Argo; Jimmy Carter ruined it for me
So, yesterday I watched Argo on Amazon and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the entire movie. It represented Americans, generally, and the CIA, in particular, very well. I’ll admit that I never knew much about that operation, but then I was in the 82d at the time and I was more focused on preparation for what we thought was inevitable at the time. But, Ben Affleck did do a very good job on the movie…until the end.
While the end credits were running, Jimmy Carter chimed in, for some reason, and he said something to the effect of “in the end, our country maintained it’s dignity and without any violence”.
Yeah, our dignity was shot in those days. We had a useless president who couldn’t make up his mind how to react and we sat like an impotent giant doing nothing. Until he finally decided to launch a military mission, after four years of starving the military of training time and resources. Equipment broke down, the lack of training took it’s toll and cost eight Americans their lives in that dusty landing zone in Iran.
I had the misfortune of reading Carter’s memoir “Keeping Faith” for a paper I wrote in college on the Carter-Torrijos Treaty and it was nothing but a recitation of lies to rehabilitate Carter’s failed presidency. It seems he’s still engaged in that practice. His statement at the end of Argo sounds as if he feels triumphant about his role in the operation, but anyone who watches the movie can see for themselves that Carter called off the operation to help six Americans escape from Iran and the Affleck character (Tony Mendez) went ahead with his mission in spite of the Carter Administration’s doubts.
Including the Carter quote in the movie was a slap in the face to anyone involved in the mission. To borrow from the best line in the movie; Jimmy Carter, Argo F*** Yourself.
Category: Jimmy Carter
Jimmeh Kahtuh, now the SECOND biggest failure of a President in US History!
Nah, Buchanan still gets the nod for biggest failure, although Obama has pissed on the Constitution more than Wilson, FDR, and LBJ COMBINED.
Fuck, all we need now are fat interns giving Obama a blowjob in the Oval Office and he’ll be the biggest all-around fuckup.
Well, I’m not alone. I watched the movie and when I heard Carter’s voice, I flew into a mini rage, ranting about how that jelly-spined POS made himself out to be some sort of hero. I also noted during the movie itself that MUCH pertinent info was omitted. And this somewhat entertaining movie, with its documentary pretense, won awards? I knew nothing about the movie before I watched it. Those who knew nothing about Carter and Carter’s hostage crisis before Argo, now know nothing accurate or truthful about him and the crisis. Freakin’ Hollywood.
I remember those days. I think I still have a set of “orders” on how members of our maintenance company (in Germany) were to prep to go to Iran to rescue the president from his failed mission.
Didn’t Ross Perot make an attempt to get Americans out, also?
I rarely watch the end credits to a movie, and in this case, I’m glad I didn’t.
@3 “…that jelly-spined POS made himself out to be some kind of hero.”
Isn’t that what jelly-spined POS always do? We’ve had plenty of examples of that kind of behavior recently.
Ex-PH2: Perot didn’t just make an attempt. Perot actually DID get two Americans out of Tehran during the hostage crisis. Ken Follett wrote a book about it, “On Wings of Eagles”. He based it on firsthand interviews with many of the participants. With the exception of a few names changed for obvious reasons, it’s generally thought to be an accurate account of what happened.
The book is absolutely worth reading.
Perot hired Arthur D. “Bull” Simons to plan and lead the rescue operation for EDS. There are some who hold that had Simons been in charge of preparing for and executing Operation Eagle Claw, the Desert One fiasco would never have happened.
At least Carter’s failures helped make sure he wasn’t reelected. About the only positive thing I can think of about his time in office is it ended.
Hadn’t planned on seeing it and now I know for sure I won’t!
GruntSgt: it’s worth seeing; the actual story behind it is fascinating, and the movie reputedly does a fairly faithful job of telling that story. Just watch it on DVD or via streaming video and quit when the ending credits start.
