From the last Morning Jolt of the week . . .
Cam and I talked about this a bit last night — he’s shocked that Jimmy Carter went to North Korea and accused the United States of abusing North Koreans’ human rights by withholding food aid; I’m not surprised anymore. If you’ve gone to bat for Saddam Hussein, it’s no great leap to go to bat for Kim Jong Il.
Chris Suellentrop at Slate recounted how Carter did everything possible to dissuade U.S. allies from cooperating with American foreign policy he disagreed with: “During the buildup to the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, Carter unsuccessfully worked to undermine the foreign policy of America’s democratically elected president, George Bush. Carter behaved as the Imperial Ex-President, conducting a guerrilla foreign-policy operation that competed with the actual president’s. What’s disturbing about this behavior is not that Carter opposed war with Iraq. Many Democrats opposed going to war, and they worked within the American system to try to prevent a war that many predicted would be bloody (which it was, for Iraq). But Carter went further than merely lobbying Congress to oppose military action or speaking out in an effort to tilt popular opinion against the coming war. He used his status as a former president to engage in foreign policy, a deliberate effort to subvert the democratic process.
. . . Right up to Bush’s Jan. 15 deadline for war, Carter continued his shadow foreign policy campaign. On Jan. 10, he wrote the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria and asked them to oppose the impending military action. “I am distressed by the inability of either the international community or the Arab world to find a diplomatic solution to the Gulf crisis,” he wrote. “I urge you to call publicly for a delay in the use of force while Arab leaders seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. You may have to forego approval from the White House, but you will find the French, Soviets, and others fully supportive. Also, most Americans will welcome such a move.” Former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft later accused Carter of violating the Logan Act, the law that prohibits American citizens from conducting unofficial foreign policy.
Bryan Preston, writing at Pajamas Media, concludes, “Jimmy Carter really has never forgiven Americans for firing him in 1980, has he? In the former president’s mind, here’s the logic of his latest statement, transcribed below: If American taxpayers don’t pony up to pay for the food of people on the other side of the world who have been brainwashed to want to exterminate us in nuclear Armageddon, we are violating their human rights . . . You, American, are violating North Koreans’ human rights by not automatically opening up your wallet every time Kim gets lonely and starts threatening to turn the Korean peninsula into a sea of fire. Jimmy Carter wants you to be ashamed. It’s not like Carter arrived at this strange position due to experiencing the personal charisma of the Dear Leader himself: Kim reportedly wouldn’t even meet with him.”
We knew Jimmy Carter was so deluded that he didn’t know when he was being used. But now we know he’s so deluded he doesn’t even know when he’s being snubbed.
By the way, Carter is implicitly accusing President Obama of human rights violations. Any lefties want to criticize the peanut farmer over this?