Where is George Bush?

[MARIS61]

Regarding speeds' post...

It's generally accepted that former presidents spend their retirement raking in millions on the speech circuit or hide in opulent shame, while ignoring their country's welfare. It's a dishonorable thing Bush is doing (as his father did), and another reason why Jimmy Carter is the greatest (only?) Patriot to be President in my lifetime.

fixed.

 

[Denny Crane]

Jimmy Carter is an assclown who never got it when it came to foreign or domestic policy. He's done one good thing since becoming a one-term ex president, and that's habitat for humanity. Everything else he's done has been disastrous. Giving him the nobel prize turned that prize into the joke it's been ever since.

 

[MARIS61]

Jimmy Carter is an assclown who never got it when it came to foreign or domestic policy. He's done one good thing since becoming a one-term ex president, and that's habitat for humanity. Everything else he's done has been disastrous. Giving him the nobel prize turned that prize into the joke it's been ever since.

How naive of you.

President Carter has spurred the spread of democracy throughout the world more than any President in history through his many volunteer mediations between world leaders and his participation in assuring open and free elections in dozens of countries who have never had them before.

He raised the bar for future Peace Prize Nobelists to aspire to.

from his bio:

Jimmy Carter served as president from Jan. 20, 1977 to Jan. 20, 1981. Significant foreign policy accomplishments of his administration included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. He championed human rights throughout the world. On the domestic side, the administration's achievements included a comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy; deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance; major educational programs under a new Department of Education; and major environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

 

[Denny Crane]

How naive of you.

President Carter has spurred the spread of democracy throughout the world more than any President in history through his many volunteer mediations between world leaders and his participation in assuring open and free elections in dozens of countries who have never had them before.

He raised the bar for future Peace Prize Nobelists to aspire to.

from his bio:

Jimmy Carter served as president from Jan. 20, 1977 to Jan. 20, 1981. Significant foreign policy accomplishments of his administration included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. He championed human rights throughout the world. On the domestic side, the administration's achievements included a comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy; deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance; major educational programs under a new Department of Education; and major environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Jimmy Carter made Iran what it is today - a nation that supports organized terrorist groups throughout the mideast and who attack our troops there and who's trying to become a nuclear nation with a scary outcome. His diplomacy left tens of millions of people living under the kind of rule you hate - religious - with all the chopping off of hands and that soft of thing that goes along with it.

The peace between Israel and Egypt was the only bright spot in his presidency, yet Egypt was more than willing because they got the Sinai back in the process.

Your bio lies. Nixon went to China and named GHW Bush was the first ambassador to China in 1974, roughly three years before the disaster known as the Carter presidency.

Carter left office with interest rates near 20%, inflation near 20%, and unemployment near today's level. Another term and those numbers would likely have doubled if not become even worse than that.

He was a miserable failure of a president and he's a despicable human being.

 

[julius]

The American dream...

God knows it's my American dream. I just need to find some billionaire heiress..

 

[barfo]

Your bio lies. Nixon went to China and named GHW Bush was the first ambassador to China in 1974, roughly three years before the disaster known as the Carter presidency.

Not really. The bio says that he established diplomatic relations with the PRC, and that is in fact accurate. While Nixon went to China, he did not establish "diplomatic relations" because China wouldn't allow that without our dropping relations with Taiwan. Carter dropped Taiwan and recognized China.

He was a miserable failure of a president and he's a despicable human being.

I don't see the point in arguing the former, but what's the basis for the latter opinion?

barfo

 

[MARIS61]

Jimmy Carter made Iran what it is today - a nation that supports organized terrorist groups throughout the mideast and who attack our troops there and who's trying to become a nuclear nation with a scary outcome. His diplomacy left tens of millions of people living under the kind of rule you hate - religious - with all the chopping off of hands and that soft of thing that goes along with it.

The peace between Israel and Egypt was the only bright spot in his presidency, yet Egypt was more than willing because they got the Sinai back in the process.

Your bio lies. Nixon went to China and named GHW Bush was the first ambassador to China in 1974, roughly three years before the disaster known as the Carter presidency.

Carter left office with interest rates near 20%, inflation near 20%, and unemployment near today's level. Another term and those numbers would likely have doubled if not become even worse than that.

He was a miserable failure of a president and he's a despicable human being.

Iran has been that way all my life, and I'm older than you. It was a terrorist state armed by Nixon and Ford before Carter was elected, and the same group of Ayatollas still rule it today with weapons bought from Reagan, Clinton and Bush #1. The only change with Iran was that Carter was the only President to stand up to them.

The economy collapsed years earlier under the weight of a criminal president who abolished the gold standard and an illegal war, followed by the total incompetence of Ford. Many was the afternoon I wasted in a gas line for $3 gallon. Today's high prices way back in 1972/73. For reference, gas in 1970 was 29 cents a gallon at the Shell in LO.

