Jimmy Carter - Weirdest Interview Yet

Chris Matthews interviews Jimmy Carter, who has just written a history book. Jimmy and Chris explain that Saddam Hussein was Ben Franklin, and George Bush was King George. Or something.

The Captain and the Brother Judd have thoughts.

I am having a hard time picking a favorite bit. The current contenders:

(1) CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

Comments on casualties can be found at the B Judd post. And what is "recently", the Civil War? I understand they hold that close to their hearts in the South, but honestly.

(2) CARTER: Well, I think almost any reasonable person who knew history would say that you can‘t go into an alien environment and force by rule of arms by forcing the people to adopt a strange concept.

I don't know the Japanese phrase for "Ridiculous".

(3) MATTHEWS: Let me talk about another parallel you drew a couple minutes ago, and that is how war became unnecessary. The war we have had with Iraq, and it is an ongoing war, was it possible that if the president or his secretary of state could have reached Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein could have explained to the president no matter what we think of him and his tyranny over there that he didn‘t have weapons of mass destruction or was it a case where are people because of ideological reasons simply wanted to take over that country and they were using WMD as an excuse? Do you think there was any way to have avoided that war if people were of good heart and mind?

Hmm, people of good heart and mind would have found a way to leave Saddam in power, "no matter what we think of him and his tyranny over there"?

Even John Kerry pretends that his approach would have resulted in regime change, although no one can figure out how that would have happened - the inspector's failure to find arms probably would not have incited France to war. In my opnion, anyway.

(4) CARTER: ...I, you know, thought about it a lot and I finally decided that if I did attack Iran, I could have destroyed Iran with our weaponry. There‘s no question about that. But our hostages would have been lost. And also tens of thousands of innocent Iranians would have been lost. And all the troops that we sent there subsequently, many of them would have been casualties.

I think I made the right decision.

MATTHEWS: What do you think Bush and Cheney would have done in the same situation?

CARTER: I don‘t know. If you judge this by the Iraqi war, and if they had a predisposition to go to war, I think they would have done so. I don‘t think that in the case of Iran there was any predisposition on our part to go to war against Iran.

I think Bush and Cheney developed a predisposition to go to war after 9/11. Whether they would have had such a martial instinct in response to the taking of 50 hostages is a question better left to real historians. Whether the US military was ready to go after Iran during the Cold War in 1979 is yet another question. Would this have been popular five years after Vietnam? More questions.

Comments

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

What's the saying about great minds blogging alike?

I also liked this part:

"CARTER: Well, from the first day the hostages were taken, I had two major and unshakable goals in mind that never changed. One was that we would protect the integrity and interest of my country, and that every hostage would come home safe and free.

"And eventually, after 444 days, we achieved on both those goals. "

Thanks to Scary Ron's inauguration, he means. A brilliant sacrifice of his presidency I suppose. Though I do seem to remember the phrase "Great Satan" having originated about that time.

Not to mention that Saddam started his first war on Carter's watch. And there was that encore performance in North Korea in the 90s that allowed them Commies to build nukes in secret. Which gives a suspiciously familiar axis of something, attributable to our peanut historian.

[Fritz]

I wrote this on Kerry, but it could be substituted for Carter
Kerry views government as a provider of felt needs, rights afforded by. He does not recognize Liberty is the right of man that precedes the State. He is motivated by the consensus of others, moving his positions to meet with their authority. Kerry, like Carter, does not believe America has earned its moral authority. This is a perilous misunderstanding against an enemy that thinks it has one.

[Waffle King]

At one time, Carter seemed kind of apolitical, above the fray - just like you'd expect a former President to be. He was involved with Habitat, human rights issues, and election monitoring. I thought he seemed statesmanlike, and I respected him for that even though I think his presidency was a disaster. When I heard him doing some pretty partisan interviews in the 2000 election, I figured he was just going to bat for his team. When I saw him buddying up to Michael Moore at the DNC I was shocked; I thought he was stooping to a lower level. Boy, was I dumb! He was actually trying to get some "street cred" with the modern Democrat wackoes! Or maybe he was taking his place as a godfather, or maybe a patron saint, of the moonbats, sitting next to one of the hitmen/anointed messengers. With the Venezuelan vote monitoring, the call for international monitoring of the U.S. elections, and the load of tripe mentioned above, I finally realize he was always the Jimmy Carter we have before us today: a classic clueless liberal in the Mondale vein. Color me jaded, but now I'll have to rethink everything the man was involved with since his presidency, because the spots never changed.

