Just like with North Korea, and now Iraq, he took the position that if we only appease our enemies, they will no longer see us as enemies (and to paraphrase the words of Rodney King: "We can all just get along")

As the Result of Carter's appeasement we had a hostage crisis for 444 days in which the United States was totally humiliated and shown to be weak in the face of terrorist actions. The episode kicked off the current Terrorist Era as a wave of new kidnapings in Lebenon and elsewhere soon followed. We've been trying to grapple with the terrorism monster ever since.

Now all we can do is hope that the current Bush administration can be successful where Carter, Reagan, Bush1, and Clinton Failed: End the Terrorist Era.

Scott