Nixon sent GB to China as a spy, under the guise of ambassador, and he was regarded as such by China. We had no meaningful relations with them until Carter pushed for them.

 

[Denny Crane]

Iran has been that way all my life, and I'm older than you. It was a terrorist state armed by Nixon and Ford before Carter was elected, and the same group of Ayatollas still rule it today with weapons bought from Reagan, Clinton and Bush #1. The only change with Iran was that Carter was the only President to stand up to them.

The economy collapsed years earlier under the weight of a criminal president who abolished the gold standard and an illegal war, followed by the total incompetence of Ford. Many was the afternoon I wasted in a gas line for $3 gallon. Today's high prices way back in 1972/73. For reference, gas in 1970 was 29 cents a gallon at the Shell in LO.

Nixon sent GB to China as a spy, under the guise of ambassador, and he was regarded as such by China. We had no relations with them until Carter pushed for them.

No offense, but it's tin foil hat time!

I'm no spring chicken - I was in college when Carter was president. I remember him taking in the Shah and pissing off the Iranians. I remember Nightline started just to cover the Hostage Crisis of his own making. He decimated the military to the point where people died trying to get helicopters off the ground to attempt a rescue. And I remember him making a nationally televised speech offering arms for hostages.

He was a laughing stock.

Iran was not a terrorist nation as you claim. They recognized Israel and underwent numerous westernization policies. And the Shah came to power in the 1950s, long before Reagan or Bush or Nixon or Ford were president.

Gasoline prices never saw $.60/gallon in the 1973 oil shock.

Ford may have been incompetent, but he was not so much so that he was a danger to the country like Carter was. Both he and Nixon fought inflation and unemployment and interest rates, but were only able to affect two of the three. Carter couldn't control any of the three.

 

[Shooter]

Did he just disappear off the planet or what? For someone who never lost a bid for office... it just seems like he absolutely vanished from the political landscape.

He didn't vanish. Right now he's probably so disgusted by the current occupant of the White House that he's trying to imagine he's in another country.

 

[MARIS61]

No offense, but it's tin foil hat time!

I'm no spring chicken - I was in college when Carter was president. I remember him taking in the Shah and pissing off the Iranians. I remember Nightline started just to cover the Hostage Crisis of his own making. He decimated the military to the point where people died trying to get helicopters off the ground to attempt a rescue. And I remember him making a nationally televised speech offering arms for hostages.

He was a laughing stock.

Gasoline prices never saw $.60/gallon in the 1973 oil shock.

Ford may have been incompetent, but he was not so much so that he was a danger to the country like Carter was. Both he and Nixon fought inflation and unemployment and interest rates, but were only able to affect two of the three. Carter couldn't control any of the three.

Pure fiction.

 

[Denny Crane]

Pure fiction.

I agree, your post was.

 

[Denny Crane]

http://newsblaze.com/story/20071129155644tsop.nb/topstory.html

Jimmy Carter's Human Rights Disaster in Iran

By Slater Bakhtavar

In the mid twentieth century, US-Iranian relations prospered. Many Americans celebrated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a model king. President Lyndon B. Johnson pronounced in 1964: "What is going on in Iran is about the best thing going on anywhere in the world."

During the 1970's, Iran's Shah propelled Iran into becoming a dynamic Middle East regional power. The Shah implemented broad economic and social reforms, including enhanced rights for women, and religious and ethnic minorities. Economic and educational reforms were adopted, initiatives to cleanse politics of social upheaval were systematized, and the civil service system was reformed. When sectors of society rioted to demand even greater freedom, the Shah promised constitutional reform to favor democracy. In the face of Soviet and fundamentalist Islamic pressures, constitutional reform remained on the back burner, as the Shah built what on paper was the world's fifth or sixth largest armed force. In 1976, it had an estimated 3,000 tanks, 890 helicopter gunships, over 200 advanced fighter aircraft, the largest fleet of hovercraft in any country and 9,000 anti-tank missiles.

The Shah used Iran's military might to address regional crises consistent with the foreign relations goals of the United States. The Nixon and Ford administrations endorsed these efforts and allowed the Shah to acquire virtually unlimited quantities of any non-nuclear weapons in the American arsenal.

In accordance with the pleasant US-Iranian relations then-existing, President Carter spent New Year's Eve in 1977 with the Shah and toasted Iran as "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world." Nonetheless, between 1975 and 1978, the Shah's popularity fell due to the Carter administration's misguided implementation of human rights policies. The election of Mr. Carter as president of the United States in 1976, with his vocal emphasis on the importance of human rights in international affairs, was a turning point in US-Iranian relations. The Shah of Iran was accused of torturing over 3000 prisoners. Under the banner of promoting human rights, Carter made excessive demands of the Shah, threatening to withhold military and social aid. Carter pressured the Shah to release "political prisoners," whose ranks included radical fundamentalists, communists and terrorists. Many of these individuals are now among the opponents we face in our "war on terrorism."

