Posted on 05/05/2008 5:24:38 AM PDT by SJackson
Why Is Jimmy Carter So Disastrously Wrong on the Middle East? |
Frontpage Interviews guest today is Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif), the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. FP: Rep. Howard Berman, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Berman: Thank you. FP: You have criticized fellow Democrat, and former president, Jimmy Carter for his recent meetings with Hamas. Update for us the form your criticism has taken. Berman: President Carter has come under bipartisan criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats -- for meeting with the leaders of Hamas, which is a terrorist group. Gary Ackerman, the chairman of our Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, and I urged President Carter in a letter to cancel his plans to meet with Khaled Mashaal and other members of Hamas during his visit to Syria . We wrote, We believe this visit will undermine the Middle East peace process and damage the credibility of Palestinian moderates, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. We also believe it falls far short of the high moral standards you have set as a champion of human rights. I stand by that view. FP: Expand for us on the bipartisan criticism of Carter on his Hamas odyssey. Berman: In the same week that Gary Ackerman and I sent our letter, more than four dozen Republicans and Democrats together signed a letter to President Carter asking him not to press forward with his plans to meet Khaled Mashaal, and they released it to the media. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also criticized President Carters plans to meet the Hamas leadership. FP: Hamas is a terrorist organization that wants to wipe Israel off the map. What exactly is Carter thinking in this effort of his? Why is he extending an olive branch to Hamas and how and why does he believe in its potential goodness? He has, after all, engaged in a one-man lobbying campaign on behalf of Hamas despite its terror on its own population and against Israel. Berman: In recent days, President Carter made use of several opportunities to explain his thinking to the media, including just after his meeting in Syria. He also has an op-ed this week in the Washington Post. He was not persuasive. FP: What are your thoughts in general on Carters view of the Middle East ? What do you think of him referring to Israel as an apartheid state? Why his malice toward Israel ? Berman: Comparing Israel with Apartheid South Africa is deliberately provocative and demonstrates a very loose grasp on the details of both situations; it is a poor analogy. As to President Carters views of the Middle East in general, his concept of the forces at work in the region who is to blame, who is to be held accountable is way off the mark, and this undermines any initiative he may undertake there. Unfortunately, it also undermines the very people we want to help in the Middle East President Abbas and his supporters, on the one hand, and the Israelis on the other. FP: What policy should Israel and the U.S. pursue toward Hamas? Berman: Israel can make its own policies, but in my opinion it has made the right choices given the circumstances. Hamas is a terrorist organization that denies Israels right to exist and shows no sign of changing. In fact, Israel is fully in synch with the United States and the broader international community in demanding that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept past Israeli-Palestinian agreements. I hope there will be no compromises on this approach; to do so would make a mockery of those Palestinians who reject violence and choose the path of negotiations. The last thing we would want is for terrorists to get the message that violence pays.
Of course, Iran is the number-one problem in the region, and we should keep in mind that Hamas is strongly backed by Iran, which provides training, funding, and probably arms to Hamas, as it does to Hezbollah. The United States needs to push for the strongest possible sanctions against Iran and if the Security Council wont go along, we should press our European and other allies at least to join with us in a tough sanctions regime. Our top priority should be to deprive Iran of the funds it uses for its nuclear weapons program, but a successful sanctions regime hopefully would have the additional benefit of reducing Irans material support for terrorists. FP: Rep. Howard Berman, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview. Berman: Youre quite welcome.
To preserve his unblemished record ...
Has he ever been right about anything?
Because Jimmah walks into walls a lot.
Because he's a senile old fool, and always has been.
He’s wrong because he’s a communist and wants the jihadis to destroy Western Civilization.
The elephant in the living room i$ right there in Wa$hington waiting for any Woodward and Bern$tein who want to inve$tigate the role of the $audis and other oil producing countrie$. The Capitol and Executive Branch are awa$h in bribe$.
Because Carter has been wrong about damn near everything and didn’t want to damage his legacy?
