US should disarm first, says ex-US President Carter (Level Red Barf Alert!!!)

The Times of India ^ | November 16 2002 | AFP

[knighthawk]

WASHINGTON: Former US president Jimmy Carter, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, called on Friday for disarmament by the United States, which has taken the lead in urging such countries as North Korea and Iraq to destroy their weapons of mass destruction.

"One of the things that the United States government has not done is to try to comply with and enforce international efforts targeted to prohibit the arsenals of biological weapons that we ourselves have," Carter said on CNN's Larry King Live programme broadcast late Friday.

He also called for more stringent efforts by Washington "to reduce and enforce the agreement to eliminate chemical weapons, and the same way with nuclear weapons."

"The major powers need to set an example," Carter said, as the United States confronts Iraq over its possession of such banned weapons.

"Quite often the big countries that are responsible for the peace of the world set a very poor example for those who might hunger for the esteem or the power or the threats that they can develop from nuclear weapons themselves," the former US president continued.

"I don't have any doubt that it's that kind of atmosphere that has led to the nuclearisation, you might say, of India and Pakistan," he said.

Carter, who will receive the Nobel prize on December 10 in Oslo, Norway for his efforts in seeking negotiated settlements to head off violent conflict, also noted that the United States gives only one one-thousandth of its gross national product for international assistance, while the average European country gives four times as much.

"For every time an American gives a dollar, a citizen of Norway gives 17 dollars," he said.

"Foreign aid in this country has a bad name, but in other countries, it's a right thing for the government to do. And that's where we at the Carter Center quite often have to turn," the former president said, referring to the Atlanta-based Carter Center he founded some 20 years ago, and which now operates humanitarian projects in 65 countries.

Carter also said the United States has given many nations around the world cause for resentment and scorn.

"There is a sense that the United States has become too arrogant, too dominant, too self-centered, proud of our wealth, believing that we deserve to be the richest and most powerful and influential nation in the world," the 78-year-old former president said.

"I think they feel that we don't really care about them, which is quite often true."

[LiteKeeper]

This man is senile

[facedown]

...the real commie?

Hillary!

[recalcitrant]

I despise Jimmy Carter as a president.

He is clearly a communist.
I believe he was and IS a traitor to every thing I believe in -- regarding America, God and Individual Liberty and Responsibility.

The nobel prize is for the strange mix socialist pu$$ies and radical terrorists... Milosivec deserves the nobel, more than Carter, and I don't care for Milosivec at all.

Carter and Arafat are quite appropriately hanging together on the vaunted list of so-called "winners," of the not-so-noble award.

YOU and I see eye to eye.

[shezza]

I think Carter ate too much radiation back in his Nuclear Sub days and his brain mutated.

That's nookyalur sub. Ain't that right, Jimmuh?

[shezza]

Carter, bah! What a maroon. Louie, see post #54.

[AmericanVictory]

It's testimony to the strength of our constitutional system that we survived the first idiot president.

[AmericanVictory]

You left out trying to withdras from Korea, giving Taiwan to the ChiComs, and cheering on the Ayatollah.

[Hemlock]

This coming from a man who gets chased by rabbits? Who'd a thunk it?

[Sapper26]

This just in from Oslo, Norway.

"After further review of President Jimmy Carter's achievements, both in office and out, the Nobel Committee has decided to rename the Peace Prize in his honor.

Forevermore, it will be known as the Nobel Appeasement Prize.

This prize is awarded to anyone who will bend over backwards, forwards, or sideways in order to appease any two bit dictator or terrorist. Special consideration will be given for those acts which directly, or indirectly, threaten the United States or are just plain stupid."

[Cacique]

How did we ever elect this moron to be president? Thank god we were wise enough to have gotten rid of him after only one term.

[EternalVigilance]

RE: #54

VERY informative post...the kind that makes FR such a great place.

Thanks.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

"Look Mr. Carter...I can see where my desk left a dent on top of your head"

[facedown]

Blechhhh.....

[proust]

We should disarm? Fine, he can go first. I want to see him send all his secret service and police protection home.

[Klunk]

What a Jack ASS. He has no place to talk with his imbecilic failtures as a U.S. President. Go away peanut man, Ronald Reagan had to clean up your horse s**t.

[lonestar]

This idiot was actually President of the United States???????

Jimmy had a brother who was a joke but was much smarter than this fool.

[Lassiter]

This headline should read:

Carter should shut his %&#*ing piehole, says America

I guess he hasn't been told that the electorate dumped his idiotic liberal ideology earlier this month.

However, by some strange fluke, Jimmah did swerve into the truth ever so briefly:

"I think [other nations] feel that we don't really care about them, which is quite often true."

Yes, and they can keep right on feeling that we don't care about them.

[editto]

I've found figures that back Carter's statements. I find them ridiculous in their accusation, but I thought a fair presentation of his figures would be productive in combating his line of thinking.

The "one one-thousandth" figure

United States' Gross National Product (GNP) for 2001 was $9.9 trillion (*1). Of that, $10.884 billion was spent on foreign aid (*2), a percentage of 0.11% -- or 1/1000th.

The "four times as much" figure

Here is a table of foreign aid as a percentage of Gross National Product.

United States - $10.884 billion ODA (0.11% of GNP)
United Kingdom - $4.659 billion ODA (0.32% of GNP)
France - $4.293 billion ODA (0.34% of GNP)
Germany - $4.879 billion ODA (0.27% of GNP)
Norway - $1.346 billion ODA (0.83% of GNP) Japan - $9.678 billion ODA (0.23% of GNP)

Source (*2)

The "Norway $17" figure

The United States' foreign aid contribution for 2001 was $10.884 billion (*2). Norway's foreign aid contribution for the same year was $1.346 billion (*2).

This is where my math and Mr. Carter's diverge.

$10,884 million divided by 284 million people (*1) equals $38.32 of foreign aid provided by every man, woman, and child in the U.S. in the year 2001.

$1,346 million divided by 4.5 million people (*1) equals $299.11 of foreign aid provided by every man, woman, and child in Norway in the year 2001.

Norway's $299.11 figure is 7.8 times the United States' $38.32 -- not 17 times as Mr. Carter claims.

This would still seem to be a significant margin, but there is still no denying that the United States is the largest single contributer of foreign aid in the world. My assumption is that these figures don't include various United Nations contributions, nor do they include American support in the form of our military or open trade agreements.

(*1) - World Development Indicators database, April 2002 (All figures are 2001 data.)
(*2) - Figure is the 2001 Official Development Assistance (ODA) figure from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Actual information found in HTML format online at globalissues.org

[knighthawk]

Great research.