Retire the Presidents By RYAN COLE
The Bear on May 10 2008 at 8:22 am | Filed under: Need to Know
Since being ejected from the Oval Office in 1980, Jimmy Carter has spent his days conducting rogue diplomacy in global hot spots, dashing from the embrace of one dictator to another and generally making life miserable for sitting American presidents.
For this, Mr. Carter is often called our greatest ex-president.
Accordingly, his latest round of unauthorized diplomacy with Hamas will surely only enhance his post-presidential resume.
But truth be told, no amount of hobnobbing with terrorists or international do-goodery at the expense of American interests will ever erase Mr. Carter’s miserable legacy as president.
From his disastrous handling of both the Iran hostage and OPEC-generated oil crises, to agitated swamp rabbits in Plains, Ga., and cardigan sweaters in the Oval Office, his term was a malaise-inducing era that saw the gradual decline of American power and influence and the continued post-Watergate marginalization of the presidency.
Given this record of non-accomplishments, it is unsurprising that Mr. Carter has worked so fervidly to rehabilitate his record — and diminish the records of his successors.
Related
Roadmap to Disaster: Carter’s dangerous liaisons. By Lloyd Greif
Jimmy Carter, who has long sought to achieve his rightful position in the pantheon of U.S. presidents, has finally achieved his goal. His embrace Friday of Hamas chieftain Khaled Meshaal puts the former leader on par with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who dealt similarly with Adolf Hitler. Both “peace” missions were ill-conceived and actually accomplished harm, legitimizing — for the moment — evil incarnate. Hitler’s Nazi Germany plunged the world into the most horrific war of our time; Hamas is an avowed enemy of the United States (“the Great Satan”) and Israel, the only long-standing democratic ally the U.S. has in a region of autocracies.
That Carter would defy the wishes of both Congress and the president in meeting with a group the U.S. has defined as “foreign terrorist organization” since 1995 demonstrates, at best, a tremendous lack of judgment and, at worst, something far more sinister. He says he went as a representative of the Carter Center, his charitable foundation, and not as a former president or representative of the U.S. government. The proposition is absurd on its face, since Carter’s ex-president status is not something he can take off and put on as he chooses. He further justifies the foray as an effort to promote peace in the region, portraying himself as a conduit of peace between Israel and Hamas, harkening back to his 1978 role in forging a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. But Carter forgets the cardinal rule of negotiations — willing parties on both sides must come to the bargaining table. Israel has proven its bona fides in this regard; unfortunately, Hamas has done just the opposite.
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