PrintApril 24, 2008
Jimmy Carter Disgraced For Many Reasons
When it came time to judge Jimmy Carter's presidency, Americans voters thundered: Carter, receiving 40% of the popular vote, carrying six states. With sound reasons: The prime rate had soared to 20%, inflation to 12.5% and unemployment to 7.5%
More dismal than Carter's domestic failures is the continuing damage his blunders did to international security. Carter would not help Iran's Shah -- a strong ally of the U.S., even if not exactly a Jeffersonian democrat -- withstand Khomeini's revolution. Carter bears responsibility for subjecting Iran to the nightmarish rule of fanatic mullahs. All evils currently instigated by Iran -- e.g., killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Hezbollah's subjugation of Lebanon, Hamas' reign of rockets and terrorism--are attributable to Carter's blunder. Carter urged 150 Iranian generals to accept Khomeini. All were subsequently tortured and executed; the mullahs distributed photos of their mutilated corpses.
Iranian theocrats exhibited their respect for Carter by invading our embassy in Teheran and kidnapping diplomats -- a breach of international law eschewed even by Hitler and Stalin. Carter dithered for 444 interminable days during the crisis. His cowardly reluctance to take action exposed our country as a paper tiger, emboldening enemies worldwide. Hostages were released the day Ronald Reagan became President; Iranians realized we now had a leader who would act resolutely.
No Credence Due Carter
This explains why no credence is due anything Carter says regarding public policy. To these defects of intellect and character, one more must be added: Carter's obsession about Israel which borders on -- and trespasses into -- outright anti-Semitism. You don't have to be Jewish to recognize the mischief Carter caused in the Middle East last week by his parleys with senior Hamas terrorist Khaled Meshaal. Michael Young of the Beirut Star editorialized: "Carter is on a fool's errand, complicating an already complicated situation" because his meetings with Hamas legitimate terrorists who have no interest in peaceful resolution.
The columnist added:
"You can almost hear Meshaal gasping at Carter's naiveté as he prepares to score points off his solemn American visitor."
The State Department and Congressmen from both parties condemned Carter's interference with U.S. policy of shunning Hamas until it abandons its aim of annihilating Israel. Hamas, claiming Carter won them respectability, celebrated by sending two explosive-laden cars into Israel, followed by an armored car filled with murderers, plus knocking out a power line with a rocket barrage.
I suffered a one-on-one meeting with Carter during the 1976 primaries. Carter assured me that, as a devout Christian, he was committed to Israel's security. He handwrote a confirmation. It was all lies. Carter reportedly told intimates that Sen. Henry Jackson had the Jewish voters "so we'll get the Christians." In 1980, Carter ordered an unprecedented vote against Israel in the UN Security Council. He subsequently put out the lie that our delegate misunderstood instructions! As November neared and American Jews--like their Christian neighbors--indicated that they would back Reagan in unprecedented numbers, Carter told associates, "If I get back in, I'm going to **** the Jews." And so he has been trying for 28 years.
Carter's Discredited Book
Carter wrote a mendacious book about Israel, jamming the expletive "Apartheid" into his title to achieve maximum defamatory effect, though he knows Israeli Arabs enjoy equal rights unknown in other Mideast countries.
Scholar Kenneth Stein, ex-director of the Carter Center, wrote that Carter's book was,
Scholar Kenneth Stein, ex-director of the Carter Center, wrote that Carter's book was,
"replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited [including maps stolen from Dennis Ross' book with captions switched], glaring omissions and simply invented segments."
Even the New York Times, deriding Carter's "narrow perspective," charged the book with lying about Arafat's supposedly abandoning terrorism. Arafat was Carter's endeared friend despite his murders of U.S. diplomats in Khartoum [machine-gunned in 1973] and Gaza [blown up in 2003]. Carter, who placed flowers on Arafat's grave last week, edited the unrepentant master terrorist's speeches to maximize a false spin of peace-loving.
Professor Stein and 13 other senior advisers of the Carter Center -- which underwrites Carter's travels and writings -- resigned in protest over the "Apartheid" book.
Professor Stein and 13 other senior advisers of the Carter Center -- which underwrites Carter's travels and writings -- resigned in protest over the "Apartheid" book.
Blood money
An editorial in Investor's Business Daily, captioned "Jimmy Carter's L'il Ol' Stink Tank," revealed that the Center's $200 million endowment derives from multi-million-dollar gifts from Saudi princes and government, oil sheikhs, crooked Mideast bankers and Arafat cronies:
"Arab cash flows into the Center from people known to demand something in return. The Center's contributions and Carter's anti-Israel diatribes have both increased dramatically."
Saudi Arabia -- a country in which I observed flagrant human rights violations during visits in 1995 and 1998 -- routinely beheads prisoners (102 in the first half of 2007, including 3 women), chops off limbs, sentences rape victims to lashings and forbids women to drive. Carter has never criticized Saudi Arabia. Apparently, Saudi money speaks loudly to him. Carter reserves his criticism for American Jews who make contributions to candidates they favor.
While Carter castigates Israeli leaders, including those responsible for withdrawing from Gaza, he has showered praise on dictators, including the Father-Son Dr. Strangeloves of North Korea (who let millions of their own citizens starve to death), Hafez al-Assad (who slaughtered 20,000 of his own citizens at a place called Hama), Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Robert Mugabe, Hosni Mubarak, Tito and Ceausescu (asserting the latter two believed in "human rights") Democratic Party leaders are scrambling to distance Carter from their Convention and the presidential election; Americans disagree on many issues, but there is no strong pro-Hamas faction in this country.
Former Mayor Ed Koch wrote last week that Jimmy Carter was "a miserable president" and "a miserable human being now as he prepares to meet with Hamas." Carter should be encouraged to farm his peanuts, build houses and take more money from the Saudis. For the sake of the security of democratic countries, he should be discouraged from meddling in foreign policy.
Joel Sprayregen, a Chicago lawyer, met Jimmy Carter twice but voted for him only once. He was an invited guest at Carter's Presidential Inauguration.
