Note: This op/ed is very opinionated.


michael d. evans, THE JERUSALEM POST - Opinion.jpost.com

Carter viewed Khomeini as more of a religious holy man in a grassroots revolution than a founding father of modern terrorism. Carter's ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, said "Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint." Carter's Iranian ambassador, William Sullivan, said, "Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure." Carter adviser James Bill proclaimed in a Newsweek interview on February 12, 1979 that Khomeini was not a mad mujahid, but a man of "impeccable integrity and honesty."

I was in basic training when the hostages were taken in Iran. I was stationed at Hurlburt Field, FL attending AGOS when the failed mission to rescue them occurred. The C130 gunships were stationed at Hurlburt Field and I was present to observe my instructors "call-in" the C130 gunship missing plane formation over the field during the subsequent memorial and there wasn't a dry eye as far as the horizon. After I read the op/ed it occurred to me that Jimmy Carter wasn't there. The Secretary of State attended the memorial. I later voted for Ronald Reagan and one of the first impact on a personal level for that was being placed on the Rapid Reaction Force he created. For the rest of my enlistment I always had a bag packed. Nevertheless, on the day Reagan was sworn in the hostages were released. We never discussed Carter. The subject was off limits. And as Forrest Gump would state, "That's all I have to say about that."