And there's the little matter of Iran funding Hamas which does shoot rockets on to Israel.

OK kitties, let's get those bathing caps on.

If Carter hadn't been in office in 1979, pundits might have said that Iran would never be so suicidal as to hold an American embassy hostage.

They might have been right.

Carter says it's inconceivable?

Well, never go in against Jimmy Carter when DEATH is on the line!

I'm reminded of the response from the White House that Carter's approach is becoming 'increasingly irrelevant.' I think it was in regards to his book, Peace not Apartheid.

If one sychronized swimmer drowns to death, do they all drown?

Jimmy Carter believes like we all believed, before 9/11. Some of us now believe, (know), that they (radiacal Muslums) think, thier death, helps them in heaven (72 virgins and all). So they don't care "that Iran would commit suicide ", since this would serve Allah. Unless Jimmy is willing to die for his religion, shut up...

Carter and the rest of the left are lost. I am surprised Carter hasn't offered to be a co-speaker with Ahmadinejad at Columbia. I bet they would receive a hero's welcome.

...let's go on to more productive tasks, like teaching kitties synchronized swimming.

No, no---rabbits. Because you never know when you'll need a crack suicide squad of swimming killer rabbits.

er um... iraq launched missiles into israel.

it wasn't suicidal fro saddam, why would it be for iran?

Stephen:
I believe your mistake here is thinking Jimmy Carter believes it would actually be a bad thing for Iran to launch 600 missiles at Israel.

inconceiveable

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Especially in conjunction with IRAN, Jimmy.

Idiot.

I can't believe Jimmy Carter- JIMMY CARTER?? is lecturing us on foreign policy.

That's like Ted Kennedy warning about the dangers of alcohol.

Jimmy Carter is the father of Islamic Terrorism; then he wins the Noble Prize for creating a smoke screen for the North Korean bomb makers. Is there any despot that he doesn't like, or any nut case that he hasn't championed.

As a point of interest, there is one cat that likes to swim - the Turkish Van, which is known as the swimming cat, and is known to swim in the waters in Turkey.

So, you might be able to teach Turkish Van kittens to synchronize swim, and it would be a productive task - and one I would feel would be a much better use of resources and energy than Jimmy Carter's foreign policy.

Jimmy sure knows how to pound nails into a 2x4, I'll say that.

Jimmy Carter is the worst president of my lifetime (going back to Eisenhower), and the worst ex-president of all time. Every time he opens his mouth, he says something harmful to the security of Americans at home and abroad. I'm really looking forward to my federal Carter Day of "Mourning" when he finally kicks the bucket, although there will be no mourning at my house!

Although they say that "only the good die young"; I'm sure that Carter's obituary will begin "Jimmy Carter, aged 102..."

Carter should focus on Halibut for Kitties. They deserve it.

We could slap him with one while we are at it.

rbj:

And there's the little matter of Iran funding Hamas which does shoot rockets on to Israel.

And don't forget about Hezbollah, which is a proxy for Iran and is right next door in Lebanon.

Iran's ally Syria is also right right next door.

Jimmeh:

Iran is quite distant from Israel

If we pull out of Iraq, it might become a little less distant.

I fear that a US retreat would result in multiple uprisings, ultimately pitting Sunni against Shiites. I would expect Iran to occupy the Shiite portions under the pretext of definding Shiites if appeaseniks control the White House and Congress; otherwise I'd look for Iran to aid the Shiite militias and hope that at least part of Iraq becomes a Shiite theocracy and thus an ally of Iran. Do either of these prognostications sound loopy?

All that time the Dems spent worrying about Reagan's mental acuity, and here Jimmah's been batshite crazy as a matter of course and policy ever since standing too close to nuclear reactors.

Dear Lord, his Wikipedia entry is the funniest!! I wonder who wrote it?

Jimmy Carter is providing policy advice via-a-via Iran? The man is truly imune to irony.

One thing worth considering is that Ahmadinejad doesn't exactly have his finger on the button. That said, I'm not putting any money on the rationality of the Supreme Council.

Carter's still alive? I thought the government shot traitors during wartime.

The man was an embarrassment as president, and he's determined to be an even bigger embarrassment as ex-president. You've gotta give him credit for ambition, but it's really too bad they don't make Depends for diarrhea of the mouth.

