Carter Takes Swipe At Bush At Nobel Ceremony

IOL ^ | 12-10-2002

[blam]

Carter takes swipe at Bush at Nobel ceremony

December 10 2002 at 03:38PM

Oslo - Former United States president Jimmy Carter on Tuesday received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in recognition of decades of work as international peace mediator.

Nobel Committee chairperson Gunnar Berge handed him the prize at a formal ceremony in Oslo's city hall, with Carter's family and Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja looking on.

Carter, 78, in an acceptance speech prepared for delivery at the ceremony, took a swipe at US policy towards Iraq, warning that a so-called preventative war could have "catastrophic" consequences, but stopped short of actually naming the United States or Iraq.

At a separate ceremony in Stockholm later in the day, the winners of the Literature, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics prizes will receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm's Concert Hall. - Sapa-AFP

[tracer]

Just call him King Sadim ("Midas" spelled backwards). Everything he touches turns to s#!%..........

[Paul Atreides]

What a t*rd.

[onedoug]

Pacifism facilitates evil.

[PoorMuttly]

He still has MALAISE. He should get professional help.

[schaketo]

Useful idiot.

[Semper Paratus]

Cuck Farter!

[bigaln2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Jimmah want to (covertly) invade Iran to free the hostages?

[ken5050]

Amy Carter's father.....Billy Carter's brother....

[blam]

Tuesday, 10 December, 2002, 13:58 GMT, BBC

Carter warns against 'catastrophic' war

Carter helped broker the 1978 Israel-Egypt peace

Former US president Jimmy Carter has warned of the potentially "catastrophic consequences" of a pre-emptive US war on Iraq.

Mr Carter did not mention either country by name, but said: "For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences."

The Bush administration has changed US defence doctrine since the 11 September attacks to one of taking pre-emptive action before threats materialise.

Multilateralism

In an interview with the BBC, the former US president refused to criticise George W Bush's handling of Iraq.

Mr Carter's ideals are in sharp contrast to Mr Bush's

"The government has decided that action should be multilateral. The US has taken a completely appropriate multilateral position," he told the BBC's HARDtalk programme.

BBC diplomatic editor Brian Hanrahan points out that former presidents do not consider it appropriate to criticise the incumbent.

Mr Carter also insisted that Iraq must "comply fully with the unanimous decision of the Security Council that it eliminate all weapons of mass destruction".

Danger of disparity

The former president addressed a number of other issues as well.

"The greatest challenge the world faces ... is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth," he said.

Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international co-operation

He described the disparity as the "root cause of most of the world's problems, including starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict and unnecessary illnesses that range from Guinea worm to HIV/Aids".

He called for "the abolition of land mines and chemical weapons; an end to testing, proliferation and further deployment of nuclear warheads; constraints on global warming, prohibition of the death penalty, at least for children; and an international criminal court to deter and punish war crimes and genocide".

Those positions put him in sharp contrast with the Bush administration.

He told the BBC that he had criticised the previous Democratic administration of Bill Clinton for failing to support the same initiatives.

Bush criticism

The chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee caused an uproar in October when he said granting the award to Mr Carter should be interpreted as a criticism of Mr Bush's Iraq policy.

The committee chair sparked a row

Two other members of the committee rejected the comment by Chairman Gunnar Berge, and Mr Carter told the BBC that as far as he knew, "the Iraqi issue was not even discussed" in committee deliberations.

As president, Mr Carter helped broker the 1978 Israel-Egypt peace treaty, an accomplishment the Nobel citation described as "in itself a great enough achievement to qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize".

Since losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980, Mr Carter has worked on conflict mediation, election observation, poverty reduction and environmental issues through the Carter Center, which he founded in 1982.

He is the third US president, after Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt, to win the Nobel prize.

Mr Carter has said he will donate the $1million prize to his Carter Center.

[Commiewatcher]

And to think he had a solid lock on being the best EX-President in American history - all he had to do was keep building houses and keep his mouth shut.

He's ruined the only positive thing he would ever be remembered for.

[bigaln2]

BBC diplomatic editor Brian Hanrahan points out that former presidents do not consider it appropriate to criticise the incumbent.

So what? That guideline only applies to those with (R) after their name.

[Lando Lincoln]

This pseudo-intellectual should have declined the award. It seems that everyone knows that this was a political award by a so-called non-political body. It was a sham. Now that he has it, I wish he would just bed down with the award and shut up.

[Aggie Mama]

What a class act.
/sarcasm

[NormsRevenge]

Trilateralists Gone Wild ...

Between Nobel and Rhodes, what a legacy of peace crap.

Mr. K. Iller Rabbit on line 3 for you... He wants to know when you're gonna build him a hutch for free.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Ah, the good old days of the Carter administration.

Appeasing ruthless dictators, long gasoline lines, rubbing shoulders with the Rev Jim Jones, telling Americans to put on sweaters during the brutal winter of 1977-78 to conserve energy, stagflation, unemployment.

Sigh.....

[Delbert]

Someone...PLEEEEEEZE post this pic here....
http://www.rock103.com/crew/pics/?pow=120202

[hchutch]

To paraphrase Eric Cartman:

"Carter pisses me off!"

[ServesURight]

One of the worst presidents of all time - right up there with Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton.

[Airborne Longhorn]

Thanksgiving's over, but the turkey still gobbles...