As John pointed out to me earlier, today is the 33rd birthday of Snoop Dogg, AKA Calvin Cordozar Broadus, AKA Tha Doggfather.

There’s a big flap on a bunch of conservative web pages over Pres. Jimmy Carter’s Hardball interview over him saying that the American Revolution was “unnecessary”. And yes, he did say that, but it was more of a slam on King George and Great Britain than the Revolutionaries. I vote he gets a pass on that one.

What was much more interesting to me, though, was his discussion of the Iranian hostage crisis.

When you look back on when 50 Americans were taking hostage by the Iranian so-called students, you must have thought about this so many years and so many times since then. Have you ever thought of a way you could have ended that? Could going to war have worked or that just would have been a holocaust? Do you ever think through alternative ways of approaching that horror which may have cost you the presidency?

CARTER: Well, from the first day the hostages were taken, I had two major and unshakable goals in mind that never changed. One was that we would protect the integrity and interest of my country, and that every hostage would come home safe and free.

And eventually, after 444 days, we achieved on both those goals. We never betrayed the interest of my country, and every hostage came home safe and free.

But obviously, I tried everything I possibly could, through international diplomacy and through direct appeals, even through people like Muhammad Ali, who had a relationship with Muslims, to try to convince the Iranians to return the hostages. And they wouldn‘t.

They made a serious mistake which brought catastrophe on their country, and Iran has never recovered its international prestige and its influence that they lost during that ill-advised experience.

No mention of the Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission, or the soldiers and airmen who lost their lives in Iran. No acknowledgement that he tried the military solution first, before settling down to negotiations.