Dream on
The Boston Globe’s inside headline of a story in 1980 read something like, “More mush from the wimp.” The Globe was describing some thought or action of the ineffectual Jimmy Carter. That this came from a Boston newspaper is ample evidence of the near universality of this opinion at the time. We did a double-take at that headline when we opened the newspaper that morning; it was surprising to see a president who had brought such ridicule upon himself. Not any more. In a discussion with Bob Edwards, formerly of NPR, former President Carter said this:
“I have a specific regret in not having one more helicopter when I wanted to rescue our hostages. If I had had one more helicopter, they would have been rescued. I might have been reelected president.”
Dream on. The ill conceived mission that became known as Desert One was a fiasco from the moment it was cooked up, which included concealing it from the Secretary of State at the time. The very idea that Carter still thinks about the gross Iranian act of war in 1979 in terms of such a limited response — “one more helicopter” — is yet more testimony that the man never was up to the job of Commander in Chief.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:32 am
While Carter has to accept the ultimate blame, much of the failure for Desert One can be directed to David Jones, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Gen. Jones had a penchant for secrecy tied with a disregard for the Intelligence Community, leading him to plan the effort without much support from those with information on the area. He requested his aircraft from various units, and, invariably, the aircraft were those that the units did not want, the vaunted hangar queens with extensive maintenance records. The second flaw was the plan to fly without adequate screening for the engine intakes, contributing to the breakdowns in the supporting helicopters.
While I do not suggest that one additional helicopter would have made the operation a success, I think that blame should be shared.
Carter’s worst idea was the application of zero-based budgeting at the federal level. The cost of reviewing each year’s budget line item by line item increased the cost of the budget preparation and did not provide any benefit that I could see. It was an exercise in futility that simply generated huge stacks of paper, procedures that were dropped shortly after Reagan came into office, and failed to realize any meaningful savings.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Iran was just the most visible manifestation of his utter incompetence. The man has never forgiven the American voter for not reelecting him and has proceeded to act like a spiteful child striking back. All he’s managed to do is confirm the wisdom of the electorate.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
When briefed about the mission, former President Nixon said, “EIGHT helicopters? Why not a thousand? It’s not as if we don’t have them.”
October 13th, 2007 at 6:49 am
James Earl Carter is 83.
I’d be prepared to make allowances for his age - as I do for Larry King.
Sadly, I can’t find reason to excuse when he was 53…and President.
It has to say something that I finally found a reason to approve of Ted Kennedy - who challenged Jimmy for the Democrat nomination in 1980.
Least worst as always…it makes democracy easy.:)
October 13th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Desert One is one thing I don’t blame Carter. The military had the men, money and equipment. If all those Academe graduates couldn’t institutionally pull together their act, then the fault lies there. They had the history of Son Tay and the Mayaquez. I don’t recall any officer besides the ones on the ground taking responsibility for the outcome. I was in 7th SF at the time. The officer corps, by and large, were pretty pathetic. I don’t think that then officer corps or Cat 4 enlisted ranks could of then taken on Canada.
Other than that, Carter sucks, as always.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Carter is undeniable the worst president, and retired president, this country has ever had. I remember his four years as president, and I can’t find a single thing to recommend him or remember him warmly by. Gas shortages, 21% interest rates, his direct contribution to the fall of the Shah and the rise of the present Islamofascist regime, hostages held for more than a year. The only harmless things were cheesy sweaters and “lusting in his heart.”
Now he has the ultimate low class and tastelessness to criticize a sitting president here and in foreign countries, and side with enemies of the U.S. like Chavez. His only redeeming feature as a Democrat is that he makes Clinton look good! He is another person who cheapened the Nobel Peace Prize.
I know, I know: don’t sugarcoat it!