JIMMY CARTER ON BLAIR
THEN ON OBAMA
MAY 19th 2007
This takes the biscuit. This mumbling peanut-farmer criticises the UK PM for not overruling the President of the US, our major political and economic ally, in the matter of a campaign that had been 12 years in the burner, the avoidance of which was in the US politically impossible and in the MIddle East not explainable, driven not just by the President but by a defence secretary of a seniority that made it hard to dea with (even though he was a bastard who didn't know what he didn't know) and a bunch of overconfident neo-cons. Scroll down if you want to read Carter's views next.

Blair fought for UN backing - the right thing to do. In France, the man now appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, the founder of Medicins sans Frontieres, was certain that Saddam had to be removed. All Iraqis who had fled the country pleaded for Saddam's removal. To get Saddam to come clean over WMD an invasion force had to be placed on his frontier. Only then did he allow Blix to try some fairly ineffective inspections which would never in 100 years have revealed whether or not there were WMD anywhere. What was known was Saddam had the personnel, the programme and the means, so what was needed was access to the personnel, which was refused.

When at the last step the final UN explicit authorisation to back up its resolutions with action was not forthcoming, there were 3 poasiblities:
  1. To keep the coalition invasion force stationed on the frontier into the blazing summer
  2. To take it all rapidly back home in stages
  3. To go ahead and remove Saddam
The first 2 would have been disastrous. The third was the right option, but due a number of factors the UK was not in a pisition to plan the management of the postwar peace in Baghdad.  Now I am not a supporter of Bush. As far as I am concerned he was always a disaster, his party is a disaster, his father was a disaster, his government is a disaster. He is single-handedly as responsible as Rumsfeld for the abject failure to do anything right and for turning friends of America into enemies of America. On the other hand many of his critics are even worse, and their criticism of things like Guantanamo Bay are complete bollocks, even if there has been ineptitude and incompetence associated in some cases with its management.

To have lost the moral high-ground when dealing with al-Qaida is pretty difficult, but Bush and his lot managed it. For any American to put the blame for this onto Blair is beyond pathetic. American citizens were responsible for electing this man and they were largely responsible for how he thought and how he behaved.. In his own weird way he played the role he thought was needed. He is not without courage. He actually did the right thing. But he did it really, really, really badly, not understanding anything at all about it. That much was apparent the day we heard hinm telling us hostilities were over after the invasion. Nor did the Israelis understand that the removal of Saddam was the signal for them to get out of the occupied territories right away and stay out.

Mr Carter said that if Mr Blair had distanced himself from the Bush administration's policy during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq it might have made a crucial difference to American political and public opinion.

In your dreams, you silly little mumbling twerp. You and Americans like you, just as much as your US opponents, are to blame. You are nice guys, but you haven't a bloody clue, and that's why we end up with George Bush in charge of the world's superpower. We are actually better of with him than we would be with you. That's how it is. And awful though things are now in some places and in some ways globally, it is probably better to get it over with than to have gone through this particular stage later. There are actually some problems George Bush does NOT have.
Carter attacks Blair's Iraq role

Jimmy Carter has won a Nobel Prize for his charitable work
Carter on Blair
Former US President Jimmy Carter has criticised outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his "blind" support of the war in Iraq.

Mr Carter told the BBC Mr Blair's backing for US President George W Bush had been "apparently subservient".

He said the UK's "almost undeviating" support for "the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world".

His comments came as Mr Blair paid what is likely to be his last visit to Iraq.

He flew into the capital, Baghdad, for talks with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki at which he is expected to push for greater reconciliation between Iraq's Sunni and Shia factions.

Mr Blair is due to leave office at the end of next month.

'Global schisms'

Mr Carter said that if Mr Blair had distanced himself from the Bush administration's policy during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq it might have made a crucial difference to American political and public opinion.

"One of the defences of the Bush administration... has been, okay, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us," he told the Today programme on Radio 4.

"So I think the combination of Bush and Blair giving their support to this tragedy in Iraq has strengthened the effort and has made the opposition less effective and prolonged the war and increased the tragedy that has resulted."

The war had "caused deep schisms on a global basis", he said, and he hoped Mr Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, would be less enthusiastic in his support for it.

The former US president has been a fierce critic of the US-led war in Iraq.

In an interview last year, he said he was "disappointed" by Tony Blair's failure to use his influence with President Bush more wisely.

In 1976, Mr Carter unseated the incumbent Gerald Ford to become the 39th US president, serving until 1981.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, for what presenters cited as decades of work seeking peaceful solutions and promoting social and economic justice.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/6672035.stm

Published: 2007/05/19 09:50:08 GMT

© BBC MMVII

SEPTEMBER 16th 2009
The Peanut Farmer strikes again. Now he thinks a typical policy dispute over US health care is based on racism!
This guy really ought to be put out to grass on a funny farm before he does more damage.

Good to see Obama has put him straight.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090916/pl_nm/us_usa_carter_racism

If Hilary Clinton was President she would be getting the same flak from the same number of morons on the same issue.


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