The Carter Administration insisted that the Shah disband military tribunals, demanding they be replaced by civil courts. The effect was to allow trials to serve as platforms for anti-government propaganda. Carter pressured Iran to permit "free assembly," which encouraged and fostered fundamentalist anti-government rallies. The British government and its MI6 intelligence agency also heightened the Shah's precariousness. The government-controlled BBC presented Iranians with a dossier of twenty hour newscasts detailing the location of all anti-Shah demonstrations and consistent interviews with the exiled outcast Ayatollah Khomeini, making a religious scholar few Iranians knew about into an overnight sensation.

When the Shah was unable to meet the Carter Administration's and British demands, the Carter Administration ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to stop $4 million per year in funding to religious Mullahs who then became outspoken and vehement opponents of the Shah. Unfortunately, the Shah's efforts to defuse the volatile situation in Iran failed, despite the granting of free and democratic elections. Confronted with lack of US support and unleashed Mullah fury, the Shah of Iran fled the country.

Subsequent to the Carter Administration's ill-conceived foreign policy initiative, Iran is now a dungeon. Ayatollah Khomeini's dictatorship executed the Shah's prisoners, predominantly communist militants, along with more than 20,000 pro-Western Iranians. Women were sent back into servitude.

Citizens were arrested merely for owning satellite dishes that could tune to Western programs. American diplomats were taken hostage, and the Soviet Union invaded Iran's eastern neighbor Afghanistan as a result of this chaos, allowing it to secure greater influence in Iran and Pakistan. The struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the defeat of this invading Superpower with help from the United States under President Reagan gave rise to the radicalization and emergence of Muslim zealots like Osama bin Laden. Moreover, within a year of the Shah's ouster, Iran on its western flank was locked into the Iran-Iraq War, in which the U.S. sided with secular Iraq and its military dictator Saddam Hussein.

In retrospect, the Iran-Iraq War would never have occurred, had Jimmy Carter not weakened the Shah's regime. This conflict cost the two nations more than 500,000 lives, including thousands of Iranians killed by Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons. The Iran-Iraq war triggered the rise of Saddam Hussein as a major power whose invasion of Kuwait was repelled by Desert Storm. The United States refrained from deposing Saddam Hussein in a continuation of the Desert Storm operation, out of concern that the resulting "power vacuum" would be filled by Iran's Ayatollahs.

Thus, Jimmy Carter's misguided implementation of human rights policies not only indirectly led to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, but also paved the way for the loss of more than 600,000 lives, Iran's rule by Ayatollahs, the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait and Desert Storm, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the mass murder of Americans and the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.

Quite an accomplishment for a man who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for "decades of work seeking peaceful solutions and promoting social and economic justice."

Slater Bakhtavar is president and founder of Republican Youth of America, a frequent commentator and respected analyst on foreign policy issues, and an attorney with a post-doctoral degree in International law.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Jimmy Carter is an assclown who never got it when it came to foreign or domestic policy. He's done one good thing since becoming a one-term ex president, and that's habitat for humanity. Everything else he's done has been disastrous. Giving him the nobel prize turned that prize into the joke it's been ever since.

Sadly, this is all too true.

 

[Natebishop3]

I agree, your post was.

Denny you finally got baited by the master of all baiters

 

[barfo]

Nonetheless, between 1975 and 1978, the Shah's popularity fell due to the Carter administration's misguided implementation of human rights policies.

Got to worry about your source's objectivity, given that Carter didn't take office until January 1977. Hard to imagine how the Carter administration's policies affected Iran prior to that date.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

Got to worry about your source's objectivity, given that Carter didn't take office until January 1977. Hard to imagine how the Carter administration's policies affected Iran prior to that date.

barfo

Assuming the writer cares about his use of words... BETWEEN would be the years 1976 and 1977, no?

Carter was a complete unknown in 1976. My bad, he was running for president, espousing all kinds of policy ideas, no?

 

[barfo]

Assuming the writer cares about his use of words... BETWEEN would be the years 1976 and 1977, no?

Carter was a complete unknown in 1976. My bad, he was running for president, espousing all kinds of policy ideas, no?

Policy ideas from presidential candidates who haven't yet been elected rarely significantly influence the overthrow of foreign governments.

No, no reasonable interpretation of "between 1975 and 1978" in this context means "during 1976 and 1977". If that was what he meant he'd have just said "during 1976 and 1977".

I think your author wasn't paying attention in his eagerness to pin it all on Carter. Either he got the dates wrong, or he got the culprit wrong. Either way, he's wrong.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

Policy ideas from presidential candidates who haven't yet been elected rarely significantly influence the overthrow of foreign governments.

No, no reasonable interpretation of "between 1975 and 1978" in this context means "during 1976 and 1977". If that was what he meant he'd have just said "during 1976 and 1977".

I think your author wasn't paying attention in his eagerness to pin it all on Carter. Either he got the dates wrong, or he got the culprit wrong. Either way, he's wrong.

barfo

But oh so right about the rest of it.