Thursday, October 11, 2007

Pot To Kettle- You're Black!

According to al-Reuters news agency, former President Jimmy Carter called current Vice-President Richard Cheney a disaster for the United States". Carter was speaking in Washington DC, to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Reuters quoted Carter as saying,
"He's a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military and he has been most forceful in the last 10 years or more in fulfilling some of his more ancient commitments that the United States has a right to inject its power through military means in other parts of the world," Carter told the BBC World News America in an interview to air later on Wednesday.

"You know he's been a disaster for our country," Carter said. "I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush and quite often he's prevailed."

Asked to respond, Cheney refused to lower himself to Carter's level, responding through spokesperson Megan Mitchell that "we're not going to engage in this type of rhetoric."

I find this to be appalling and ridiculous at the same time. Considering Carter's record in office, for him to accuse anyone of being a disaster for the United States is the height of idiocy. After all, this is the man who gave away one of the United States' prime security assets in the Panama Canal, who allowed Iranian terrorists to hold American diplomatic and military personnel hostage for over a year, whose weak response to said kidnapping ensured that we now face a theocratic, fundamentalist Iran determined to destroy us, and whose domestic policy nearly crippled the United States economy. Subsequent to being summarily rejected in the 1980 elecetion, Carter has made common cause with such undemocratic, autocratic leaders as Fidel Castro of Cuba, Mahmoud Ahmajedhadi of Iran, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. He has undermined United States policy and has broken the traditional rule of respect for his successors, issuing derogatory comments about the current President.

Whether or not Richard Cheney is in fact a disaster for the United States can only be judged at a distance, once this Administration is out of office. It is almost impossible to judge a Presidential Administration at close range, though I rather suspect that the Bush Administration will score relatively well once time has had a chance to take effect. History has judged Carter to be a very poor President with reason and perhaps he feels guilty for how badly his term in office appears in restrospect. But that is no excuse to undermine the current Adminstration. Carter has become a national disgrace and the sooner he realizes this and retreats into deserved obscurity, the better this nation will be. Comments like this one are both hilarious considering the issuer's record and appalling for the lack of class it reveals for the commenter and the lack of respect it shows both of the office of President and the current occupant.

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