Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Jimmy Carter has just pitched up in North Korea, joined by the former Finnish President, the former Irish president, and the former Norwegian Prime Minister. They call themselves "The Elders," and no, I did not make that up and I couldn't.
“Carter can help provide a turning point in the stalled dialogue with North Korea as he acts as a messenger,” said Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “The U.S. wouldn’t want to wait forever for inter- Korean relations to improve at the risk of jeopardizing nuclear disarmament talks.”
The State Department says he's not traveling in an official capacity:
“We have not had any contact with him other than being informed about the trip. And he's clearly--or he's traveling in a private capacity,” State Dept spokesman Mark Toner said, adding that he is not carrying a message from the Obama administration and doesn’t have an official delegation with him.
Yet at the same time, Clinton set up a diplomatic back-channel to end the crisis peacefully. The vehicle for this channel was former President Jimmy Carter, who in June 1994 was sent to Pyongyang to talk with Kim Il Sung, then the leader of North Korea. Carter's trip was widely portrayed at the time as a private venture, unapproved by President Clinton. However, a new book about the '94 North Korean crisis, Going Critical, written by three former officials who played key roles in the events' unfolding, reveals that Clinton recruited Carter to go.
Nothing says "serious" when dealing with a rogue nuclear state like sending in Jimmy Carter and the Elders, does it?
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Jul '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Never fear... I'm Here.
Now, where did they put My cape..... ?
Jan '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Jan '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Sounds like a bad name for a 50s doo-wop group.
Mar '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Greeks like to quote a saying (not sure if it's Biblical or Church-related) "Μωραίνει Κύριος ον βούλεται απολέσαι", which is translated as "The Lord renders an idiot whom (He) wants to destroy". Very applicable here.
Jan '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
So who's paying for all this?
May '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Reminds me of the beginning scene in Gladiator when the Roman army sends a representative of theirs to the Germanic barbarians, who respond by sending the rep back to the Romans, mounted on his horse with his head missing.
Edited on Apr 26, 2011 at 4:39amSep '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Michael Labeit: Reminds me of the beginning scene in Gladiator when the Roman army sends a representative of theirs to the Germanic barbarians, who respond by sending the rep back to the Romans, mounted on his horse with his head missing. · Apr 26 at 4:38am
Edited on Apr 26 at 04:39 am
Since the Finns came with him, that would make them The Headless Norsemen of the Apocalypse.
May '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Peace in our time?
Jul '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Jimmy Carter and George Bush are sterling examples of why the ostentatiously pious should not be elected to the highest office in the land. Both thought they were doing God's work and look at the damage. Dubya set us forth on the vast government spending spree that may undo us as a superpower. Carter's mischief is well documented and he shows every sign of continuing it into a hale and hearty nineties. The North Koreans see him as a really, really useful idiot, as willing as Obama to haul his country down from the heights. I don't look forward for to the decades Prince Narcissus will have after this term (one hopes) to make a fool of himself as the foremost Citizen of the World. At least Bush has chosen to make himself scarce since leaving office. Give him credit for that.
Apr '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Jimmy Carter and the Elders... I call dibs on that name for my rockabilly band.
Oct '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Ah come on. Carter'll have all sorts of fun visiting all the resort parts of North Korea (you know, the places they reserve exclusively for gullible Western ex-presidents). He'll have a blast; it'll be great for his health, I'm sure.
May '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Y'know, Kim, just hold him hostage. We'll get back to you on the whole ransom thing.
Jan '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Well said.
Mar '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
And he can "lust in his heart" for all those pretty traffic girls directing traffic on the empty Grand Boulevards in Pyongyang.
Jun '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Jimmy Carter and the Elders.? ·
"The Elders" could be a shadowy group out of a Robert Ludlum novel. Sadly, Jimmy will always just be Jimmy, a gullible, failed former president with delusions of adequacy.
Edited on Apr 26, 2011 at 6:38amSep '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Claire,
It always worries me when the Elders have Protocols.
Aug '10
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Carter's blundering mistakes with Iran, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - which can be pinned on his pathetically weak foreign policy - are the center stage of world conflict, embroiling and consuming the whole planet.
Carter has a self-destructive streak that masks itself as Christian-principled and fearless. He's bitter and angry, endlessly trying to redeem himself from his loser reputation. He's a menace.
Feb '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
While we can all agree George W. Bush was not the model for fiscal sobriety, I don't think he "set us forth on the vast government spending spree that may undo us as a superpower". I detested the 'compassionate conservatism' programs as much as anyone, but these were merely drops in the debt bucket, not the beginning of our fiscal undoing. Besides, Carter's "piety" is more akin to Obama's arrogant pentulence for those not who haven't attained his moral enlightenment. If your saying Bush saw his 'freedom agenda' as "God's work" you might as well call Reagan "ostentatiously pious". Also, I feel a bit queesy putting Bush's name in the same sentence with a man who is such a usefull idiot for the anti-Semitic lobby.
Apr '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Jimmy Carter is a horrible human being.
Feb '11
Re: Just What Our Foreign Policy Needs Now: Jimmy Carter, For Real
Think there's any chance the Norks will keep them and try to ransom them back? We can all hope.