The Carter Doctrine Comes Calling

Bob Newman

I began studying Iran in 1979 as a 21-year-old Marine sergeant and Recon (Recon is the Corps’ version of Navy SEALs and Army Rangers and Green Berets) team leader with "A" Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion. My studies began because terrorists in Iran had just overthrown Shah Reza Mohammed Pahlavi, sacked the United States Embassy in Tehran and taken dozens of Americans hostage. A few months later, my unit, the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, was in Thailand when our mission was changed and we headed up through the tanker- and cargo-ship-packed Straits of Malacca (I recall thinking how so many ships in such tight confines created what Marines call a target-rich environment), across the placid Indian Ocean and into the North Arabian Sea, from where we could see the reddish brown dust of Iran rising into the hot air on the other side of the maritime choke point known as the Straits of Hormuz.

Welcome to Gonzo Station.

You know the rest of the story, with the hostage-rescue mission, led by Army Colonel "Chargin’" Charlie Beckwith, ending in grim disaster at Desert One and the hostages being released as Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his first term.

As the MAU sailed south after the mission to Mombasa, Kenya, I couldn’t help but wonder what America’s next move would be. Surely President Carter, a former naval officer, would not allow terrorists to remain in charge of so strategic a nation as Iran.

If only that had been the case. Because my platoon was a special operations unit, word soon reached us that Mr. Carter was disinclined to deal with the terrorists in any fashion. The terrorists would not only be allowed to keep the hostages throughout Carter’s tenure if they wished, but would be allowed to remain in power so long as Carter was president.

That’s insanity, I thought. Leaving Muslim terrorists in charge of a heavily armed, geo-politically critical nation such as Iran is untenable. If we don’t solve the problem now, we will have a much bigger problem to solve later.

Carter knew this, of course, but was too feeble, too weak, too submissive and too pacifistic a president to handle the problem.

Now, 26 years later, my assessment has been proven graphically accurate.

This morning, I awoke to the news that Iran had acquired from North Korea SSN 6 ballistic missiles, also known as the BM-25, which North Korea had purchased from Russia, which of course is run by President Bush’s pal, Vladimir Putin, an adept (read: unscrupulous) career KGB officer. These missiles have an even greater range than Iran’s Shehab-3 and 4 ballistic missiles and are able to easily target Europe.

My daily flashback took me this morning to the flight deck of the USS Okinawa in the spring of 1980, where a young Marine sergeant stood facing aft, watching the red dust on the horizon fade away. Somewhere in that dust were the bodies of three Marines and five Air Force personnel who perished on 25 April 1980 near Tabas (the town closest to Desert One). They were:

Captain Richard L. Bakke, 34, Long Beach, CA. U.S. Air Force.
Sergeant John D. Harvey, 21, Roanoke, VA. U.S. Marine Corps.
Corporal George N. Holmes, Jr., 22, Pine Bluff, AR. U.S. Marine Corps.
Staff Sergeant Dewey L. Johnson, 32, Jacksonville, NC. U.S. Marine Corps.
Captain Harold L. Lewis, 35, Mansfield, CT. U.S. Air Force.
Technical Sergeant Joel C. Mayo, 34, Bonifay, FL. U.S. Air Force.
Captain Lynn D. McIntosh, 33, Valdosta, GA. U.S. Air Force.
Captain Charles T. McMillan II, 28, Corrytown, TN. U.S. Air Force.


Jimmy Carter should have these names tattooed on his forehead, behind which cringes the pathetic psyche of a contemptible coward. Had Carter properly dealt with the Iranian terrorists then, the United States would not be having to figure out how to deal with them now as a far more powerful and dangerous enemy that can strike targets thousands of miles away with ballistic missiles and targets tens of thousands of miles away with suicide bombers.

To be clear, Jimmy Carter is directly responsible for the Persian problem we currently face. Sadly, he will never be held accountable for his detestable lack of leadership and repugnant cowardice in the face of the enemy. His name should be stricken from the rolls of the United States Navy and the submarine that bears his name should be renamed the Reagan.


Bob Newman is a retired, decorated, ground-combat veteran of the Marine Corps who hosts the "Gunny Bob Show" on Newsradio 850 KOA in Denver. A frequent guest analyst and commentator on FOX News Channel, his next book, Minefields to Microphones: Global Asymmetric Warfare, the Radical Left and Winning the War on Terror, will be released in July. He can be reached at gunnybob@850koa.com.

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Bob Newman, a decorated, retired US Marine, is host of the “Gunny Bob Show” on Newsradio 850 KOA in Denver, and host of “Anger-Management Hour” on 630 KHOW, also in Denver. A ground-combat veteran, he is the director of international security & counterterrorism services for The GeoScope Group and is the military science & terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News. He can be reached at bobnewman@clearchannel.com.

bobnewman@clearchannel.com