A Century of Compassion and Contention: Jimmy Carter’s Enduring Impact

Roberto Arditti

02 October 2024

Let’s hope we can fulfill the wish of Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States who turned 100 just yesterday: to live a little longer to be able to vote for Kamala Harris. However, since the four years of his presidency (1977-1981) are closely linked to Iran and the seizure of power by the ayatollahs led by Khomeini, we can use the former President’s hope to think about American choices in the difficult theater of the Middle East. In particular we can highlight three dramatic and unsuccessful moments, all of which did not coincidentally occur during democratic administrations. We have just mentioned the first, that is, the assault by thousands of armed demonstrators on the American embassy in 1979, resulting in the imprisonment of dozens of hostages for over a year. The Carter administration delays for a long time and then orders a disastrous military mission in which the clash between American helicopters wrecks the attempt to free the hostages. At that point a negotiation was opened which however only ended on January 20, 1981, coincidentally the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in the White House. The second disaster is that of the Obama administration’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the season, as inconclusive as it is dramatic, of the so-called “Arab Spring”. A season that brought only death, economic failures and the triumph of the most radical Islam to the area. The third disaster is that of the ignoble escape of American and Western soldiers from Kabul in 2021, in the midst of the Biden administration. A hasty and cowardly choice of withdrawal, which handed over to the blades of the Taliban thousands of Afghan women and men who had bet on the West as an ally of civilisation, freedom and progress. We now come to the present day, or rather to these precise hours.

Israel is attacked with thousands of missiles coming from Iran, which only the existing powerful defense system can contain (costing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to operate). This is also achieved thanks to the shameful indulgence that political-terrorist movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah have been able to enjoy under the protective wing of Iran, towards which for years there has been substantial compliance, which in truth should be called surrender. After October 7, 2023, a contemporary Islamic pogrom, the West preferred to demonstrate against Israel and its reactions rather than act against the organizers and participants of that terrible massacre. American universities, so dear to the democratic elite, were flooded with Palestinian flags and violent demonstrations against Jerusalem: a brilliant performance by the future American ruling class. Only in recent weeks and thanks to Israeli initiatives have we begun to understand that history cannot be addressed by chatter, but that it requires to be addressed with adequate tools. We therefore hope that Carter will be able to vote even at his venerable age, but we hope with all our heart that the politics of which he was an expression will be defeated in the November vote.