[Ripper]

Here's something to research re Habitat for UnUsurious houses, which religious community would be particuarly attracted by their terms?

[The Kid]

For a guy who once admitted to adultery because he had lust in his heart, Carter is more willing to speak out against Republicans than against evil. That’s some set of standards, no? The man has turned upside down.

He got snookered by Chavez during the elections in Venezuela, by the NorKs in the 1990s, by the Sandinistas in the 1980s, and the Iranians in the 1970s. Thirty years of foolishness in the public eye.

But here’s what’s scary: Carter had accomplished more when he ran for office than Kerry has. Carter was an engineer and did serve as governor during tumultuous times. With a shorter resume and even less common sense, how can Kerry be doing so well.

Jimmy, get out there, do and say more for the ticket. We need your (bad) example.

[Reid]

Bush would undoubtedly have kicked Iran's ass, and saved us and the rest of the Middle East, even Iran itself, unmeasurable grief in the subsequent turmoil incited by the revolutionary government in Iran.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and Carter is responsible for laying miles upon miles of asphalt on that rocky bed.

[ed]

Hmmm.

1. "I don't know the Japanese phrase for "Ridiculous"."

Lidicurous? :)

Hey! I'm asian. I can say stuff like that. :)

2. I think Jimmy Carter kept his head down until his political failures had been "reformed". If Carter had had a successful Presidency we'd have seen this sort of conduct decades ago. But now that his failures are comfortably in the past, and his new failures glossed over by the MSM, Carter has come back from Siberia to stand at Stalin's side.

So to speak.

[Meep]

Well, I've got something in Japanese you could say:

Carter-sama wa, baka desu nee....

[Towering Barbarian]

Uh, Meep? You made a linguistic error there. The way any sane person would want to phrase that is "Carter-eta no baka!" and you mustn't forget to apply the wooden mallet as you do so (Although I think a bonberi might be more effective in getting the point across). ^_~

There's several words in Japanese for ridiculous but my best guess is that "tandemo" would do. What interested me most is where Mr. Carter said, "I think another parallel is that in some ways *the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.". Reading those words from Mr. Carter reinforced my impression that too many of the liberals wish that America had never become independent and are nothing more than Tories at heart. ~_~

[Slartibartfast]

I don't know the Japanese phrase for "Ridiculous".

Well, if my brother's Japanese is anything resembling accurate, "bakayaro" might be appropriate. It doesn't mean ridiculous, but it means something far more fitting.

[Slartibartfast]

And in the process of looking up the strict translation of that word, I discovered a programming language I wasn't previously familiar with.

Amusing, but not all that useful.

[Dave Schuler]

Tsk, tsk, MinuteMan. Stick to the narrative. War is never justified. There's no such thing as a just cause. War never accomplishes anything.

Mustn't let pesky things like facts get in the way. Anyone who knows historians, errh, history, knows that.

[Veeshir]

I think Carter is best described by the mantra espoused by that great thinker, Oscar Madison

Wa tagu siam.

[FormerHostage]

In case you couldn't tell by my username, I was one of the Marines held hostage in Iran due to Jim-ahhs incompetence. Let me tell you...once it was learned that the Gipper was running for prez, the biggest FAQ from our 'captors' was...do you think Reagan will attack?

Right after the election, one of the ragheads came in with a big smile to tell us that Carter had been defeated. One of my fellow Marines looked at him and said "You mean Reagan won?" "Yes." was the response. We both looked at each other and the other and, with wide eyes made that "oooooooooooooooooooo" sound that you make when you know someone is in trouble.
"What's the matter?" asked the clueless fool.
The other Marine got real close to him and made an explosion noise and moved his hands like a mushroom cloud. One of us said "You guys are soooooo f*cked!"

To this day I honestly belive that if Mr. Peanut had moved a task force to the Gulf and presented a REALISTIC threat...what passed for government forces would have seen to our safe release.

[John Bigenwald]

Jimmy Carter is one of those people who will never believe that a credible threat will avert more actual fighting than all the whining, er summits, anyone could hope to attend.

FormerHostage, it's no coincidence you were released within minutes of Reagan's inauguration. Just as it's no coincidence the USSR collapsed so soon after his term.

[TM]

That's a great story.

[SemiOnager]

Well, if my brother's Japanese is anything resembling accurate, "bakayaro" might be appropriate.

... isn't that pretty close to 'f***ing clown'?

If so, I heartily concur.

[adele]

444 days.