Desert One 32 Years Ago

Thirty-two years ago, our effort to rescue American hostages held by the new mullah regime in Tehran failed at a desert landing site within Iran. We left 8 dead on the ground in Iran.

President Carter wanted to avoid war. He hoped a surgical rescue mission by a small, elite force into the heart of a hostile city of 5 million would work.

It might have worked despite the complexity and narrow margins of error.

But if it had worked, the Iranian casualty count would have been enormous because the only way to hold off massed assaults by untrained fanatics on the walls of the liberated embassy would have been to hose down anyone near the walls with gunfire from orbiting C-130 gunships until the whole group of rescuers and rescued hostages could make a run for it.

I can't help but thinking that President Carter would have tried the American military personnel involved for war crimes even if the troops came back with the hostages alive.

Thirty-two years later, the fanatics who waged war on us by assaulting our embassy and taking our people hostage are close to having nuclear weapons.

Have a nice day.