THE FASCINATION OF AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE
I tried my best to get through the day without thinking about anything political but I just couldn’t do it.
U.S. politics is fascinating.
It’s probably the one country in the world in which there is a genuine debate by men and women of great courage, about all of the great issues facing modern society.
America got off-track in the immediate wake of the attacks in New York in 2001. The general public was genuinely terrified by the scale and daring of the assault on The Twin Towers. People were afraid, confused and wanted direction. (It wasn’t the first time the U.S. train got derailed, but it was probably the worst).
The powers which lurked in the small shadow of George W. Bush seized this golden opportunity to carry out an agenda, which has turned out to be deeply flawed. In their confusion and fear, the public supported every decision the Washington D.C. cabal made, because out of great anxiety and genuine ignorance, very few people knew what else to do.
Only a few brave people spoke out; one who did was former U.S. president Jimmy Carter,
a man of integrity and high ethical values. Carter’s views on the Iraq war are well-known. Prior to the invasion, in early March of 2003, he wrote an excellent essay on the concept of what is or is not a "just" war. He concluded that Bush’s pre-emptive strike against Iraq could not be justified on any ground. Carter wrote: "…..war can be waged only as a last resort, with all nonviolent options exhausted".
Yesterday the former president launched a full-scale verbal onslaught against George W. Bush. Carter said that the Bush policies of pre-emptive war and the mixing of religion with politics runs counter to basic American values. He said bluntly that George W. Bush is "the worst president the country has ever had".
The interesting aspect of Carter’s "Bush_whack" is this- it is very likely endorsed by a majority of the American people- now that they are beginning to see through the veil of false patriotism with which Bush has covered himself.
Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted every negotiated nuclear arms agreement".
He offered a blistering assessment for the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive US$2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone.
"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I’ve always believed in separation of church and state and honoured that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."
He also lashed out at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how he would judge Blair’s support of Bush, the former president said: "Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient."
As for Carter himself…my view is that he was one of the best Presidents ever…along with Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.
