The Daily News isn't interested in defending President Obama's role in the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden. The president reinvigorated the hunt for bin Laden after it had gone slack; he overruled advisers to launch the final raid; and he succeeded where his predecessor had failed. We don't have to defend him. He doesn't need our help.

What interests us more is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's take on history, especially as it relates to Northwest Florida.

The May 2011 killing of bin Laden has been in the news this week, with Republicans griping that Obama is using the one-year anniversary to score political points. Obama's team has hinted that Romney wouldn't have had the guts to go after bin Laden. On Monday, a reporter asked Romney about that.

"Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," Romney said with a sly smile.

His message was clear: The raid to kill bin Laden was such a high-reward, low-risk affair that even an indecisive fop like Carter would have OK'd it.

Well. In 1980, President Carter OK'd a secret mission to the Middle East not unlike the bin Laden raid. Its goal was to rescue 53 American hostages held in Iran. It was plenty risky; planners believed at least six helicopters would be needed to lift the hostages and their rescuers to safety. Eight copters were launched but two had to turn back. At the staging site, called Desert One, a third copter broke down.

On-scene commanders scrubbed the mission. In the rush to evacuate, two aircrafts collided and burned, killing three Marines and five Hurlburt Field airmen.

The Emerald Coast has never forgotten the sacrifices of those who died at Desert One.

Jimmy Carter is not our favorite former president, but implying that he was a doofus who took the easy way out shows that Romney either doesn't know what happened on April 25, 1980, or doesn't care.

REPRINTED FROM THE NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS