shudder” (James Taranto).