最近,我收到了關於卡特在過去30年左右的時間中展開的事件的影響的保守文章。 由於我們的經驗,從休眠了近四分之一世紀的自由主義的回報,我覺得這是直和重新審視怪的時間創下的紀錄。 以下是我的反駁文章 。
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發表 2008年9月10日(星期三),下午4:20
卡特成為我們的年紀在52的第39屆總統。 他是一個長期的總督從平原,GA,在那裡他管理家庭花生農場,並教導主日學。 他也畢業於海軍學院,並在海軍擔任了7年,作為一名中尉離開。
他在越南戰爭和尼克松總統辭職後上台。 公眾希望的變化和新的人,和卡特是一個雄心勃勃,動手的政客承諾更好的日子。 然而,他所嘗試的事情不如他的意圖,沒有成功。 事實上,他創造了比他曾經解決的問題要嚴重得多。
The centerpiece of Carter's foreign policy was human rights, and he did achieve one noble success a peace treaty between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin.
Unfortunately, that later led to Sadat's assassination at the hands of Muslim radicals.
Many people felt Carter was a good man who worked hard and meant well. But he was naive and incompetent in handling the enormous burdens and complex challenges of being president.
He wrongly believed Americans had an 'inordinate fear of communism,' so he lifted travel bans to Cuba, North Vietnam and Cambodia and pardoned draft evaders. He also stopped B-1 bomber production and gave away our strategically located Panama Canal.
His most damaging miscalculation was the withdrawal of US Support for the Shah of Iran, a strong and longtime military ally. Carter objected to the Shah's alleged mistreatment of imprisoned Soviet spies who were working to overthrow Iran's government. He thought the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, being a religious man, would make a fairer leader.
Having lost US Support, the Shah was overthrown, the Ayatollah returned, Iran was declared an Islamic nation and Palestinian hit men were hired to eliminate opposition.
The Ayatollah then introduced the idea of suicide bombers to the Palestine Liberation Organization, paying $35,000 to PLO families whose young people were brainwashed to kill as many Israelis as possible by blowing themselves up in crowded shopping areas.
Next, the Ayatollah used Iran's oil wealth to create, train and finance a new terrorist organization, Hezbollah, which later would attack Israel in 2006.
In November 1979, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranians stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Not until six months into the ordeal did Carter attempt a rescue. But the mission, using just six Navy helicopters, was poorly executed. Three of20the copters were disabled or lost in sand storms. (Pilots weren't allowed to meet with weather forecasters because someone in authority worried about security..) Five airmen and three Marines lost their lives.
So, due to overconfidence, inexperience and poor judgment, Carter undermined and lost a strong ally, Iran, that today aggressively threatens the US, Israel and the rest of the world with nuclear weapons.
But that's not all.. After Carter met for the first time with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR promptly invaded Afghanistan. Carter, ever the naive appeaser, was shocked. 'I can't believe the Russians lied to me,' he said.
The invasion attracted a 23-year-old Saudi named Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan to recruit Muslim fighters and raise money for an anti-Soviet jihad. Part of that group eventually became al-Qaida, a terrorist organization that would declare war on America several times between 1996 and 1998 before attacking us on 9/11, killing more Americans than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On Carter's watch, the Soviet Union went on an unrestrained rampage in which it took over not only Afghanistan, but also Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Grenada and Nicaragua.
In spite of this, Carter's last defense budget proposed spending 45% below pre-Vietnam levels for fighter aircraft, 75% for ships, 83% for attack submarines and 90% for helicopters.
Years later, as a civilian, Carter negotiated a peace agreement with North Korea to keep that communist country from developing nuclear weapons. He also convinced President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to go along with it. But the signed piece of paper proved worthless. The North Koreans deceived Carter and instead used our money, incentives and technical equipment to build nuclear weapons and pose the threat we face today.
Thus did Carter unwittingly become our Neville Chamberlain, creating with his well-intended but inept, unrealistic and gullible actions the very conditions that led to the three most dangerous security threats we face today: Iran, al-Qaida and North Korea.
On the domestic side, Carter gave us inflation of 15%, the highest in 34 years; interest rates of 21%, the highest in 115 years; and a severe energy crisis with lines around the block at gas stations nationwide.
