Quote:This Isn't the Real America

By Jimmy Carter
The Los Angeles Times

Monday 14 November 2005

In recent years, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican.

These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.

Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.

At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from the restraints of international organizations and have disavowed long-standing global agreements - including agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of justice.

Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of "preemptive war," an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes.

Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top US leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world.

These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of "You are either with us or against us!" has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.

Another disturbing realization is that, unlike during other times of national crisis, the burden of conflict is now concentrated exclusively on the few heroic men and women sent back repeatedly to fight in the quagmire of Iraq. The rest of our nation has not been asked to make any sacrifice, and every effort has been made to conceal or minimize public awareness of casualties.

Instead of cherishing our role as the great champion of human rights, we now find civil liberties and personal privacy grossly violated under some extreme provisions of the Patriot Act.

Of even greater concern is that the US has repudiated the Geneva accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" on people in US custody.

Instead of reducing America's reliance on nuclear weapons and their further proliferation, we have insisted on our right (and that of others) to retain our arsenals, expand them, and therefore abrogate or derogate almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during the last 50 years. We have now become a prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation. America also has abandoned the prohibition of "first use" of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear nations, and is contemplating the previously condemned deployment of weapons in space.

Protection of the environment has fallen by the wayside because of government subservience to political pressure from the oil industry and other powerful lobbying groups. The last five years have brought continued lowering of pollution standards at home and almost universal condemnation of our nation's global environmental policies.

Our government has abandoned fiscal responsibility by unprecedented favors to the rich, while neglecting America's working families. Members of Congress have increased their own pay by $30,000 per year since freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour (the lowest among industrialized nations).

I am extremely concerned by a fundamentalist shift in many houses of worship and in government, as church and state have become increasingly intertwined in ways previously thought unimaginable.

As the world's only superpower, America should be seen as the unswerving champion of peace, freedom and human rights. Our country should be the focal point around which other nations can gather to combat threats to international security and to enhance the quality of our common environment. We should be in the forefront of providing human assistance to people in need.

It is time for the deep and disturbing political divisions within our country to be substantially healed, with Americans united in a common commitment to revive and nourish the historic political and moral values that we have espoused during the last 230 years.

When you mix fact with fiction, it's really hard to sort it all out.

You had your chance Carter, 4 years of abject failure. I wished you well then, and thought you got a raw deal...now I'm not so sure.

Nevertheless, the proof is in the pudding. If you knew what you were doing, you'd have been a 2-term president and been able to shape the US through some incredibly formative years. The facts are evident, despite people's effor to re-write history. We don't need more bad ideas and proven-failure policies.

Maybe you should try golf, Mr. Carter.

Jimmy Carter. :roflol: :roflol: :roflol: :roflol: :laugh: :laugh:

Jimmy Carter is a great american...better man than you and I. He has dedicated his life for others. Some people are great political targets...I say he is not..

His presidency? Not nearly as successful as his post presidential life.

niuguy Wrote:Jimmy Carter is a great american...better man than you and I.  He has dedicated his life for others.  Some people are great political targets...I say he is not..

His presidency?  Not nearly as successful as his post presidential life.

Jimmy Carter is a bitter vendictive man. He always has been. Building some habitat houses (which I give him great credit for) doesn't change this fact. He has made it a point to criticize and undermine every president since the one that kicked the crap out of him back in 1980.

Jimmy Carter is a political target because he makes himself one by attacking the current president at every opportunity. You put yourself out there like that then you deserve to be a target.

There are more than a few Americans that dedicate their lives to helping others. He doesn't get a free pass because he does. He chooses to run his yap and undermine presidents, therefore it is perfectly acceptable to call him what he is.

The first Bush in the White House took plenty of pot shots at Clinton during his presidency. Was that because he was a vindictive man?

He has a differing view, you have the right to disagree but not tear him down for it.

uhmump95 Wrote:The first Bush in the White House took plenty of pot shots at Clinton during his presidency.  Was that because he was a vindictive man?

There is a profound difference between Bush I saying he had concerns about Clinton's strategy in Hati or Somalia and Jimmy Carter saying Bush doesn't share America's values, that he's a liar, that he mislead America, that the war is unjustified etc. You didn't see Bush I writing Op-ed after op-ed just to criticize Clinton.

Example. When asked about Somalia Bush I said in 1996

Quote:``I can't be particularly critical of the president. For me, the Bosnia mission was never clear.''

Compare that to Carter's tripe you can read above, and other things he's said, and I think you can see the difference.

Carter goes out of his way to inject himself into current political affairs. Bush I responded when asked.

The two are very much apples and oranges.

DrTorch Wrote:When you mix fact with fiction, it's really hard to sort it all out.

You had your chance Carter, 4 years of abject failure.  I wished you well then, and thought you got a raw deal...now I'm not so sure.

Nevertheless, the proof is in the pudding.  If you knew what you were doing, you'd have been a 2-term president and been able to shape the US through some incredibly formative years.  The facts are evident, despite people's effor to re-write history.  We don't need more bad ideas and proven-failure policies.

Maybe you should try golf, Mr. Carter.

"Nevertheless, the proof is in the pudding. If you knew what you were doing, you'd have been a 2-term president and been able to shape the US through some incredibly formative years."

So Clinton was a success because he was a two term, and first Bush was a failure because he got his a$$ kicked out after his 1 term?