tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post670887846920420064..comments2024-03-29T03:51:13.883-05:00Comments on Althouse: Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 love letter to President Jimmy Carter. Ann Althousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01630636239933008807noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-77391911570291851062016-06-04T07:33:31.290-05:002016-06-04T07:33:31.290-05:00I'll say this, as I say with Obama: If he was...I'll say this, as I say with Obama: If he was just naïve and not openly evil, SOME of his decisions would have been to the benefit of this country.damikeschttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02133230009952160269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-71550854621120361932016-06-04T06:58:45.481-05:002016-06-04T06:58:45.481-05:00" I wouldn't say Carter was an idiot. Myo..." I wouldn't say Carter was an idiot. Myopic, yes, and far too trusting."<br /><br />And his behavior in the intervening years?<br /><br />I'm leaning towards idiot.JAOREhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11819907966430540035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-29340865472310583322016-06-03T23:15:26.576-05:002016-06-03T23:15:26.576-05:00Grackle, I wish you were running our State Departm...Grackle, I wish you were running our State Department.mockturtlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10507310332014103437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-9461840845828745402016-06-03T22:51:25.232-05:002016-06-03T22:51:25.232-05:00The Shah made use of torture and the secret police...<i> The Shah made use of torture and the secret police to remain in power, but I thnk it's an open question as to whether or not his use of such tactics exceeded that of the Ayatollah. </i><br /><br />Yes, a very open question, true as far as it goes but there’s much more to the story.<br /><br />Readers, in the Middle East of the Shah’s time there was no, repeat, NO regime that did not rule by force of arms – with the exception of Israel, which was the only nation in the region with even a nodding acquaintance with human rights. All the others had secret police and used torture – a situation that remains mostly unchanged. If you wanted an ally in the Middle East you had no choice other than despots - with the Shah being the least offensive of those. <br /><br />With the USA and Great Britain as his ally the Shah was trying to modernize and reform his nation. Carter betrayed the Shah, an official ally of America, in order to indulge in a bit of unicorn-chasing, still a favorite activity of the Ivy League educated idiot ideologues running foreign policy in today’s Whitehouse. <br /><br />For his trouble the doomed Carter was humiliated for over a year on the world’s stage by the increasingly elated and openly scornful mullahs in Iran. The Iran hostage crisis should be an object lesson of disgrace and indignity for any POTUS who has an appetite for appeasement and tacit collusion with Islamic regimes.gracklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18138997480493469444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-84416632055749220962016-06-03T20:19:48.640-05:002016-06-03T20:19:48.640-05:00Maybe Kipling was right: East is east...Maybe Kipling was right: <i>East is east...</i>mockturtlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10507310332014103437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-22328438706453470502016-06-03T19:58:14.965-05:002016-06-03T19:58:14.965-05:00lbj was as originally foolhardy, he thought he cou...lbj was as originally foolhardy, he thought he could negotiate with ho,<br /><br /><br />http://spectator.org/ho-chi-minhs-dupe/narcisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082023858427818263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-89012117957211340652016-06-03T18:48:06.195-05:002016-06-03T18:48:06.195-05:00when lenin met the german general staff before he ...when lenin met the german general staff before he left switzerland, he promised to end the war, and he did with brest livosk, he didn't say anything about the insurrection that luxembourg would attempt,narcisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082023858427818263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-48398459326540514722016-06-03T18:23:37.338-05:002016-06-03T18:23:37.338-05:00no, read taheri, mossadecq was a boutique candidat...no, read taheri, mossadecq was a boutique candidate, who had aggravated both the merchants, bazaaris and the mullahs, twenty five years later, the shah through land reform and some other social policies, have incurred the same foes, it is notable though the 15 years he was in Iraq, Khomeini could rally few as soon as he went to France, he was in business,narcisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082023858427818263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-29446234478048727202016-06-03T17:36:00.697-05:002016-06-03T17:36:00.697-05:00There was an informed opinion back then that the A...