From a New York Times lead story in 1979, dateline Teheran: “Armed urban guerillas attacked the American Embassy today and trapped Ambassador William H. Sullivan and about 100 members of his staff inside…”

Big deal, you say. Everyone knows about the November 4, 1979 takeover of the American Embassy, the one that gave birth to Nightline (“America Held Hostage”) and culminated in the dramatic release of the hostages after 444 days, just as the inauguration of Ronald Reagan was taking place. Well, take a closer look at the date of the story — a full nine months before the famous taekover:

So you would think that the Carter administration would have been prepared for a reprise of an event that had already occurred in 1979. Instead, in its first story on the November siege, 11/4 by Bernard Gwertzman, the NYT reported this from the Carter administration: “President Carter was kept informed at Camp David, Md. But no high-level meetings were scheduled.”

From the very beginning of the November takeover, it was clear that Ayatollah Khomeini was in charge. Reuters reported the signs carried by the “students”: Khomeini struggles, Carter trembles.” Struggle, of course, is jihad. Khomeini’s jihad and Carter’s trembling can both be seen in the NYT from the next day:

“Any force would be crazy” (though it was clearly the threat of force from Reagan, among other factors, that freed the hostages). That was the position of the Carter administration over a quarter century ago, and it appears to be his stance today — not when the force comes from those who do terror and violence, but from those who oppose it.

UPDATE — In a somewhat fanciful piece, we wonder if Jimmy Carter should have returned the favor to the Ayatollah by taking Iranian hostages.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2006 at 10:14 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Left of Left, Religion, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.