President Carter speaks out against Bush

[BrandonTO416]

As stated before, the hostages were released maybe a day into the Reagan presidency?? I forgot the exact date, but Carter can be given the nod on that considering it was done before Reagan had any real say.

[Charlotteman]

Carter might have actually kept World War III from happening.

The media did not report on this, even after the fact...but if you dig you'll find out that when the hostages were captured, and tensions reached a fever pitch, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev moved several Red Army divisions to the Iran/USSR border.

If you remember, Brezhnev had already invaded two countries on his watch---Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979. Carter knew that the bizarre Brezhnev was perfectly ready to invade Iran, if the States did. By holding tight, and not launching an attack on Iran in 1979, Pres. Carter might have well spared humanity another world war.

Reckless Bush would probably have invaded Iran and started a huge war with the Soviet Union, had he been in similar circumstances that Carter was.

[suburban george3]

As stated before, the hostages were released maybe a day into the Reagan presidency?? I forgot the exact date, but Carter can be given the nod on that considering it was done before Reagan had any real say.

[Panamaniac]

As stated before, the hostages were released maybe a day into the Reagan presidency?? I forgot the exact date, but Carter can be given the nod on that considering it was done before Reagan had any real say.

[JDC]

I have actually heard for some time that higher ups in the Republican Party worked to prevent the release of the hostages until after Carter was out of office. Mainly to deny him (Carter) of any credit of getting the hostages released.

[Charlotteman]

What I always heard was that the Ayatollah and his ilk HATED Jimmy Carter with a passion---mainly because they saw Carter as too quick to support the Shah when things went sour for the Iranian dictator.

The Iranians didn't want to give Carter one benefit at all. That's why they waited until Regan took office to release the hostages.

[monsoon]

The Shah was a horrible leader who was corrupt, ran a police state, and as a result many many Iranians hated the man. There was nothing much good about him except that he allied himself with the west. He was one of the only leaders at the time to do so in the middle east which is why the Shah enjoyed support from both Republican and Democratic presidents through out the Cold War until he was disposed. He was a tool in the proxy war between the USA and the Soviet Union.

When you have a situation such as the one that existed in Iran it will lead to an uprising which is what happened during Jimmy Carter's presidency. The students that took the hostages which later led to the Shah being expelled from the country did not know they were replacing one despot with another when the Ayotollah came to take his place. The police state was replaced by rule of Islamic fundamentalism. The clerics gained control by appealing to the worst in people. that is fear, hatred, and greed. (sound familiar?)

Fortunately when this happened Jimmy Carter kept a cool head and did not start a war with Iran. A war which would have been far more bloody than the one with Iraq and tens of thousands are living today that otherwise would be dead. (on both sides) Carter took a lot of abuse from the press and history for not going to war with Iran, but anybody who looks at it objectively would see that he did the right thing. The hostages were returned and nobody died for it. Note that under GW Bush, we went to war with Iraq with far less reason than Carter had with Iran. The results speak for themselves. 100,000 dead, a country destroyed, our reputation in the world wreaked, and debt that we will spend the rest of our lives working to pay off. And all for nothing.

Yes, history will judge Carter and Bush quite differently.

[BrandonTO416]

I'd like to offer a textbook explanation for the inflation of the 1970's. Most people argue about things without the facts. Here's the facts.

1) In the 1970's, under Nixon, we abandoned the gold standard entirely. We went from the fractional gold standard under the Bretton Woods agreement to unbacked dollar bills. The increase in unbacked dollar bills created inflation, and the Federal Reserve is responsible for printing too much money.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation#Supply-side_economics

2) Oil shocks in the 1970's increased vastly the cost of energy, thus contributing to an already bad situation. These oil shocks were created by political instability in the Middle East and would have happened regardless of a Republican, Democrat, or third party candidate being President.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_energy_crisis

3) There were oil shocks earlier in the 1970's, under a Republican administration. This exemplifies the fact that oil shocks are not a part of a political party or political leader, but rather instability in oil rich nations.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

4) President Carter responded to the inflation by installing a new chairman of the Federal Reserve to reduce inflation and stop printing/electronically creating huge sums of unbacked dollar bills.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_reserve#History

(read the 4th paragraph in the History section)

5) President Carter responded to the energy crisis by diligently working, without creating a war, to ease tensions in Iran and the Middle East. Without creating a war, these hostages were released on January 20, 1981. President Reagan hardly had anything to do with the positive resolution of this conflict, and neither party leadership could have prevented the Iranian political instability.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Hostage_Crisis

6) President Carter responded to the energy crisis by instituting by passing a series of acts called the Energy Security Act.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Security_Act

Through this Act, Carter's goal was to increase energy efficiency and bring mileage up on consumer vehicles, to introduce alternative energies so that we rely less on foreign oil from unstable political regions, and diplomatically to show the United States is serious about energy stability and control and to make OPEC feel the heat to keep prices low.

Ultimately, the reforms Carter instituted worked. OPEC was convinced to lower prices, and all Reagan had to do was "ask" them. The alternative energy programs were all but killed in the mid 1980's by the Reagan administration as a result of the lower prices. And within the next 5-10 years, American vehicles eventually did get over 10 mpg more on average thus reducing the need for as much oil as previously necessary per consumer.

Over the course of the past twenty years, we have forgotten how bad it can be due to the super low OPEC oil prices.

Carter was hardly a bad President. He was ousted from office from a tired public who looked to an actor who played upon everyone's emotion. Can't fill your tank up? Its the fault of Big Government and Carter. Can't depend on a gallon of milk being $1 one week or $2 the next? Its the fault of Big Government and Carter.

History is already judging Carter, and history is on his side. We're only finding this out in my generation as I was born several years after Carter's administration was over and the Reagan inflationary boom had begun...