The short answer is; Habit!
Carter is a guy that has been wrong his entire life, wrong on the Shah, wrong on inflation, wrong on gas, heating oil and sweaters, wrong on North Korea, wrong on election monitoring of untold numbers of Communists including Hugo Chavez.....
What the hell else can we expect from him....revoke his passport and cellphone!
Easy. He hates Jews.
“Carter has NO brain at all.”
Maybe he had one at one time, but (and my apologies to “The Twilight Zone” or “Outer Limits”, or one of those kinds of shows) then an earwig got to his brain and ate it all up; and now the bloated and sated earwig is just passing gas, which is what now makes up Jimmah’s thought processes.
“Carter has NO brain at all.”
Jimmy Carter was/is a nuclear engineer and quite a brilliant engineer by all accounts. He commanded a nuclear submarine for the US naval forces, if I recall correctly.
He is not stupid at all.
He is brilliantly supporting the side he wants to win -— it’s just so abhorent, it’s hard to think he’s not stupid.
“He commanded a nuclear submarine for the US naval forces, if I recall correctly.....”
He did not command the sub. Check out this old news. Why in hell would the Navy name a sub after him...the worst president in U.S. history?
Navy to Commission Attack Submarine Jimmy Carter
Story Number: NNS050215-14
Release Date: 2/15/2005 7:01:00 PM
Special release from the U.S. Department of Defense
WASHINGTON (NNS) — The Navy will commission its newest nuclear-powered attack submarine Jimmy Carter Feb. 19, during an 11 a.m. EST ceremony at Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Conn.
The attack submarine Jimmy Carter honors the 39th president of the United States.
President Carter is the only U.S. president to have qualified in submarines. He has distinguished himself by a lifetime of public service, and has long ties to the Navy and the submarine force. Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served as a commissioned officer aboard submarines, and served as commander-in-chief from 1977 to 1981. Carter’s statesmanship, philanthropy and sense of humanity earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, a classmate of the president who served in the Carter administration as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will deliver the ceremony’s principal address. Rosalynn Carter is the sponsor for the ship named for her husband, with daughter Amy serving as matron of honor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, Rosalynn Carter will give the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”
Jimmy Carter is the third and final submarine of the Seawolf class. As the most advanced submarine in the class, Jimmy Carter will have built-in flexibility and an array of new warfighting features that will enable it to prevail in any scenario, against any threat from beneath Arctic ice to shallow water. Differentiating Jimmy Carter from all other undersea vessels is its multimission platform (MMP), which includes a 100-foot hull extension to enhance payload capability. The MMP will enable Jimmy Carter to accommodate the advanced technology required to develop and test a new generation of weapons, sensors and undersea vehicles for naval special warfare, tactical surveillance and mine-warfare operations.
Capt. Robert D. Kelso, a native of Fayetteville, Tenn., will serve as Jimmy Carters first commanding officer, leading a crew of approximately 130 officers and sailors. Built by General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., the 12,130-ton Jimmy Carter is 453 feet in length, has a beam of 40 feet, and can operate at speeds exceeding 25 knots when submerged.
He's being consistent.
He's been disatrously wrong on virtually every issue since entering public life, so why change now?
“Navy to Commission Attack Submarine Jimmy Carter....”
Can we all say oxymoron!...It should have been named the attack submarine Rabbit Whacker.....
The answer is obvious.
Because Carter is RESPONSIBLE for much of the modern mid-East problems.
He backs Hamas because Hamas is a creature of Iran. Carter enables the current Iran when he cold-shouldered the Shah.
That's why Carter stands almost alone in his position. He sees the US repudicating his policy as President and is terrified for his legacy.
tabster is cat crap buried deep in the litter box.
ROFL! Ain’t it the truth!
It's simple, because he hasn't changed and always will be a liberal Democrat.
He was wrong and totally oblivious as President and he STILL is.
The worst president of the 20th century!
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