<i>There was an informed opinion back then that the Ayatollah was stern and incorruptible and that the Shah was decadent and cruel</i><br /><br />Those who knew history at the time knew that both were awful people.<br /><br />Carter didn't bother reading history.<br /><br />(BTW, we can blame MI6/Churchill and the CIA/Eisenhower for all this shit. And, yeah, it really was all about the oil.)Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04450897654318345683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-19595100071188319322016-06-03T16:53:38.884-05:002016-06-03T16:53:38.884-05:00We cannot keep leading these horses to the water f...<i>We cannot keep leading these horses to the water forever with the assumption that they will drink deep from our American dream and somehow turn into us. </i><br /><br />Very well put. None of these states have any desire to adopt an American-style democracy and I think we all know that but the State Department and the Pentagon continue to be disingenuous about our policies. Is it still, really, all about the oil?.mockturtlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10507310332014103437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-35164922351995347082016-06-03T14:44:41.976-05:002016-06-03T14:44:41.976-05:00I survived the Carter years, after surviving the N...I survived the Carter years, after surviving the Nixon years, and let me tell you, the Carter years were harder on the country than the Nixon years. Thank the stars Carter was a one term president. A second term for Carter, and Obama might not now be the worst president of my lifetime.mikeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17875483485290838207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-38550131063527146842016-06-03T13:35:04.024-05:002016-06-03T13:35:04.024-05:00It's possible that the Ayatollah was being tru...<i> It's possible that the Ayatollah was being truthful. </i><br /><br />Anything’s possible when speculating about states of mind but events ultimately dictate reality for all of us. The hapless Carter was played like the fool he was. To future historians, assuming Western culture survives, Carter will be known as the POTUS whose humiliation and blunders originally started the ball rolling for a nuked-up Iran which also became the world’s foremost sponsor of Islamic terrorism and led to the coming Middle East nuclear arms race. Obama will be known as the POTUS who facilitated the process. <br /><br />Carter has been only one of a host of political actors whose foreign policy concepts boil down to virtue-signaling on an international scale and have only an occasional and accidental relationship to what is really best for American interests overseas. <br /><br />So far their chief opposition has been the neocons and neocon forerunners who have had their own impractical ideological agenda of foisting Western-style democratic systems on reluctant Islamic populations. It’s a nice theory but their chief problem is that freedom, which is necessary to any democratic system, seems to either frighten, anger or confuse most Muslims – sometimes all three. We cannot keep leading these horses to the water forever with the assumption that they will drink deep from our American dream and somehow turn into us. <br /><br />I see Trump as relief from both these camps. We need someone who looks at the international situation with a totally different viewpoint from the two extremes.gracklehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18138997480493469444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-25855813131968018172016-06-03T12:44:41.861-05:002016-06-03T12:44:41.861-05:00The best thing to happen to Jimmy Carter's leg...The best thing to happen to Jimmy Carter's legacy was Barack Obama.Dan Hossleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06463184504943482525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-55138717401988169332016-06-03T12:24:26.253-05:002016-06-03T12:24:26.253-05:00There was an informed opinion back then that the A...There was an informed opinion back then that the Ayatollah was stern and incorruptible and that the Shah was decadent and cruel. There was a certain amount of truth to it. The Aytollah was not one for dining off gold plates. He was not corrupted by luxury but rather by power and his own religious fanaticism. The Shah made use of torture and the secret police to remain in power, but I thnk it's an open question as to whether or not his use of such tactics exceeded that of the Ayatollah......In any event, the overthrow of the Shah offered what Saddam thought was a fine opportunity to invade Iran. Without a doubt there were hundreds of thousands more corpses during the Ayatollah's rule than that of the Shah. There are advantages to being an ally of the Great Satan. You don't get invaded by Saddam........If you're looking for the fulcrum point in Middle Eastern history, the moment when everything turned to shit, it was probably this moment rather than when Bush invaded Iraq........Liberals are deeply suspicious of our allies. They prefer to make peace with our enemies.Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07837540030934495651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-84015906314044764852016-06-03T11:56:57.804-05:002016-06-03T11:56:57.804-05:00But they are totally telling the truth this time g...But they are totally telling the truth this time guys.Bircheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00045640752795693223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-75382428275168923652016-06-03T11:43:26.203-05:002016-06-03T11:43:26.203-05:00SteveR
And Obama handed Iran nukes along with $15...SteveR<br /><br />And Obama handed Iran nukes along with $150b. That will drive Saudi Arabia to get some nukes too. MAD in the eternal Sunni - Shia war is a bad idea.David Begleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553331226126840029noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-77154998034268029742016-06-03T11:24:16.590-05:002016-06-03T11:24:16.590-05:00For most Americans, at that time, Iran was importa...For most Americans, at that time, Iran was important in the Cold War geopolitics, we had no real understanding of the Shah's rule or the whole fanatical Islamic tendency. But we should have hoped our government would have played the hand better, certainly by now, nearly 40 years later. We relied on MAD to reign the Soviets in, for Muslims (and it only takes a very small number) that's a feature, not a bug. <br /><br />The worst case scenario is not the least possible one, that's for sure. SteveRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12864387606863466980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-33392260106381299862016-06-03T11:15:46.838-05:002016-06-03T11:15:46.838-05:00I worked with an Iranian who, a devout but not rad...I worked with an Iranian who, a devout but not radical Moslem, was educated in the USA by the Shah and whose family disappeared during the Khomeini revolution. I attended a memorial service at a local Mosque for the family. Needless to say, he was not a fan of the Ayatollah.hamiyamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09750770317623301556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-49866833932457987632016-06-03T10:39:01.712-05:002016-06-03T10:39:01.712-05:00Top guy in Iran today said America is still Iran&#...Top guy in Iran today said America is still Iran's enemy despite the nuke deal. We wuz tricked!David Begleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553331226126840029noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-81244536259518226652016-06-03T10:21:52.742-05:002016-06-03T10:21:52.742-05:00I had a college roommate from Iran who was afraid ...I had a college roommate from Iran who was afraid to say anything about Iran because the Shah would kill his family.Fernandinandehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11253225431705407699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-14854915568119949782016-06-03T10:12:59.543-05:002016-06-03T10:12:59.543-05:00I guess we should ask Farrakhan.
Farrakhan is not...<i>I guess we should ask Farrakhan.</i><br /><br />Farrakhan is not a Muslim-Muslim, as Malcolm X found out, and was killed for.<br /><br />The Nation of Islam is a cult...weirder than Scientology even. It involves a mad scientist and an oven.Gahriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16795449308207016641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-73018462689771988742016-06-03T10:08:18.435-05:002016-06-03T10:08:18.435-05:00Michael: "So was Carter more naive and credul...Michael: "So was Carter more naive and credulous than Barack Obama, or vice versa? Tough call."<br /><br />IMHO not even close. Carter was a chump and I think his humility was mixed up with a moral vanity (a common problem and why Pride is the first of sins); but I don't think he hated America.Owenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08376749487613936205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-85958357794928457522016-06-03T09:42:33.479-05:002016-06-03T09:42:33.479-05:00So was Jimmy Carter more naive and credulous than ...So was Jimmy Carter more naive and credulous than Barack Obama, or vice versa? Tough call.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05957553963422292205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-37423777706921111142016-06-03T09:31:04.511-05:002016-06-03T09:31:04.511-05:00The phrase "hook, line, and sinker" come...The phrase "hook, line, and sinker" comes to mind.Original Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01714345479248980398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-11702581772549530632016-06-03T09:13:10.918-05:002016-06-03T09:13:10.918-05:00Surprise, surprise. He lied. Muslims do not believ...Surprise, surprise. He lied. Muslims do not believe in God who reveals Himself as the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They do very much believe in exterminating that God and all of His followers from the face of the earth, ASAP. Hence, he declared War on us and his followers formed ISIL to do the will of allah.traditionalguyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05706120413005530014noreply@blogger.com