Posted on 03/09/2003 9:19:37 AM PST by kattracks
Jimmy Carter, the man who gave the U.S. the Iran hostage crisis that held 52 Americans for 444 days in brutal captivity, now says that a war with Iraq is unjust and a violation of "basic religious principles..."
Claiming that "As a Christian and as a president who was severely provoked by international crises," Carter says he became "thoroughly familiar with the principles of a just war," and proclaims that a war on Iraq, which he described as a "substantially unilateral attack" fails to meet those standards.
His legendary confusion becomes evident by his failure to explain how anything can be "substantially unilateral" since something can be either unilateral or not unilateral - there's nothing in between, especially in this case where the U.S. has the backing of large numbers of UN member nations.
After taking a swipe at "a few spokesmen of the Southern Baptist Convention" for backing Israel out of a belief in eschatological, or final days, theology, the former president laid out his requirements for a war to be a just one.
Writing an op-ed column today in the notoriously anti-administration New York Times, Carter insists that war can be only a last resort, and an attack on Iraq is unjustified because clear alternatives - such as the interminable delays to act supported by the UN - exist.
Carter, who has exhibited an inexplicable fondness for enemies of the United States and a latent hostility to much of any U.S. foreign policies favoring America’s interests over the years, charged that America's national security is not threatened by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
And despite the fact that the administration has hotly denied the suggestion that it plans "to launch 3,000 bombs and missiles on a relatively defenseless Iraqi population, within the first few hours of an invasion," explaining that the initial bombing targets will be military and that every effort will me made to protect civilians, Carter still charges that the bombing will be aimed at innocent civilians "for the purpose of so damaging and demoralizing the people that they will change their obnoxious leader, who will most likely be hidden and safe during the bombardment."
The entire Carter screed echoes the most radical charges made by the leftist dominated anti-war movement - that the war will destabilize the entire region and "prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at home" and the idea that war on Iraq is an attempt to establish a "pax Americana" on the region and an occupation of Iraq lasting for as long as ten years.
Carter is especially critical of the administration's failure to subject U.S. sovereignty to the authority of the spineless UN in this matter, arguing that we have no "international authority" whatever that is, to act in our own interests. By defying "overwhelming world opposition," he warns that the United States will undermine the UN "as a viable institution for world peace."
Mr. Carter seems unable to understand that it is the UN itself which by its 12 years of inaction in the face of Saddam's defiance has undermined its ability to be an instrument of peace.
But then, there are a lot of things Mr. Carter seems unable to understand, such as the need for an ex-president to support a sitting president in a time of crisis. It's called patriotism - a concept obviously foreign to a man deemed to have been an utter failure as America's chief executive in his years in the White House.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Oh, but he already lost that years ago. Ne-VER-mind. I suppose he has nothing to lose for this screed that packs more lies and incompetence in less words than your average Maureen Dowd column. But who's counting?
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, now up on UPI, and FR, "Truth, the First Casualty?"
This flaming, obnoxious little jackass needs a ball gag and some pipe wielding good ol' boys to get Medieval on his ass.
I hope it's operated better than its namesake. Otherwise it'll scuttle itself shortly after launch.
In summary Carter could be our worst foreign policy President, EVER. He should stick to his peanut subsidies and stay off the world stage.
If Jimmy had done the logical thing and strangled the Islamist monster in the crib, 9/11 would not have happened.
By the way, the Devo song "Whip It" is about Devo's puzzlement that Carter, whom they liked, was not fighting back against the Islamists. The lyrics, "It's not to late to whip it. Whip it good," was suggesting that even after doing nothing, it wasn't to late to change course and fight back hard. (I am being serious here. This is what one of the guys from Devo said in an interview a while ago.) Pretty bad when the band Devo had superior foreign policy expertise than the sitting President.
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