Posted on 10/19/2004 7:04:03 PM PDT by notkerry
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about—this is going to cause some trouble with people—but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?
CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.
Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial‘s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.
I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.
For Transcript See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6281085/
"And if the US was just a little bit more sensitive to the Islamic terrorists (as I was during the Iran hostage crisis in the 1979 and 80) we'd really have no need to fight the war on terror--it is a useless war. It's about time everyone see it in a peaceful way....if we have to bend over and invite Usama bin-laden to the White House for 4-8 years so beit..." Jimmy Carter circa 2002
I'm sorry, Jimmah, could you talk a little louder? It's a little difficult to hear you when you're speaking from all the way at the bottom of the ash heap of history.
Oh Please Jimmah. Jon Kerry would be Jimmy Carter II without the Camp David Agreement!
Proof positive the Jimmah has a UN Koolaid substance abuse problem.
Sounds to me as though he's equating the U.S. colonies to modern-day terrorists.
Stick with peanuts, Jim-uh. It's obviously all you know.
In fact before you open your trap again to speak, stick a fistful in your mouth. Then all we'd hear is, 'crunch, mumble, munch, drool.' It would give you a lot more credibility.
This man is a fly speck in the annals of history.
Thank God for the Georges!
"How about the Civil War?"
It was bloodier in terms of total numbers, but in terms of the percentage of the population killed or maimed, the American Revolution was actually worse than the beating the French suffered at the hands of the Germans in World War I, or the Russians suffered at the hands of the Germans in World War II.
About 16% of the American population was wounded or killed in the American Revolution. The percentages in the Civil War were down around 4%.
The only modern wars that was as comparably brutal on the population in terms of sheer carnage were the Mexican Revolution and the Killing Fields of Cambodia.
The American Revolution was just unbelievably bad, and nowhere was it worse than down South, where it also turned into a murderous Civil War to boot.
I saw this live, and I was pissed.
Carter is responsible in large part for our current mees with the Middle East. HE blew it and planted the seeds of contempt for Americans.
So spaketh the man who lost the Middle East to the mullahs ...
The British did not become the most powerful nation on the earth by being "sensitive."
It's hard to believe that many so-called presidential scholars consider this guy one of our most intelligent presidents. He certainly will go down in history as one of the worst to occupy the White House.
There is actually sort of a valid point; the colonies really had to be pushed a lot to rebel, and the revolution was basically the result of gross political incompetence on the part of the British; they very easily could have kept the whole thing from happening with fairly modest concessions and basically simply just a better attitude.
This idea doesn't originate with Carter and is the opinion of a lot of historians. The Revolution wasn't something that you would have expected to happen and it very easily could have been prevented by slightly more enlightened leadership in Britain.
In Jimmeh's mental lexicon we should NEVER go to war for anything.
What an idiot!
What a stupid question. Short of fighting soldiers, what other sort of parallel could exist between the Revolutionary War and what's going on in Iraq? Carter demonstrates he is definately not the sharpest knife in the drawer for even attempting to answer such nonsense.
Muleteam1
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.