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.
Did somebody recently talk about appeasement???
I have some questions that have puzzled me for a while. And I ask them to this post by wlandsodidwe due to that sig line and the nature of the post. Although anyone who can enlighten please jump in.
First, I remember Carter’s presidency very well. It was a nightmare of my life and I fear that coming up, under President Obama, my own daughter will suffer the consequences of a spineless leader.
Thus I remember the hostage crisis, the gas lines, 18% interest mortgage rates....yes I remember.
What I don’t quite understand is how the Shah....
a)got booted out of Iran
b)how Carter helped it happen
c)what is a “shah” and how was he a good guy. That title sounds like royalty, some sort of elitest. Hardly an elected kind of thing although I understand that rulers born to the job can be America’s friend.
Now I want to know, seriously, how the Democrat party constantly gets a pass on this guy? They seat him in the chair of honor at their conventions. He goes on these jaunts and he undermines this country and....
....no wait! Where the hell are the Republicans??? Why aren’t they all over the place, dissing this guy, educating this country as to the horrible foreign policies he preaches while in distant lands and hey, I understand Carter has some sort of private diplomatic company and what? Is it possible he is PAID to betray this country?
Where are the Republicans?
Okay, so those are my questions.
'scuse me? Would that be the Pres of the United States you are speaking of, you anti-Semitic nincompoop?
They are rational people like all of us in this room.
You mean the same rational people that said this?
"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Allah Khomeini.
Who condemns all Muslim leaders who accept the existence of Israel as "acknowledging a surrender and defeat of the Islamic world."
Who states that Israel must be "wiped off the map"
Who tells the world that Israel is "on the verge of disappearing"
Who calls Israel a "fictitious" and "illegitimate" regime
Who tells the world to accept Israel's "imminent collapse".
Who's president says that "the US and Israel will soon die"?
You mean those rational people, you anti-Semite? What a despicable and hateful little man you are.
He's not senile, he's an dirty old leftist who, like all the rest of them, wants to see America knocked down and reshaped into a communist hellhole where the masses are firmly in their place and the unblemished, sparkling pure anointed like Jimmy Carter are in charge.
Disgusting.
CNN --- Iranian leader: Holocaust a 'myth'
CNN --- Iranian leader: Wipe out Israel
And Jimmy did so well with the ties he established with Iran....
This guy is such an idiot he gives idiots a bad name. Rational? My patooty.
“We’ve got to resume trading to show Iran we are friends.”
Yes, yes Jimmy... afterall, they’ve been training and supplying weapons to terrorists in Iraq who have killed hundreds of our military personnel. They have certainly earned our friendship.
This guy is setting the Gold Standard in Liberal idiocy.
“jimmuh needs to go pound some nails he was good at that”
Yeah, he can pound them with his head.
STFU you jerk
enemy not enemu
He can't die of natural causes soon enough. He is doing great damage.
Why do you think he is the worst President this country has ever had and will most likely ever have?
This is Iran's idea of "friendly ties".
allah akbar,eh,Jimmah?
Carter was hiding in the Rose Garden, I guess. Didn’t hear the phone ringing in the Oval Office.
Like I said, he is the worst President this country has ever had and will ever have
I think he should be sent to Tehran to make peace launched from the USS Jimmy Carter submarine strapped to a Tomahawk with a nuclear warhead.
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