Carter … bleh …
Hondo, You’ve gotta like a guy who is quoted saying that soldiers are entitled to smart leaders…”Soldiers are entitled to leaders who can usually smart their way out of it.”
Those of us who’ve endured the other kind of leader can appreciate that sentiment certainly.
Re: Argo, I liked the movie as well, Jimmy Carters self congratulating nonsense aside…knowing it would be Hollywood it was just a good movie to see the portrayal of someone in the CIA with intelligence and testicular fortitude for a change instead of the arrogant buffoonery that Hollywood normally foists on the CIA…
I’ll just remember to turn off the credits. The absolute horrendous we looked in the worlds eye… we were weak, indisicive and when we acted at all it was a disaster because of the gutting of our military by the peanut farmer.
He was the worst president in history in my opinion, current occupant not whith standing…
Well, it’s Affleck’s movie and being the big time drooling moonbat progressive that he is, it doesn’t shock me that he would include Jimmah Cahtah.
As for Ross Perot; he got results. It is rumored that he called the WH and asked them if he should get the other hostages out of there, since he was getting his people out. Now, I say it’s just a rumor, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true, because that’s the kind of guy Ross is.
Remember Jimmy Carter’s portrait by the homeroom doorway in my final year at Tehran American Community School 1978….as the class recited the “pledge allegiance” each morning we got to stare at killer swamp rabbit Jimma because the American flag was placed right above his photo. Another portrait sat below Carter’s and I think it was former Secy of State Cyrus Vance…wasn’t VP Mondale. Think one positive consequence of Jerry Ford losing reelection ’76 was it opened a pathway for Ronald Reagan in ’80…right place right time – fate.
@16: Yep.
Jimmuh is desperately trying to shape his legacy, knowing he’s only got a few short days to bullshit as many people as he can that he didn’t suck as bad as he did.
Memo to Jimmuh–yeah, you did suck that bad.
There was a Legion article that traced most of our current challenges in the ME to that event and the subsequent failure to act. Beirut, Mogadishu, etc. just exacerbated it.
H1–look at it this way, where it not for the rise of the Ayatollahs in Iran, all of the following could be plausible:
–No rise of Hamas/Hezbollah
–No 1982 Israeli/Lebanon war with Syrian proxy (improbably, but possibly)
–Suicide bombings/infatada/etc., not perpetrated/funded
–Hussein doesn’t feel threatened by Iran and doesn’t start the Iran/Iraq war
–As a result of the Iran/Iraq war, Hussein then doesn’t need to invade/rip off Kuwait to pay for eight years of war
Now would it have resulted in thwarting AlQaeda or similar group? Who’s to say, although a strong American presence certainly would/could have thwarted their rise.
One of the least talked about, but most disastrous, policies of Carter’s administration was its hand in the dismantling of the country of Rhodesia, which the following decades would prove as an unbelievably stupid thing to have done. Under the continuation of Ian Smith’s government, there would have been potential for a black/white power-sharing arrangement to eventually be worked out, and the extremely high standard of living and robust agricultural prosperity would have continued for the “breadbasket of Africa.” Even Smith’s first successor, Abel Muzowera, could have been a capable leader. Instead, due to Carter and Andrew Young’s boneheaded meddling, they wound up with Robert Mugabe and ZANU, and the rest is history. “Zimbabwe” has become a byword for the most horrendous social and economic collapse that Africa has ever seen. Thanks, Jimmy.
@#18, there aren’t enough years left in this century to rehab Jimmah and his legacy.
If this mess in the Middle East continues, it won’t take much to turn thirty years of warfare into 100 years of it.
@23–why should that surprise anyone? Shit, the camel fuckers have been fighting among themselves for nearly 3000 years. We just happened to be the latest and most convenient foil for their generally shitty outlook/attitude.
@22–not going to stop him and the rest of the libtards from doing their damndest from trying, because in their minds, the better they try to make Carter look, the more it tears down the legacy of Reagan, who, while imperfect, took a country at that low a point and returned it to the shining city on a hill in less than a decade.
