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Obama authorized the U.S. military raid in Pakistan that ended with bin Laden’s death after a decade in hiding one year ago this week.
Romney pushed back Monday, saying “of course” he would have made the same decision.
“Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” Romney said, referencing the former president in his answer to a reporter’s question after a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.
Shame on Romney. He’s a jackass, who lacks any clue to what he’s talking about. In 1980, Carter ordered a raid that was much more dicey than that on Bin Laden. He ordered a huge raid to extract 52 American hostages from a high-security Iranian prison. Per the Wikipedia:
Operation Eagle Claw (or Operation Evening Light or Operation Rice Bowl)[2] was an American military operation ordered by President Jimmy Carter to attempt to put an end to the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 Americans held captive at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran on 24 April 1980. Its failure, and the humiliating public debacle that ensued, damaged American prestige worldwide and is believed by many, including Carter himself, to have played a major role in his defeat in the 1980 presidential election.[3]
Who the fuck does Romney think he is? Per Paul Abrams at HuffPo:
Mitt Romney’s latest laughable attempt to “prove” he would have ordered the bin Laden raid is now based on comparing himself, supposedly as tougher, to former naval officer and President Jimmy Carter.
President Carter served as a submarine officer in the United States Navy for seven years, eventually serving under Admiral Hyman Rickover who pioneered our nuclear submarine program.
By complete and utter contrast, when duty called Mitt Romney, when his fellow citizens were being drafted and dying in the fields of Southeast Asia, when similarly well-off contemporaries like John Kerry were volunteering, Mitt first did a Mormon mission in France and, when he returned, did not volunteer.
Romney seems to have convinced himself that he has demonstrated that he is tougher or has more capacity to make military judgments than Jimmy Carter.
If it were not dangerously delusional, it would be laughable.
So, get that. Romney is “laughable” for comparing himself to a real man like Jimmy Carter. Obama could realize and capitalize on that, but his record of studliness isn’t so all that good either. He is still droning civilians and can’t bring himself to prosecute America’s rackmasters.
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One thing that is also neglected in the comparison between Eagle Claw and Bin Laden’s raid, was the fact that our SF forces were much depleted and considered a Career-ending assignment during the Carter Era, now, the funding and emphasis is on our JSOC ops…! I witnessed it first hand in my 20 yrs of service(’85-’05)…!
Another shining example of the reversal of values being drummed into the American populace by what passes to be our potential (and actual) leadership. It’s whether you win or lose, not how you play the game. And that has taken this country off its pedestal for the rest of the world more surely than any military gambit.
Romney is a scumbag, opportunistic politician, just like the guy he’s running against.
He’ll say anything and do anything that he thinks will help get him elected. Just like the guy he’s running against. Notice, I use the word “thinks”.
Now, go gaze into a glass of fracked water and contemplate that for a while.
I can’t complain too much about Iran coming back to bite Carter in the ass, considering that he inflamed the “hostage crisis” for political advantage to squelch Ted Kennedy’s primary challenge.
Oh, I can’t be bothered to campaign (and certainly can’t debate Senator Kennedy), I’m helping to save those poor hostages, I’m just so busy! Oh, we won’t light Christmas tree at the White House this year, not until our hostages (who, not to be cruel, knew this was one of the risks of foreign service) are back! Oh, hey, I just happened to get a moment free to go on “Meet the Press” on the morning of the Wisconsin/Kansas primaries to give an update on the hostages! Has nothing to do with Kennedy gaining momentum after winning in New York, nuh-uh!
Carter tied himself to the hostage tree to look “tough” (in ways his victory over the giant swimming rabbit and M.E.o.W. had failed to do), and then felt he had to actually deliver. And then there was the botched fiasco at Desert One, which pretty much sealed his fate, as the Iranians then decided to wait Carter out, to deny him any credit for the release. Good riddance, IMO.
(Yes, Reagan was demonstrably worse. But Traitor One put the initial shiv in the Democratic Party, paving the way for Traitors Two and Three. His non-political charity work seems okay. But I don’t miss him as Prez. JMO.)
Hey VS, thanks for reminding me on that perspective. At that time, I was also disgusted with his bullshit. But for Romney of all people to diss him is ridiculous.
We on the left have not been well served by Carter, Clinton, and Obama. It is most certainly time for a serious third-party effort.