Comments on The Day the World Was Invented Pt. 2

Carter's legacy. Make a note of it.

Eisenhower, Dulles, and Dulles gave us 25 good years by deposing a leftard in 1953 & by preventing Iran from becoming a captive of the USSR. Carter gave us a quagmire & a cauldron.

What would you have suggested Carter do, Shah'n'shah? Remember there was an attempted rescue that failed miserably. And there are at least some hints that Reagan's team may have hindered the negotiations for their own politican reasons.

Yeah, 25 years of quiet while they built the cauldron in the Shah´s torture rooms. WhatEVER, dude.

Savak looks almost benign in retrospect, doesn't it? Sons of bitches, but our sons of bitches (as FDR said about, um, Saud?) And we've dealt here before with the Sick (sic) canard about Reagan's twisted plot to derail Carter's deft diplomacy. Gary Sick was discredited almost as completely as Joe Wilson is now ... just another lying liar looking for a book deal.

As for the rescue attempt, check out Mark Bowman's recent report on Desert One. Carter was a dangerous fool, rather like the current incumbent.

SAVAK was downright evil, and Carter's support for the Shah was the darkest mark on his record. When Irani exiles protested in the US, they had to do so in masks because Carter allowed SAVAK to operate in the US, including kidnappings and murder. Mohammed Mossadegh was the people's choice, and if we'd just supported him, I'd be able to take a vacation in Isfahan.

I've read the article (it's by Mark Bowden, not Bowman) and it doesn't implicate Carter, other than his goofy "don't kill anyone" clause which the military would have ignored (as the article makes clear) had it come to that.

You still didn't answer the question, what could Carter have done to end the hostage crisis that he didn't do?

History has shown us the answer, Bob Roberts: what Carter could have done is what Reagan did do: make some illegal arms deals. The Reaganites never met a terrorist they didn't automatically want to make a deal with.

Fnarf, I think you are correct there.

It's becoming painfully clear that the central guiding principle of Republicans/conservatives is "the ends justify the means."

In fact, it's un-American/wimpy/gay (the worst possible insult for Repubs) to worry about the means.

Yes, Black Hawk Bowden. I knew that.

What should Carter have done about Iran? I don't know. Way above my pay grade. But perhaps he could have sent McFarlane with a Bible & a cake, or he could have let himself freelance in Tehran with free nuclear reactors, as he did in North Korea in 1994.

As Mark Bowden's article makes clear, Desert One was almost certifiably insane from inception to whimper. Carter gave it a go. It was his tar baby.