by Douglas DeBono, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT StandingOrders.BlogSpot.Com, February 07, 2006

I just don't understand Jimmy Carter. Here is a man who went to the Naval Academy, served as a Naval Officer, became Georgia's Governor and the thirty-ninth President. Except for one gleaming moment when he brokered peace between Egypt and Israel, Jimmy Carter was a failure as President and disappointment as a former president.

In 1979, he had the opportunity and the firepower to end the Iran hostage crisis. Instead of employing four carrier battle groups and two Marine divisions, he opted for an untried, covert action that fell apart in lonely place called Desert One. It is not that Operation Eagle Claw was poorly conceived, but it had too many untried factors that crashed and burned.

Besides the crippling Iran crisis, Carter's presidency featured runaway inflation, exploding oil prices and a general malaise (his words, not mine). Carter kissed Breshnez on the cheek, then expressed surprise when the Red Army iunvaded Afghanistan a few weeks later.

As a former President, he continues his hit parade. Last year he certified the election of Hugo Chavez (the Castro wannabe who has petro-dollars). He criticized Reagan for his actions in El Salvador and Nicaragua. He drove Clinton nuts when he unilaterally committed the United States to a course of action in Haiti. He has picked at Bush for his Middle East policy. Finally, he took the opportunity to kick Bush over the NSA spying issue.

I am no fan of domestic spying, but the myopic former president fails to understand that the Islamists wish to kill all of us. This failure to recognize the bad guys is the same problem he had as president. If we do not use the tools available to aggressively pursue, target and destroy the enemy, then we might as well lower our guns and wave a white surrender flag.

Ah, but that is what the French would do, and the last time I checked there were still Americans willing to fight and die for the stars and stripes.