In 1977, Carter, along with a Democrat Congress, created a worthy project with noble intentions-the Community Reinvestment Act. Over strong industry objections, it mandated that all banks meet the credit needs of their entire communities.
In 1995, President Clinton imposed even stronger regulations and performance tests that coerced banks to substantially increase loans to low-income, poverty-area borrowers or face fines or possible restrictions on expansion. These revisions allowed for securitization of CRA loans containing subprime mortgages.
By 1997, good loans were bundled wit h poor ones and sold as prime packages to institutions here and abroad. That shifted risk from the loan originators, freeing banks to begin pyramiding and make more of these profitable subprime products.
Under two young, well-intended presidents, therefore, big-government plans and mandates played a significant role in the current subprime mortgage mess and its catastrophic consequences for the US and international economies.
Hardest-hit by the mortgage foreclosures have been the citizens that Democrats always claim to help most-inner-city residents who fell victim to low or no down payment schemes, unexpected adjustable rates, deceptive loan applications and commission-hungry salespeople.
Now we're having to bail out at huge cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the very agencies that were supposed to stabilize the system. In time, this should improve the situation. But the party of Carter and Clinton that midwifes our mortgage mess now wants to be trusted to take over and have the government run our entire system of health care!
And everyone is blaming Bush for our current problems.
RESPONSE:
有這麼多的不準確之處,在這篇文章中,我不知道從哪裡開始。 讓我們先開始的前提。 要了解卡特的院長,首先必須記住的政治和國家氣候在70年代中期。 不要忘了,卡特參加了越南戰爭結束後的短短兩年間辦公室。 國家仍然是在震盪後的越南戰爭和水門事件的損失。 在1976年選舉沒有人能保持我們的軍事實力。 軍隊是破舊和道德淪喪的痛苦(有沒有人記得在越南戰爭即將結束的年的軍事濫用藥物?)。 卡特繼承了戰後軍事需要瘦身。 他還繼承了戰後經濟。 戰爭引發了在20世紀 60年代的經濟繁榮。 經濟困境的陰影卡特是結束戰爭的直接結果。 許多人認為裡根的經濟節省。 在現實中,他做了一件,我們今天仍然感覺,他只是降低稅收,把全國的信用卡上的赤字。
這篇文章的作者暗示,卡特應繼續支持伊朗國王。 他沒有指出的是沙阿是一個殘酷的國王,在他的國家發動什麼侯賽因在伊拉克所做的類似恐懼氣氛。 他使用的武器,犯下他的政策是美國的武器。 筆者也未能指出美國,在中央情報局指揮政變,推翻民選在20世紀 50年代Mossedeq為了撐起巴列維國王,因為國王比一個民選領導人,代表他的人更容易控制。 我們為什麼這樣做?油。 因此,在1979年伊斯蘭革命開始時,武裝分子直接去美國大使館另一政變,以確保不會從美國即將舉行的。 他們為什麼去美國大使館? 因為在上世紀 50年代,中情局開展政變,非常使館的地下室。
作者還指出,阿亞圖拉支持真主黨對以色列人的襲擊。 簡單點就是如何對以色列的襲擊影響美國的安全呢? 我們對以色列的支持一直是我們的外交政策損害。 一個最顯著的世界貿易中心的恐怖襲擊背後的推動力是我們繼續不容置疑的支持以色列,這將導致在該地區的不滿。 誰能告訴我,有什麼優勢,我們獲得支持以色列? 以色列的支持,事實上,我們一直在解決該地區的嚴重問題的障礙。 例如,當我們呼籲在東地中海和海灣地區的遜尼派國家,以協助我們在伊拉克的大部分沒有來我們的援助,並聲稱,我們在以色列的政策是防止他們幫助我們在處理與遜尼派叛亂伊拉克在2003-04年度。
筆者談到蘇維埃抓住的國家包括阿富汗,埃塞俄比亞,南也門,安哥拉,柬埔寨,莫桑比克,格林納達和尼加拉瓜的卡特政府期間在“橫衝直撞”(無論)。 筆者也不是很精明的,如果他認為蘇聯佔領了格林納達和尼加拉瓜。 和其他國家對美國國家安全戰略意義? 不要忘了這是尼加拉瓜,得到了很多對武器和匯款之間的可怕的伊斯蘭國家,伊朗和尼加拉瓜的反熱水裡根。 作者影射,卡特可以防止蘇聯入侵他們的鄰國阿富汗。 蘇聯入侵,因為他們看到他們的南部鄰國對蘇聯的穆斯林共和國的負面影響。 卡特可以做任何會阻止蘇聯入侵阿富汗。 後來,裡根在阿富汗聖戰者的支持,從而導致名為烏薩馬本拉丹沒有卡特的政策的一個鮮為人知的聖戰上升。 大約有3000美國人沒有生活可能寧願蘇聯贏得這場戰爭。
我不是一個巨大的風扇卡特,但他最重要的外交政策成就的和平條約,擔保以色列和埃及之間的持久和平,打開門之間的猶太國家和約旦,讓類似的協議,不要忘記,這成績結束以色列的鄰國和以色列之間的戰爭的惡性循環。 作者後記說薩達特被暗殺的處理結果,如果它是不值得薩達特作出壯烈犧牲所付出的代價,這一成就,這幾乎是可笑的。 約薩達特遇刺真正有趣的一點是,它是由一群包括Zayman扎瓦希裡,“基地”組織第二號男子。
