Congressman Lt. Col. Allen West Brings Similarity Between the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979 and the Egypt Crisis

It is 1979 all over again. The parallel is uncanny. Congressman Lt. Col. Allen West(R-Fl) said at a rowdy town hall meeting,

“President Carter, President Obama, Iran, Egypt, the Shah, Mubarak, the Ayatollah, the Muslim Brotherhood. It is a scary parallel. We cannot allow the Muslim Brotherhood to fill the void of leadership that can occur in Egypt.”

The new Republican congressman was straight forward commenting on the political crisis in Egypt. Congressman West was drawing parallels between the chaos in Egypt and the 1979 revolution in Iran. Congressman Lt. Col. West said the U.S. must stop the Muslim Brotherhood from seizing power.

Not many people are aware what happened during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. This is a very short summary. During that time, Democrat President Jimmy Carter abandoned the Shah of Iran, who was a friend to the United States. Once after the Shah of Iran was dethroned, the United States supported the new leader of Iran, who was a radical religious leader named Ayatolla Khomeini. As it turns out, students of this radical leader stormed the US Embassy in Iran and kept 52 American hostages for 444 days. It was believed that Iran wanted demands from the United States. This parallels closely to what we are seeing in Egypt today. The Muslims are trying to dethrone President Mubarak with the help of Obama. The radical Muslim Brotherhood is waiting to put their own radical leaders in power and make Egypt into a radical Islamic state. The prize is putting a radical state closer to Palestine to end the existence of Israel.

Like the old adage, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Jimmy Carter Says Biggest Failure was Allowing the American Hostages in Iran Remain Captive for 444 Days

Finally, Jimmy Carter realize that doing nothing to release the American hostages in Iran and allowing them to be kept captive for 444 days would piss the American people at the voting booth. Besides, he was also responsible for high taxes, stagflation, and severe gas shortage.

(Politico)- Former President Jimmy Carter says his biggest failure during his term in the White House was that he didn’t get to spend another four years there.

“I guess my biggest failure was not getting reelected,” he said in an interview with Big Think, referring to the 1980 presidential election.

Carter, 86, said the loss taught him “not to ever let American hostages be held for 444 days in a foreign country without extracting them.” He added, “I did the best I could, but I failed.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) challenged Carter in the Democratic primaries “and then that cost me a lot of votes,” the former president said.

“I should have paid more attention to the organization of the Democratic Party,” Carter said. “I was not only the leader of our nation, but I was also the leader of the Democratic Party. And I think I failed in that respect to keep the party united.”