Jimmy Carter Helping Habitat For Humanity Build 50,000 Homes In Southeast Asia

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday he was pressed by his advisers to attack Iran during the hostage crisis there more than 30 years ago but resisted because he feared 20,000 Iranians could have died.

Islamist militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and seized its occupants. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Carter said one proposed option was a military strike on Iran, but he chose to stick with negotiations to prevent bloodshed and bring the hostages home safely.

"My main advisers insisted that I should attack Iran," he told reporters in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, where he was helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity. "I could have destroyed Iran with my weaponry. But I felt in the process it was likely the hostages' lives would be lost, and I didn't want to kill 20,000 Iranians. So I didn't attack."

The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981, just minutes after the swearing in of President Ronald Reagan, whose victory over Carter is largely attributed to the crisis.

The former president has commented in the past on how military action had been an option but that he feared a death toll in the tens of thousands, according to Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are among 3,000 volunteers from 25 countries working with Habitat for Humanity this week to help build and repair homes along the Mekong River in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos.

The homes in Cambodia are being built for families currently living in a garbage dump, the ones in Vietnam are for fishermen who now live on their boats, and the project in China involves construction of an apartment building in a part of Sichuan province devastated by a 2008 earthquake.

Habitat for Humanity's Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Reckford said the Georgia-based nonprofit group would construct houses for 50,000 families in the Mekong region over the next five years.

"In an area of the world where many people live in deplorable conditions, we have a chance to help families improve their housing," said Carter, wearing sneakers, jeans and a work shirt. He and his wife spent Monday helping build 82 homes in honor of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrates his 82nd birthday next month.

He was joined by several regional celebrities, including Chinese movie star Jet Li and Japanese football legend Hidetoshi Nakata.

Since its founding in 1976, Habitat says it has built and rehabilitated more than 300,000 homes worldwide, providing simple shelter for 1.5 million people.

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Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Comments

[javajava]

08:39 PM on 11/16/2009

Habitat is what the right and left should agree on is a good model for charity. There qualifiers are that you are not only deserving but that you build sweat equity into your home and we, as a community, will help. They build home all over the U.S. I've seen Habitat building sites in San Jose CA. built on lots in middle class neighborhoods and when I walk by those homes I always think of what it means to those families.

[Thundercloud65]

07:14 PM on 11/16/2009

Yo Jim-may! How about 50,000 homes built in Appalachia????

[TobyPLD]

04:39 PM on 11/16/2009

why isn't this Hamas lover doing more his treasured Arab nations?

[alexa07]

05:58 PM on 11/16/2009

It takes a lot of hatred to despise the only person who has brought any degree of peace to the region of conflict & has helped also many just about everywhere in the world, including in the USA too!

[Octoberluna]

07:25 PM on 11/16/2009

Hear hear and here's to Jimmy Carter the best man America ever threw under the bus! I wish you'd been able to let him do his job rather.

[Cryostatic]

02:45 PM on 11/16/2009

While it's great and well and good to build 50,000 homes in impoverished places in Asia, we're in a bit of a crisis ourselves at the moment, and I can't help but feel that we need to, for the moment, turn our attention inward.

[javajava]

08:42 PM on 11/16/2009

Asian people have families in crisis also and I believe Habitat does continuing work not only in the U.S but world wide. Habitat has been building homes here for decades.

[Lkwdguy1979]

02:09 PM on 11/16/2009

Im glad he is helping build houses in Asia for the poor. However, I wish he would continue to do it here in the United States instead; we still have so many poor, homeless, and hungry people on the streets. Many of them are veterans, which is the biggest shame. We need to take care of our own first, and then teach others we help to go out and help everyone else.

[Octoberluna]

07:04 PM on 11/16/2009

I believe Mr. Carter has done a great deal for those in need in the US however I also believe that he is hampered at every turn to do this good in the US (at least while Bush was in office)

I have no doubt that were it possible he'd be building whole neighbourhoods in NOLA all day everyday but somehow the federal or state levels of gov't as dictated prior to the current admin, took all the allocated recovery cash and apparently just stuffed it up their arses. I can't beleive how devastated things are down there - Even developing countries repair faster than NOLA, I have to agree with those who say there is a conspiracy against the poor a people of the south. You know the people were only given 5 years in some relief housing such as Canadaville (sic) and that 5 years is almost up and still the 9th ward looks like it was just underwater a month ago. Why do Americans hate each so much? It looks that way to the rest of the world, ya know.