(Yourish)Jimmy Carter has yet another anti-Israel op-ed in the New York Times, where he utterly whitewashes Palestinian intransigence, blames Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to help create a Palestinian state, insists that the settlements are the heart of the problem, calls Israel an apartheid state yet again, and even manages to slam a comatose Ariel Sharon.
But there is a perfect example of Jimmy Carter’s irrelevance and impotence on the world stage. Let’s go back to 1994, when Bill Clinton stupidly enlisted Carter to help stop North Korea from becoming a nuclear power.
In 1994, North Korea had expelled investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency and was threatening to begin processing spent nuclear fuel. In response, then-President Clinton pressured for US sanctions and ordered large amounts of troops and vehicles into the area to brace for war.
Bill Clinton secretly recruited Carter to undertake a peace mission to North Korea,[73] under the guise that it was a private mission of Carter’s. Clinton saw Carter as a way to let North Korean President Kim Il-sung back down without losing face.[74]
Carter negotiated an understanding with Kim Il-sung, but went further and outlined a treaty, which he announced on CNN without the permission of the Clinton White House as a way to force the US into action. The Clinton Administration signed a later version of the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle its current nuclear program and comply with its nonproliferation obligations in exchange for oil deliveries, the construction of two light water reactors to replace its graphite reactors, and discussions for eventual diplomatic relations.
(So how’d that work out for us? )
At least few people take him seriously now. I actually was listening in 2006
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Jimmy Carter
