Déjà Vu All Over Again

I'm old enough to remember the Iranians storming our embassy in November 1979. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days during the Jimmy Carter administration. They weren't released until after Ronald Reagan was elected. In between, there was a disastrous rescue attempt in which eight American servicemen were killed.

I recall the sick feeling in my stomach when I heard of the hostage's capture, and the even sicker feeling five months later when news of the failed rescue mission and the deaths was released. And I remember the lump in my throat and the swelling of my chest as I watched the hostages finally -- FINALLY -- descend from an Air Force plane onto the tarmac at Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany.

I couldn't understand how a U.S. president could be so hesitant, so timid, so inept, while our fellow citizens were in harm's way. That cemented in my mind Jimmy Carter's place as the worst U.S. president ever.

Until now.

In what can only be described as channeling his inner Jimmy Carter, obama has shown himself equally inept at detecting, preventing, and resolving an eerily similar crisis.

Carter tried accommodating America’s enemies. He cut back on defense. He made humility the hallmark of American diplomacy. Sound familiar? It might be too much to argue that the current President’s doctrine plagiarized the peanut farmer. But it is not too much of a stretch.

Carter and Obama not only had similar styles of engaging with the rest of the world, but both of their presidencies fell into the same pitfalls. Enemies perceived their penchant for half-measures and exploited them.

What I find particularly telling about the above paragraphs is that they were written on May 10, 2011 - over one year before the current crisis.

Of course, I'm not the only one who feels that comparing Carter to obama is like comparing apples to, well, apples. From Mostly Cajun:

For decades I railed about Jimmy Carter reducing the stature of this country to the point that a nation could allow its rabble to storm an embassy.

Yesterday, obama beat the second-worst president of all time in that category, too. Two embassies stormed. Staff and an AMBASSADOR killed.

To add insult to injury, obama is funneling $1.5 billion in U.S. aid to the Muslim Brotherhood.

(H/T Mostly Cajun)

And this from Moonbattery:

If Carter helping to create a terrorist Iran led to 9/11, imagine what Obama putting the Muslim Brotherhood in charge of Egypt and Libya will do.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
 -- George Santayana

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
 -- Benjamin Franklin

Obama is even saying the same things Carter said 32 years ago.

“Gov. Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later,” President Obama said in a CBS interview last night, criticizing Romney’s reaction to the embassy attack in Cairo.

Obama’s remarks, however, echo frequent criticisms made by President Jimmy Carter of Ronald Reagan, then his opponent for the presidency.

“It’s a make believe world. A world of good guys and bad guys, where some politicians shoot first and ask questions later,” Carter said.

Right now I'd settle for a politician that would shoot - period. It brings to mind a quote from George Patton:

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week."

 

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me...