Posted on 04/20/2006 5:41:33 AM PDT by Dark Skies
Everybody’s playing the blame game these days. The current target is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who seems to be standing in for President Bush – the man who his enemies say is responsible for everything that’s gone wrong since the Biblical flood. (“Bush lied about the need to build an ark.”)
South of our borders we have a nut job running oil-rich Venezuela and threatening to do all kinds of nasty things to us. In North Korea we have another nut job building nukes and rattling sabers, and in Iran there’s still another whacked-out leader threatening to blow Israel off the map, for starters.
Believe me, Rummy had nothing to do with any of that. Nor did George Bush. If you’re looking for someone to point the finger at, look no further than James Earl Carter. Every one of these problems can be laid at the door of the Georgia peanut farmer and self-anointed evangelist for world peace, understanding, goodwill, and promoter of universal love-ins with dictators who hate us.
Let’s begin with Iran, a boiling cauldron of hatred for everything associated with Western civilization. Recall that when Jimmah took office Iran was ruled by a strong ally of the United States, the Shah. Like most Middle Eastern potentates, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ruled with an iron hand. Under him, Iran was not the kind of democracy we’re now promoting for the Middle East.
The Shah, however, was also the staunch friend and ally of the United States. He saw to it that the oil kept flowing in our direction, and kept his military in good-enough shape to protect our interests in the area.
But the Shah somehow offended Brother Carter’s exalted view of the inherent goodness of a mankind freed from the strictures imposed by dictatorial rules. With a wink and a nod, he arranged to have Pahlavi replaced by an exiled mullah - the Ayatollah Khomeini - who in Carter’s view would be a moderate leader who would democratize Iran.
What Carter got for us was a Muslim fanatic seething with hatred for everything Western, who without blinking an eye spat on our national sovereignty when he took over the United States embassy in Tehran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days, until the U.S. came to its senses and elected my dad Ronald Reagan to replace the hapless Jimmy Carter.
Thanks to Carter, Iran today constitutes a grave threat to the United States and to world peace. He allowed the creation of an Islamic Republic bent on imposing the most repressive form of Islam on the entire world.
Then we can turn to Venezuela, now locked in the grip of a Castro-clone and fervent communist Hugo Chavez, who is creating a heavily armed communist dictatorship on our southern doorstep. When Chavez faced a recall election Cater was on hand to monitor the election, which turned out to be rigged to elect Chavez from the very start. Despite overwhelming evidence that the Chavez victory was the result of rampant vote fraud, Mr. Carter put his stamp of approval on it, declaring it to have been fair and honest. Carter kept Chavez in office.
In 1994, when Bill Clinton was facing down North Korea’s Kim Il-Sung, father of current dictator Kim Jong-Il, he sent Carter to strike a deal on his development of nuclear technology. Speaking of the dying murderous dictator, Carter said he found him "vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well-informed about the technical issues, and in charge of the decisions about this country," and added, “I don’t see the [North Koreans] are an outlaw nation."
The deal Carter made allowed the North Koreans to work behind the scenes to build nuclear weapons which now threaten world peace. When he came back from North Korea he told CNN’s Judy Woodruff, “I think it's all roses now.... “
I agree with Jack Kinsella who once wrote in the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest that “Jimmy Carter holds the hands-down record for being the worst ex-president the United States has ever known. His post-presidential meddling in foreign affairs has cost America dearly, both in terms of international credibility and international prestige.”
I am reading "The Real Jimmy Carter" by Stephen Heyward right now. Carter, in my opinion, is by far the worst president the United States has ever had. I cannot find a single thing he did as president that didn't immediately turn to complete and utter crap. And his track record since then reflects the same - Palestine, Venezuela, Haiti, North Korea...."Jimmy Carter" should be a synonym for "complete and utter failure".
But.....
If it wasn't for Carter's immense ineptitude, we wouldn't have had the Great Communicator for 8 years.
In his 1982 presidential memoir, Carter cited as his biggest mistake "allowing Ronald Reagan to become President of the United States."
As much as I despise Clinton, gotta admit: Carter was WORSE.
While I agree that Carter was one of the worst presidents in my lifetime what separates Carter from the rest is that he is clearly the worst ex-president in the history of the country.
bttt
I agree, but I don't think we've gotten the bill for the Clinton years, yet.....
"worst ex-president" ...
much worse than that, my friend.
Think of all the damage wrought by declared enemies of our Nation - the John Walkers and other traitors, from both within and without - and compare that damage to the effects of Carter's decisions and influence.
IMHO, Jimmy Carter was - and continues to be - the Manchurian Candidate.
Bingo!
I remember it being said before the 1980 election that the only reason to vote for Carter was that if he won, he would never be eligible for the Presidency again.
Carter may have been the worst president this country ever had, but I also think he gets an unfair rap on some key issues. Iran is one of them. Our current problems with Iran didn't begin in 1979, but all the way back in 1953 when the Eisenhower administration helped the British topple the duly-elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh and install the Shah as a puppet government. The Iranian uprising in 1979 was pretty much a natural backlash against the excesses of the Shah's regime, and the U.S. really has nobody to blame but ourselves for what has transpired in the old Persian empire over the last 50 years.
LBJ was even worse.
Calling him an utter failure gives him too much credit, because it indicates mere incompetence. He is far worse than that. His actions are deliberate malice toward his own country and its citizens. He consistently does the opposite of what is right. Evil.
ping for later reading
Clinton's errors seem mostly due to inattention and a focus on his own political fortunes. Carter seems to have done his stupid, dangerous crap on purpose.
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.