A note about the AP - they note Carter was present at the Camp David accords, but NOT that he was the President when Iran invaded sovereign US territory and held US diplomats and servicemen hostage for over a year - an act one might think would be suicidal, but led to little consequence for the Iranians - one of the ringleaders is now the President of Iran.

Speaking of which, he must be having a great time, and must be continuously astonished at the West - he had to be seriously laughing on the inside when he said he didn't understand American objections to his visiting Ground Zero.

"I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel."

I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.

Carter and the miserable decade he helped make are useful in response and as a reminder to all those boneheads -- who either weren't alive or who choose to forget -- just what a 'worst. president. ever.' and a truly shitty economy actually look like.

Not to carry water for Jimmy the C, but:

"But let's do remind him that it was just six years ago when al Qaeda launched four missiles, of the passenger jet variety, straight into the financial and military hearts of the United States."

Iran is run by Shiites, Al Queda is Sunni--they think Shiites are heretics.

Blaming Iran for 9/11 is a bit like blaming a bunch of Baptists for the actions of Opus Dei.

Reading blame where there is none is a bit... silly, really.

The link I made between bin Laden and Ahmadinejad was to wonder if the latter is really any more sane than the former.

However, you do inadvertently raise a good point. To which I'll remind you, AQI was working quite closely with secular Ba'athists, up until the recent "surge." And Tehran has been arming and training AQI insurgents, Sunni to the bone. Something to think about.

Oh, and a helpful hint for you. When you start a comment with, "Not to carry water for Jimmy the C, but..." many people will stop reading at the word "but."

Dorsai, noone is blaming the Iranians for 9/11, that is your misreading willful or otherwise.

But brush up on current history and you'll find that Al Qaeda's observance of the schism is spotty and opportunistic. For example, AQ and Hamas work together, and UBL's #1 son and other AQ leaders are harbored under a rather loose "house arrest" that also conveniently makes them unavailable for extradition. Iran is arming the Taliban in Afghanistan and has armed Sunni tribesmen as well as AQ in Iraq, and are Allies with the Allawite/Ba'athist Syrians as well as Catholic/Marxist Chavez, so they don't hew to any particular orthodoxy themselves, other than opposition to the Great and Little Satan's and gothic violence.

The point is not that Iranians were responsible for 9/11, but rather that a "failure of imagination" (remember that phrase) led to 9/11. Carter seems to suffer from that same failure, though it is much worse, as it is not necessary to imagine that Iran is 1)capable and 2)willing to shoot missiles at Israel as they have said both explicitly, as well as laying the groundwork for moral justification for doing just that.

Open your eyes people! You don't have to launch the missiles, you just have to have them ready to threaten everyone around you with. In the meantime, with the hesitation and fear you create, you use your proxies to fight with Israel, or in Iraq, or Afghanistan, perhaps even Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan in time (like Osama bin Laden is openly advocating). THAT is the risk you run with Iranian missiles, even more with Nuclear missiles... you will have an almost untouchable Iran with greater regional influence and aspirations! And people wonder WHY America pussy-foots with a nuclear capable Pakistan, it's DELICATE and DIFFICULT that's why, there's a balance to be struck. You don't just blast through the hindu-cush, into Waziristan, and flaunt your hautiness at Musharraf. With Osama's latest words, perhaps American won't have to go against Musharraf's permissions, they'll have his blessings. But in the meanwhile, here Carter is, DISTRACTING everyone from the important issues at hand with this Iran would be "[committing] suicide" if they launched missiles silliness. It's not about a missile launch, it's about the deterrent the fear creates and what's done with the space it creates.

Don't put any faith in Jimmy Carter's foresight about our enemies....

As President, he called on Americans to free themselves from an "inordinate fear of Communism....

...He pronounced himself surprised at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/10/28/021028ta_talk_hertzberg

Actually, Jimmy is providing a valuable service by offering his opinion here. Since we know Jimmy Carter is always 100% wrong about everything, his statement that Iran would not launch missles at Israel is proof that they will launch missles at some point, and we'd better start preparing now.

Well, one upside to Carter is that since he's human, he'll die eventually. Just like Bill and Hill. And thank God for that.

I'm just hoping that Rosalynn does a tell-all about the GA State Troopers and US Secret Service Agents who serviced her.

What? You think Jimmah could handle all of that?