It is the continuing Democratic party tradition to accuse the opposition of what they are entirely guilty of. Never was this as painfully clear as watching the worst President this nation has ever had, by far the most damaging, accuse George W. Bush of being the worst president the nation ever had.
Jimmy Carter making these fallacious remarks denigrating our elected commander in chief aids and abets an already emboldened enemy.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - - Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter says President George W. Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.
The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.
"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Full article here
While Carter's domestic policies were Shermanesque (who can forget those 21% interest rates), it was his bungled, traitorous foreign policy that left the biggest scar on the face of humanity.
If there was one single moment in modern world history, when one critical fuck up determined the course of human events it was when Jimmy Carter abandoned our ally in Iran and literally installed the Ayatollah Khomeini as the leader the of the new Islamic state. In every conversation I had ever had with expatriate Iranians this is their mantra.
The following article is anti-American, no doubt, but even with it's decided bias the repercussions of Carter's enormously failed policies are keenly laid out.
From Abu Dhabi to Pakistan, Washington in trouble Axis of Logic
By Sara FloundersMay 15 - The deteriorating global position of U.S. imperialism was starkly exposed in two very different recent visits to Abu Dhabi.
On Friday, May 11, Vice President Dick Cheney stood on the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf in front of the deadly firepower of five F-18 Super Hornet jets to deliver an ominous threat. Cheney declared: ÒWith two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Gulf, weÕre sending a clear message to friends and adversaries alike. ... The United States will stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.
The next day Cheney quietly visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a hasty trip to U.S.-controlled regimes, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to shore up Washington's deteriorating position.
Just one day after the U.S. vice president's visit, and in stark contrast to the low-key reception accorded to Cheney, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Abu Dhabi May 13 to a red carpet welcome. It was the first time an Iranian head of state had visited the UAE since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Besides meeting with top officials in the capital, President Ahmadinejad went to the city of Dubai, where he gave a rousing speech to a cheering rally of thousands who packed a soccer stadium to greet him. This had to have been seen in Washington as another serious challenge to U.S. domination of the region.
The very fact that the tiny, privileged layer of UAE rulers, who have depended on the U.S. military presence in their country to preserve their position, allowed the rally to happen despite a permanent ban on any demonstrations shows just how fearful this grouping is of mass pressure.
The UAE is ruled by a small but fabulously wealthy royal family that holds dictatorial power. No political parties are allowed. There are no elections. Three U.S. military bases are located in the Emirates and U.S. Navy ships dock there regularly.
Out of its population of 4 million, 80 percent are not even considered citizens. Millions of workers in all the Gulf states have a similar status. Whether they have lived in the region for decades or even generations, they are labeled migrant workers.
These workers have no rights to education, health care, pensions, minimum wage or even to form unions or participate in any political activity. Nevertheless, a growing number of strikes and job actions have accompanied political ferment.
Half a million ethnic Iranians live in Dubai, the largest city in the UAE. In three separate public talks during his two-day visit, the fiery Iranian leader called for U.S. troops to "pack their bags" and leave their bases in the Gulf. Asked to comment on Cheney's threats against Iran made two days earlier aboard the USS John C. Stennis, Ahmadinejad replied, "What are these outsiders doing in our region?"
The UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and even Jordan, are all ruled by semi-feudal monarchies whose power and vast wealth are maintained by the force of U.S. arms and bases in the region. Each of these regimes is fearful that the continued U.S. war in Iraq and the threat of war on Iran can undermine their hated control. In each of these monarchies any efforts at democratic change are brutally suppressed.
In addition to the large force the Pentagon has in Iraq, more than 40,000 U.S. troops are based in other Gulf countries, along with 20,000 sailors and Marines on aircraft carriers and ships.
Ahmadinejad left the UAE for a two-day visit to the neighboring Sultanate of Oman, where the U.S. has use of four airbases. Iran and Oman face each other across the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which two-fifths of the world's oil shipments pass.
[...]
U.S. control eroding
Under the Shah's dictatorship, Washington was able to dominate the entire region by arming the Iranian military. The Pentagon did not need to station tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the Gulf. It did not need a whole string of bases. Iran policed all the surrounding states. But after the Iranian Revolution, Washington's global position changed dramatically.
In 1979, after U.S. corporate power had lost control of the largest, most populous country in the region, it had to get Washington to begin sending U.S. troops and position bases elsewhere in an effort to hold on to its fantastic profits.
Like I said this is an Anti-American article, we didn't lose control -- Carter threw our ally out with both hands. And what hell he wrought.
Today even with two aircraft carrier groups in the Gulf, tens of thousands of troops in the region and 150,000 troops in Iraq "the U.S. imperialists" hold on the region is clearly slipping.
