For the most part, Jimmy Carter is the first President I have a real memory of while I was growing up. I was in third grade during the 1976 Presidential Election and remember watching his January `77 Inauguration on television in my classroom, a fairly big deal for a third grader back then.
By the time he left office, though, I was in sixth grade, 52 Americans had been held hostage for 444 days, and it was fairly clear that the man was a failure.
Little did I know he would sink this low:
DAMASCUS, Syria — Former President Carter met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and the militant group’s deputy chief, men the U.S. government has labeled as global terrorists and Israel accuses of masterminding suicide bombings and kidnappings.
Carter’s meeting with Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal followed two other meetings between the former American president and the Palestinian militant group in the Middle East this week. Hamas officials say the meetings have lent their group legitimacy.
(…)
Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, has defended what he calls his personal peace mission, saying Hamas must be engaged in order to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Isn’t this the same guy who was telling us 15 years ago that the Palestine Liberation Organization must be “engaged” in order to achieve peace ?
Well, we, and Israel, tried that, and the Palestinian people responded by rallying around a political party made up of terrorists and murderers.
And people died because of it.
What makes the Plains Peanut Farmer think that appeasing terrorists once again is going to turn out any different ?
April 18th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I find no evidence that President Carter “likes” any leader of Hamas, nor any other terrorist. Nor, do I know of any power that he has to offer any concessions to belligerent demands of terrorists, which would constitute appeasement.
Regardless of official U.S. policy, I have every confidence that Carter’s behind-the-scenes work with these characters will inure to the benefit of both world peace and American interests. He’s one of the few Americans with the status to engage these groups and the courage to do so in the face of the near-universal criticism that he clearly knows he’ll face.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Harry,
Engaging the PLO led to the emergence of a more radical terrorist group (i.e., Hamas)
What makes you think that engaging people who strap bombs to themselves and walk into pizza parlors will accomplish anything ?
The answer, of course, is that it won’t accomplish anything except legitimizing murder as a means of gaining political prestige, which is exactly what Carter’s visit gives that murdering thug.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Carter is doing a good job at helping Bush’s legacy. If people think Bush is bad they should really look at traitor Carter’s legacy of empowering terrorists and dictators. Carter was one of the worst Presidents in American history and certainly is the worst ex-President ever.