THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prize specimen (DISS CARTER!)

The Daily Telegraph ^ | October 12, 2002 | The Daily Telegraph

[MadIvan]

So Jimmy Carter has won the Nobel Peace prize. This choice is surprising in itself; even more shocking is the Nobel committee's obvious bias against George W Bush. Yesterday, the chairman of the committee, Gunnar Berge, said publicly that the decision "must be seen as a criticism of the policy that the current US administration has adopted in relation to Iraq". Such a partisan display is unprecedented: this is supposed to be a peace prize, not a fractious protest.

Anyway, if Mr Carter ever deserved to win the Peace prize, it was in 1978, for the Camp David accord, when he negotiated a peace between Anwar Sadat, then president of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, prime minister of Israel, who shared the prize that year. Since the end of his one-term presidency, in 1980, Mr Carter has done little but potter about the world, generally making a nuisance of himself by meeting the likes of Fidel Castro.

The timing of this award is a political statement. Jimmy Carter is notorious for a disastrously meek policy of diplomacy on terrorism. He was president during the Iran hostage debacle in 1979, when militant Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Teheran and took 50 Americans hostage.

They languished in captivity for more than a year, as Mr Carter dithered, first trying to resolve the crisis without using force, then sending a rescue mission after five months, the botching of which humiliated America. In reaction to his politics of conciliation, America learnt that you can't reason with terrorists, that conciliation leads to even more violence.

Mr Carter's presidency severely undermined American self-confidence. It was the last time that there seemed a real imbalance of power against America, with the Soviet Union flexing its muscles by invading Afghanistan. America seemed to lack the will to resist any threat.

This award is a calculated insult to Mr Bush, but it will amount to little. It will merely annoy America and Mr Bush, and perhaps lend validity to those European sentiments inclined to anti-Americanism. The most noticeable consequence of Mr Berge's folly, however, will be to discredit the Nobel Peace prize, already marred by such questionable choices as Yasser Arafat and John Hume, even further. However some will be pleased. The streets of Baghdad will, today, be ringing with toasts to Jimmy Carter.

[MadIvan]

I hope it's clear now why the Daily Telegraph remains the best newspaper in the world.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Consort]

Carter should return the prize and demand an apology or he should sell it on E-bay to the lowest bidder. Being a liberal democrat, he will probably have it bronzed and keep it.

[Joe 6-pack]

Yes, an American president that allows an embassy to be captured, then allows some of his most elite military units to be sacrificed in a ill conceived and politically timed rescue attempt is what the rest of the world hopes for.

An American president that is prepared to act in the interests of national defense is what the socialists are compelled to deride...

[MadIvan]

He was better off when he was building houses for the homeless. Whenever he goes abroad, he merely causes a problem.

Regards, Ivan

[swampfox98]

Carter was the worst president America ever had to suffer through, and that includes Bill Clinton -- Lord, forgive me for saying anything half way nice about Clinton, but there it is.

[MadIvan]

I'd say Carter and Clinton were about even. The difference between the two is that Carter only lusted in his heart, and Clinton was around longer.

Regards, Ivan

[BulletBrasDotNet]

Carter was a friggin idiot. He gutted the military to the point that choppers couldn't fly in the desert. His economy was at the point where inflation was 16%. The man is/was a flaming, friggin moron. He should have stayed in GA sheeling peanuts. Tha'ts about all that he was qualified to do. BTW, let's not forget his interview with Penthouse/Playboy (Clinton - Carter, difficult to know who's letting their weiney make the news) Carter said he fantacized about the babes. Clinton worshipped the sink; and left his trademeark stain on an intern's dress.

[hosepipe]

That must've hurt poor Mr. Carters feelings.
I'm bleeding for him, the little weasle.

[MadIvan]

Carter was so inept that he made Leonid Brezhnev, half dead by 1976 from multiple strokes, seem positively dynamic and dashing in comparison.

Regards, Ivan

[stndngathwrthistry]

I love the Telegraph, but they are wrong about one thing in this piece:

Anyway, if Mr Carter ever deserved to win the Peace prize, it was in 1978, for the Camp David accord, when he negotiated a peace between Anwar Sadat, then president of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, prime minister of Israel, who shared the prize that year.

As Jay Nordlinger makes clear, Carter negotiated nothing.

Whatever the weather, Carter has enjoyed a reputation as a Middle East sage, owing to his role in the 1979 Camp David accords. Yet that reputation rests on shaky ground. The painful truth is, Sadat and Begin had their deal worked out before ever approaching Washington. Prof. Bernard Lewis, dean of Middle East scholars, put it this way to PBS's Charlie Rose recently: "The popular mythology is that Sadat made this enormously courageous and imaginative gesture of offering peace. . . . [Sadat and Begin] then went to the United States to discuss it further, and thanks to the wise statesmanship of Jimmy Carter and his staff, they were able to bring [their work] to a successful conclusion, to a peace treaty." Why, in fact, did the two principals ring the White House? "Well, obviously," explained Lewis, "they needed someone to pay the bill, and who but the United States could fulfill that function?"

So Carter's greatest (some might have said "only") accomplishment as President is just another leftist fraud.

[grammymoon]

Ivan,

Wow!
I am stunned to actually read this in print.

Thank you Telegraph.

[grammymoon]

PS They sure nailed his little wussy ways.

[dighton]

Carter was the worst president America ever had to suffer through, and that includes Bill Clinton -- Lord, forgive me for saying anything half way nice about Clinton, but there it is.

I believe George Will said that Carter was the worst president, and Clinton was the worst man to be president.

[Pushi]

He ought to get the Piece of $hit Prize.

[Rummyfan]

Jimmy Carter has pulled off a rare double: he was an embarassment while in office as president, and has continued to be an embarassment since leaving office. He should have had the good grace to retire to a peaceful life in Plains. But it seems that Democratic ex-presidents are incapable of leaving the stage - witness Bubba's antics.

Was reading on another thread that Saddam may ask various international figures to over see inspections in Iraq. Who is a possible American candidate for such a panel? Why, Jimmuh of course! Think he would have the common decency and sense of duty to country to turn such an opportunity down?

Maybe he'll be in Baghdad when the bombs start falling!

On a positive note, if the country can survive four years of this idiot (not to mention eight years of rape and pillage by the Clintons) we can survive anything!

[piasa]

I'm celebrating Carter's prize, too.... because I know how badly Bill Clinton coveted it.

*snicker*

[foreshadowed at waco]

I'll just never forget that Carter was personally responsible for the Mariel boatlift--under the guise of compassion (it was actually a heady mixture of gullibility and arrogant self-importance) Jimmy Carter imported all the human beings that Castro wanted to get rid of--he emptied his asylums and prisons and the US took them in. Think of all the American people hurt or killed by these career criminals and nutjobs thanks to Jimmy Carter!

[Happygal]

I hope it's clear now why the Daily Telegraph remains the best newspaper in the world.

I beg to differ...they are SERIOUSLY lacking in one talented Irish lassie content! ;-)

[maica]

Thank you , thank you, thank you, Mad Ivan.

This editorial reads like it was written by a Freeper.

It absolutely has become The Nobel Political Prize. Not only did they award it to Jimmeh Cahteh, but they openly criticized President Bush in the announcement.

The politics of the left has no honor or shame. Their conduct is just breath-taking.