I do admire Carter for taking the full blame for the failed mission. He did not point blame fingers publicly like they do so easily today. Beckwith on the other hand panicked.
@#8…. YES! When it was learned who ran the mission… my “buddy” said no wonder it failed.
I went on active duty the day Carter was sworn in. I postponed reenlisting until after the ’80 election to make damn sure he was gone. I used to swear no one could be worse…. until 2008. One of ’em kicked the nation in the crotch the first time, the other repeated the kick just to be sure. Both of them will be far more efffective and useful when they evetually become fertilizer.
UpNorth: IMO there aren’t enough years in this Millenium to rehab Jimmy the Clueless’s reputation.
But remember: even epic failures like Jimmy have utility. They serve as counterexamples and warnings.
@29 Also emphasizes the old “those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it”.
Carter was elected because he was not a career Washington insider, he had zero experience inside the beltway but he had at least been an executive in the government of his state. Obama was elected with zero experience inside the beltway, and was never an executive….and the two are similarly ineffective, with Obama being the smarter of the two with respect to buying votes and hanging on to his position….but the end result is still sh1tty for the nation. Maybe someday the electorate will gain a few brain cells, although I won’t be holding my breath.
I liked the movie as well, if you chop off the revisionist history at the beginning and the Carter commentary at the end. I was in my senior year in high school and really not focused on world events, except in a general way. I was pretty politically clueless back then.
Every time I see Carter somewhere, I think to myself “Isn’t he dead yet?”.
I’d like to add that, except for Carter, the end credits are really interesting. They’re interviews with all the real people involved in the story, a nice touch I thought.
@20 — good analysis. I’ll probably steal it for myself.
Can’t stand Ben Affleck… No I just might watch.
Didn’t care much for the movie at all, talk about revisionism.
The Canadian ambassador’s role was diminished greatly. There’s even a point towards the beginning where the movie insinuates that the British ambassador/embassy refused to assist the Americans fleeing the American embassy (hence the reason they ended up being in the Canadian ambassador’s residence).
What really turned me off was the pure hollywood ending, as if affleck had so little respect for audiences that he had to fabricate ridiculous cliff hanging sequences to hold their interest. NONE of that happened at all, biggest eye roller of my life.
I had to rewind the mother —ing movie at the end to make sure I heard the peanut farmer right. What a fuckingassclown! He did nothing for months, then ignored advice when Delta should go…then ordered them to go in the worst time of the year. But the chickinshit then made it sound like “He” save the world.
But wait….what kind of assclown do we have in office now?
Just finished watching the movie on DVD. The main takeaway for me from the movie was that yeah, like you said, Carter had actually screwed over the operation but luckily Mendez went rogue. (Assuming that’s what actually happened, and wasn’t another one of those dramatic licenses taken by Hollywood)
I guess it’s possible the six would have ultimately survived and got thrown in with the rest, but they would have had to endure what, about another year of captivity?
damn right that Carter BS at the end damn near ruined my enjoyment of the film. He said “we” successfully got the remaining hostages out without violence and he said some other BS. Well peanut there and no “we” in Reagan. The way peanut said this at the end came across like te remaining hostages were freed not long after the CIA got the 6 nto Canada. Aside from being reassured the CIA had balls back then, I learned the Canadian ambassador to Iran had more American spirit, and overall courage than Carter ever had. this incident was the beginning of our cuntry (intentional drop of the “o”) worrying more about world/public opinion than doing the right thing; win or lose. Not to be taken lightly but all FSO’s know they are risking their lives by taking their jobs, so we simply should have gone in with overwhelming force, and if they were executed because we came to rescue them, well thats part of the risk of taking the job. Best line of the movie was when that guy said the Russians wouldnt take this theyd invade them. That is the way America acted on behalf of her citizens before, but we continue to be punked since.