Jimmy Carter’s Presidency Raises the Question of How Good a Person Can be and Still be a Successful President
President Jimmy Carter departed this world with 2024. He was a good man outfoxed by Washington. A populist, he was not the establishment’s choice for president which set about weakening him by framing his Director of the Office of Management and Budget and then turning on his chief of staff.
President Carter intended to continue President Nixon’s policy of defusing tensions with the Soviet Union. He and Soviet leader Brezhnev agreed to limit the buildup of nuclear weapons by signing a second Strategic Arms Limitation agreement, but the US Senate under the influence of the military/security complex refused to ratify the treaty.
Carter came under the influence of Zbigniew Brzezinski who had the idea of involving the Soviet Union in a Vietnam of its own in Afghanistan. Thus began Washington’s affair with Muslims which developed into the proxy forces Washington used against Libya and Syria.
Carter’s good intentions often had undesirable consequences. His effort to reduce conflict between Israel and Middle Eastern governments produced with the Camp David Accords Egypt’s official recognition of Israel. This resulted in Israel’s legitimization and strengthened Israel at the expense of the Muslim Middle East.
Later in life Carter tried again to restrain Israel with his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Jews turned on Carter, called him an anti-semite, and resigned from the Carter Center.
Jimmy Carter, like other genuine peacemakers, was too good of a person to understand the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. The “Two-State” solution was used for years to cover up Israel’s gradual absorption of Palestine into Israel. Today Palestine is no more and Israel is expanding into Syria and soon Lebanon.
Another of Carter’s good intentions that went wrong was the creation of the Department of Education. This completed federal control over education.
President Carter was hurt politically by the failure of his attempted military rescue of US embassy personnel in Iran who were being held hostages by the new revolutionary Islamist government. This dramatic failure of American arms was a boost to Ronald Reagan’s election. I have always wondered if the military accident in the Iranian desert that destroyed the operation was contrived. The military/security complex does not favor men of peace.
Carter also hurt himself by turning the Panama Canal over to Panama. Americans saw this as giving away America’s accomplishment as a pointless good will gesture. Today Trump is talking about taking it back.
Jimmy Carter’s presidency raises the question of how good a person can be and still be a successful president. Politics is a dirty and dangerous business, and it is not the environment in which good people thrive.
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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from The Carter Center / Facebook
