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Been There, Flubbed That
- Abstract
To Hell in a Handbasket:
Carter, Obama, and
the ‘Arab Spring’
By Ruthie Blum
RVP Press, 201 pages
Pundits have rehearsed the similarities between Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama so often that it’s hard to imagine one saying something new and interesting on the matter. Yet, in To Hell in a Handbasket, Ruthie Blum has managed to do just that. This fine analysis of the disturbing parallels between Carter’s obsequious and naive approach to the 1979 Revolution in Iran and Obama’s response to the so-called Arab Spring at last puts flesh on the bones of Carter-2.0 criticism.
A longtime editor and columnist at the Jerusalem Post (and sister of Commentary editor John Podhoretz), Blum writes that our 39th and 44th presidents demonstrate “how a short-sighted leader of the Free World, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with—rather than defeat—the forces that would see him and it destroyed, enabled the rise and spread of a pernicious form of radicalism that threatens the globe to this day.” Drawing on her experience reporting on the Middle East, and on interviews with the likes of Henry Kissinger, Bernard Lewis, and Bruce Laingen (the most senior American official imprisoned in the Tehran embassy), Blum paints a chilling double portrait of flat-footed leaders facing Islamist tsunamis some three decades apart.
About the Author
Michael M. Rosen is an attorney and writer in San Diego.
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