On the recordJanuary 13, 2010
I would take you back to 1978 when a very nice man at that time was the President, named Jimmy Carter. I believe it was in 1978 that President Jimmy Carter hailed the Shah of Iran as leading a country that was the most stable entity in the whole Middle East. Then a year later, it had been home to a revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini came back, and for the first time in our lifetime--some say the first time ever--but certainly, for the first time in my lifetime, there were Islamic extremists, jihadist individuals, who were in charge of a nation and that nation's military. So going back to what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said in his pleading: Their hearts are divided. That is because they are people who understand not. Well, we had a President--again, a nice man, Jimmy Carter--but he understood not. He was wrong about the shah's having such a stable country. It was not stable. That was misread. Then he misread that these were guys who, if you just were nice to them, they'd be nice back. Apparently, they even sent a Cabinet member to talk to the representative of Ayatollah Khomeini to tell him, Look, we're ready to be friends, to help, to have a wonderful relationship with you. Just let us know when and how fast you want to proceed. He understood not that these people considered themselves as extremist jihadists--enemies of the United States. They considered it the Great Satan, and they needed to destroy it at all costs.