The author also brings up North Korea. North Korea obtained their nuclear program from AQ Khan, a Pakistani scientist. When it was revealed in the early 2000s that Khan was the mastermind behind N. Korea gaining the bomb he was placed on house arrest. Bush would not pressure the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, to punish the scientist further because Bush needed Musharraf as an ally to fight Al-Qaeda. The question of dealing with the North Korean nuclear situation revolved around one fact, and one fact only. There is but one nation that has any leverage at all in North Korea and that is China. Was the US willing to go to war with China over North Korea's nuclear program? This was the only way short of diplomacy that could have halted their program. To call Carter a Neville Chamberlain over North Korea is absolutely ridiculous. Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler ended up giving Hitler leverage to seize Czechoslovakia and eventually the courage to invade Poland which resulted in the a war of immeasurable carnage. The North Korean nuclear program has had negligible impact.
Finally, the author states we should not blame Bush for the current situation. If an approval rating in the upper 20s (the lowest rating since the statistic has been measured) is not convincing enough then perhaps a few facts will convince you. Bush is the first President in history to wage a war and not tax the people to pay for it. In fact, his poor leadership skills failed to make the Americans sacrifice at all. After 9-11 he told Americans to just go out and shop. And spend we did. In 2006 the American savings rate was the lowest it had been since the Great Depression (and during the 1930s people distrusted the banks so much that even if they were the lucky ones to have any money in savings many simply stashed it in a coffee can). The national debt has doubled since Bush took office. Running as a conservative Bush grew the government to unprecedented levels. He created a whole new department (Homeland Security) and initiated the funding of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act which will have a price tag of over $500 billion in the next ten years. Bush and his Republicans engaged in a war against the middle class. Through their economic policies the uneven distribution of wealth is at levels not seen since before the Great Depression. And then there is Bush's baby: the Iraq War. A war waged on trumped up intelligence (do a google search on the Bush Administration's signature source of Iraqi intelligence; Curveball) and against an enemy that had been contained. An enemy that held in check the very nation the author of the article blamed Carter for empowering, Iran. Iran now is the unchallenged power in the region and has armed Shia insurgents in Iraq that have led to the deaths of US soldiers. Iraq has caused the US to take its eye off the ball in Afghanistan and our most important task, the capture or killing of Bin Laden and the destruction of Al-Qaida. The US military is now significantly worn down at a time when we need them most to renew the “real” war in Afghanistan which is rapidly deteriorating. Bush in eight years has turned the world from showing enthusiastic support and sympathy for us following 9-11 to believing America is no longer the bastion of the principles our founding fathers laid out in the 18th century. Bush, who when the nation is faced with a severe economic crisis, acts like a cuckoo clock and says a few words and retreats back into the White House. George Bush, in the current econoic crisis has become a latter day James Buchanan who did nothing as he watched the southern states succeed from the Union in the secession winter of 1860-61. Jimmy Carter's mistakes seem minor in comparison. We can only hope that Barack Obama will be our Abraham Lincoln and erase the damage done these last eight years.