Former President Carter says Iraq war is a tragedy

Houston Chronicle ^ | April 9, 2004, 12:21AM | James Pinkerton

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

BROWNSVILLE -- Former President Carter on Thursday called the Bush administration's decision to wage war against Iraq "ill-advised and unnecessary," adding the resulting campaign "has turned out to be a tragedy."

The former Democratic president also said Bush's environmental policies are perhaps the worst in the nation's history.

Carter made the comments at the Rio R.V. Park after wrapping up a four-day birding trip with his wife, Rosalynn, in the lower Rio Grande Valley.

"President Bush's war was ill-advised and unnecessary and based on erroneous statements, and has turned out to be a tragedy," Carter said. "And my prayer has been that brave young American men and women, and others who are there, that their lives will be spared and there will be some peaceful resolution of the war."

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, also blamed what he called Bush's pro-Israel policies for engendering animosity against America.

"The prime source of animosity towards the United States is the lack of progress in dealing with the Palestinian issue," Carter said, adding that past U.S. administrations since Harry Truman's have maintained a "balanced position" in dealing with the rights of the Arab population within the Jewish nation.

"The present administration has not done so at all. We have been exclusively committed to the policies of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel, and have made no effort to try to have a balanced negotiating position between Israel and the Palestinians," Carter said.

Carter, who brokered the historic 1978 Camp David accords that led to peace between Israel and Egypt, noted that President George H.W. Bush threatened to halt foreign aid when Israel began building settlements in Palestinian territory.

"In the meantime, of course, the Israelis have established hundreds of settlements all over Palestinian land with no critical comment ever coming from the present Bush administration," Carter said.

Carter, who placed 103 million acres of Alaskan land under federal protection during his term, also took the current White House to task on the environment.

"This national administration is the worst for conservation in my lifetime, maybe in history," said Carter, whose family has farmed in Georgia since 1833. "In all the basic elements of preserving the purity of parks and wildlife lands, controlling the industries that are inclined to pollute ... the decimation of forest lands."

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

GBRR say "Jimmy Carter is a tragedy".

Jimmuh did one good thing though - he turned me from liberal to conservative!

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, also blamed what he called Bush's pro-Israel policies for engendering animosity against America.

There's the root of it all!

[pax_et_bonum]

Jimmy Carter needs to shut up.

[Frank_Discussion]

Gosh, well I sure hope he'll go to Fallujah RIGHT NOW to stop the fighting. Please Jimmah, PLEASE, volunteer!

;-\

[demlosers]

Like your Administration Jimmuh.

[Support Free Republic]

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

The history of the Bush presidency has not been written yet!

As far as Jimmy Carter.....

His legacy is clear as a bell.

Talk about your miserable failures.......Carter was a tragedy for America.

[Clara Lou]

Former President Carter says Iraq war is a tragedy
Yeah, well, so was his presidency, from his inauguration straight through to the end of it. What a fiasco.

[Dolphy]

What's Jimmy listening to, hip hop or his Muslim extremist speech writers?

[Max7]

I concur totally, and you literally took the same words right out of my own mouth.
Are you listening, Jimmy? SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP ! Go back to your peanut farm where you belong.

[Mr. Bird]

Any time a former president pipes up on matters of policy, his stature is reduced. In a time of war, it's highly offensive. Jimmy needs to shut his piehole and go back to building homes for indigents. It's the only productive thing he's ever done in his life.

[auboy]

Talk about your miserable failures.......Carter was is a tragedy for America.:-)

[tet68]

There's no fool like an old fool, and he was a fool
when he was younger too.

[reagandemocrat]

His bungling of the Iranian hostage crises and his feeble attempt to rescue Americans, is the root cause for my screen name.

RD

[Oldeconomybuyer]

...Carter made the comments at the Rio R.V. Park...

Hmmmmm.

[mylife]

Jimmuh has a lot of gall to come over to Texas to start spouting off!

Best get back to Gawgia boy!

[madison10]

...So was crashing helicopters in the desert, Mr. Carter.

[Kingasaurus]

Drop dead, you fraud.

It was your weak Presidency and your inability to be decisive and quick in response to the Islamofascists in the first place, which started the belief in the Arab world that we were a paper tiger that could be pushed around. Now we have to clean up the cesspool that you helped fill.

[End Times Sentinel]

 

Jimmuh, is there any issue you don't come down on the wrong side on?

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"