Has Jimmy Carter ever met a dictator he did not love?
Unfortunately, this darling of worldwide leftists cannot seem to
disappear from the world stage. Listed herewith are some of the
more egregious of our 39th President’s follies. The consistent
theme is his unwavering support for socialist dictators.
Has Jimmy Carter ever met a dictator he did not love? Unfortunately, this darling of worldwide leftists cannot seem to disappear from the world stage. Listed herewith are some of the more egregious of our 39th President’s follies. The consistent theme is his unwavering support for socialist dictators.
n President Jimmy Carter invited Robert Mugabe to the White House in 1980 and fully supported this dictator’s rise to power in Rhodesia. Moderate black Bishop Abel Muzorewa had been elected to the post of prime minister. However, President Carter with the support of the world press succeeded in declaring the election null and void. Mugabe, an avowed Marxist, was elected in a second election. The totals of the Zimbabwe disaster under Mugabe are still being tallied: 70 percent unemployment, a total dictatorship, the displacing of productive white farmers and the resulting destruction of productive farms, an exodus of three million Zimbabweans from the country.
n Jimmy Carter has shown a special dedication to the cause of leftist dictators in Central America. He used the full power of the office to undermine and set the stage for the overthrow of the duly elected Anastasio Somosa in Nicaragua, to be replaced by the Marxist Sandanista Daniel Ortega. No matter that the Somosa election had been certified by the OAS. He continues to offer moral support for Marxist dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.
n The Iran hostage crisis occurred under Jimmy Carter’s watch. From Nov. 4, 1979 until Jan. 20, 1981 some 66 Americans were taken hostage and held in the American Embassy in Teheran. They were released within hours of President Ronald Reagan’s swearing in ceremony. Just prior to his inauguration, President Reagan was asked if perhaps the captors should wait until he became president so as to make a better deal for the captives release. Reagan replied, “That would be foolish.”
n Ex-President Jimmy Carter has been instrumental in the rise to power of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez was saved from recall by the voters in Venezuela in 2004 with Carter “monitoring” the election. The election was suspicious on many fronts. The exit polls conducted by an independent New York poling firm declared one half hour before the polls closed that Chavez had been defeated. When the official results were announced, Chavez was declared the winner by nearly the exact opposite percentages as the independent poll had determined. Jimmy Carter certified the Chavez victory anyway. Chavez has shown himself to be a continual hater of the United States.
n One of the most serious threats to global security is the nuclear threat posed by Marxist dictator Kim Jung Il of North Korea. In 1994, without governmental authority, Jimmy Carter went to North Korea and brokered a deal with Kim Jung Il that was supposed to keep that rogue state from attaining nuclear weapons. Jimmy’s “negotiation” called for the United States to provide the North Koreans with $4 billion worth of light water reactors and $100 million in oil in exchange for a promise not to develop weapons plus assurances that inspectors would be allowed in. On Aug. 28, 2003 North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons.
n Perhaps the most egregious and far reaching of the Jimmy Carter failures was his bringing down of the Shah of Iran in 1979, to be replaced by radical Muslim cleric Ayatollah Khomeini. The history of Iran is such that a secular government friendly to both the West and their trading partners along the ancient trade routes, such as India and China, had been an important stabilizing element in Mid-east politics for centuries. Jimmy Carter pressured the Shah, a longtime friend of the United States, to leave Iran. Then he denied him asylum and medical treatment. At the same time he supported the fundamentalist Mullahs who opposed the Shah. A religious revolution followed and the rise of Muslim fundamentalism had begun in the Middle East. The terrorism and overall unrest that plagues the world today can be properly traced to this specific failure of the Jimmy Carter presidency.
It is popular in some circles to blame others such as the United States, or Israel, or George Bush for the instability and radicalism in the Middle East while overlooking the role that Jimmy Carter played in the current situation. But it is a fact of history that Jimmy Carter played a key role in creating the two most important threats to global security today, namely Iran and North Korea.
Al Kelsch lives in Hollister with his wife Judy. They both enjoy running and singing. E-mail him at [email protected].
