Retire, Jimmy!

We were screwed in 1976. Ford v. Carter. Gerald Ford was never going to be a Ronald Reagan for this country, but how in the hell could the American people elect Jimmy Carter. The guy is nuttier than his peanut farms.

With a hat tip to The Corner and Little Green Footballs, we come to find that Jimmy told Chris Matthews that the Revolutionary War was an unnecessary war. He also chalked it up as our bloodiest war until recent times. He also, get this, calls himself a historian now. I’m not sure which is more absurd. The offending quote in question:

Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War more than any other war 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. Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial’s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a non-violent way. I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.

#1-Revolutionary War-bloody. Civil War, bloodier. World War I, more horrifying, if not bloodier. WWII, bloodier. All three, not recent.
#2-The Revolutionary War could be avoided. This, more than anything, exemplifies Carter’s world view, which is that authoritarian government and subjugation is okay by Jimmy. As long as no one gets hurt actually fighting for freedom, the hope of freedom is enough for the hearts of men. He sees the world through pacifist eyes, and he has no sense of historical perspective to go with that.
#3-The Brits were misled and not sensitive enough. This would be an example of that lack of historical perspective. Europe had a long history of their own bloody wars. A result of this was European nations developing far flung colonies with which to both enrich themselves, and also to strategically defend themselves from each other, both of which were necessary for each individual nation’s survival in the face of threats from the others. In the late 18^th century, sensitivity was suicide. One could make the case that even today, too much sensitivity is still suicide.

Carter wasn’t done there, though. No, he had more.

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 and also when we were so destructive in going into Iraq with tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

Carter calls himself a historian, but I don’t know what kind of historian he is. Certainly not a good one. History is full of examples of nations going into alien environments and using arms to force the people to adopt strange concepts. What is new is a nation that goes in and does this, but doesn’t do it in order to rule the invaded nation and strip it of its wealth, but rather to rid the invaded nation of its evil doers, rebuild it, install freedom, and then to let it be its own nation. Unfortunately, the likes of Jimmy Carter make this task difficult to impossible by siding with insurgencies that are only interested in brutal, heavy handed rule, and in raping their own nations. He also makes it difficult by boosting the morale of these horrible human beings by comparing them to true freedom fighters. I respect Carter’s faith, and I know how much it plays into his pacifism, but it is a cold, hard fact that if the guy across a negotiation table knows that you will not use any show of force, he will not negotiate with you. Even Christ showed his anger and, dare I say, a little violence, to the money changers in the temple. Christ also had the ultimate show of force in his corner-the threat of an eternity in hell.

I feel sorry for Carter sometimes. I wonder if he has spun himself this alternate reality because his Presidency was such a failure that it was the only way he could march forward. In the interview, he also discusses his Iran policy. I felt embarrassed for him as he put a bright, cheery face on his miserable policies.