Posted on 05/26/2008 9:18:47 AM PDT by mak5
Former US President Jimmy Carter urged Washington to establish friendly ties with Tehran, reiterating the need for his country to resume trade relations with Iran, which he described as a "rational" nation.
Speaking at the Hay Festival yesterday, Carter also suggested the US should provide nuclear power technology and fuel to Iran as a show of goodwill.
"What happens if, in three years' time, Iran has a nuclear weapon," Carter asked. "I'm not sure that is going to happen, but if it does, what do we do? They are rational people like all of us in this room. Do they want to commit suicide? I would guess not. So what we have to do is talk with them now and say to them we want to be their friends," the former US president said.
"The United States must let Iran know that we want to give them fuel and everything they need for a non-military nuclear program. Twenty-five years ago we cut off trading with Iran. We've got to resume trading to show Iran we are friends."
Carter also criticized President George Bush, saying it was a "serious mistake and terrible departure" from the actions of previous US presidents not to engage with countries with which they differed.
"The president of the administration in Washington is the first one to have ever done this and I think we close off ourselves from any sort of rational accommodation of the views of other parties in order to reach out on major goals," said Carter, in a further interview with Sky Arts, to be broadcast today.
Everybody's rational at the Hay Festival.
They are rational people like all of us in this room.
********
What a dumbass.
The sentence for one of their criminals last year was to throw him off a cliff. They’re still savage in their hearts.
it depends on what you mean by "rational."
Carter is the one who sold out the Shah and gave Iran to the Mullahs. They rewarded him by taking our embassy employees hostage until he left office. This guy is a nut case.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Jimmuh has peanuts for brains!
No. 1, Jimmuh you're not a rational guy......... if you were you'd know that the Iranian government lacks rationality.
No 2., Becoming friends with people that are killing our troops, funding terrorism throughout the world, building nuclear bombs, and threatening to wipe us and Israel off the map is not very smart or rational. It's suicidal!!!!
With friends like Iran who needs enemies?!?
Neville Chamberlain would have been proud of Carter.
I think he’s getting the words “rational” and “radical” mixed up in his silly head.
he hates america. he wishes for its demise
when he won the nobel peace prize it was a slap in our face.
Hey Jimmuh...Remember that Iran prez dude from your “hostage days”. How’d you do with those guys back then??
Jimmy isnow and always has been in league with the Mullahs. He allowed the embassy take over while talking with them.
He still doesn’t realize that talking produces death.
LOL! That’s what I was thinking, move the old windbag over there.
They are rational people like all of us in this room. Do they want to commit suicide? I would guess not.
When you’re senile, it’s hard to pay attention.
Only America's enemies need not be perfect, apparently.
Do they want to commit suicide? The hidden Imam commands they commit suicide in order to hasten his return. Anybody who listens to Ammanutjob would realize he is serious.
I just can’t get over the GALL of this man. For such a failed president to be about, bleating about what HE thinks we should do makes me want to scream. Can’t his handlers CONTROL him? Is he completely unaware of what the majority of Americans THINK of him?
Oh my stars, will this damn fool ever shut his face? He is the last person on Earth who ought to be dispensing advice on how to deal with Iran.
Actually, he is a vain and bitter man. He absolutely cannot stand that he is thought of as such a bad president. He also is extremely jealous of how Nixon rehabilitated himself after leaving office. He cannot stand it period. He is so vain that when gets on an airliner he ‘personally’ walks up and down the aisle ‘shaking’ everyone’s hand. I know, because I had the misfortune to have him offer his hand to me on a Delta Flight to DC. He was an extremely bad governor, and he was worse as a president. He has however, been a particularly effective traitor.
“Iran, which he (Carter) described as a “rational” nation.”
Is Iran more or less rationale than when Jimmy Carter took office?
At that time, Iran was run by the Shah of Iran, an American ally. American allies were seldom good enough for Carter. He undermined the Shah, who was replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini was anti-American and anti-Western - just the kind of dictator beloved by the American left. Khomeini radicalized Islam, returning it to its Muslim supremacist roots. Almost all subsequent Islamic terrorism traces its roots to Khomeini’s influence, and one step removed, Carter’s influence. Carter is in no position to lecture anyone about Iran.
Jimmah Carter...worst president ever
On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of young Islamic revolutionaries overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than sixty Americans hostage. "From the moment the hostages were seized until they were released minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as president 444 days later," wrote historian Gaddis Smith, "the crisis absorbed more concentrated effort by American officials and had more extensive coverage on television and in the press than any other event since World War II."
1979
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