It would be easier simply to address Carter's arguments if they came from anyone other than an ex-President. That he would publish such a piece in the midst of war and on the even of battle is reprehensible. Even if his arguments were more coherent or useful, his open attack on one of his successors is a violation of the same spirit of bipartisanship that he begins his piece by invoking.
A few excerpts help to demonstrate why he is widely considered to have been among the worst American Presidents of the last century, and why he's now joining Rigoberta Manchu, Yasser Arafat, and Le Duc Tho in permanently devaluing the Nobel Peace Prize.
Just War â or a Just War?
Our apparent determination to launch a war against Iraq, without international support, is a violation of these premises.
This statement - which amounts to his thesis statement - is of course entirely inaccurate: Needless to say, there is substantial international opposition to the Bush policy, but there is also significant "international support," most notably from Britain, Spain, Australia, Eastern Europe, and many of Iraq's neighbors.
The war can be waged only as a last resort, with all nonviolent options exhausted.
This is a muddy sentiment that Carter invokes as an absolute truth. Until and unless Gandhian pacifism becomes national policy, "all nonviolent options" is a meaningless generalization. Does Carter believe that teach-ins and nude protests would work against Saddam Hussein and his allies?
In the case of Iraq, it is obvious that clear alternatives to war exist.
Again, Carter states his opinion as a fact, then, after more of the same, makes another meaningless generalization:
the United States seems determined to carry out military and diplomatic action that is almost unprecedented in the history of civilized nations.
What history is Carter referring to when he makes this bizarre statement? What is he talking about? Whether you're in favor of or opposed to militarily enforcing the terms of the ceasefire agreement and subsequent UN resolutions that followed Hussein's defeat in Kuwait, from an historical point of view there is nothing very unusual about a government seeking to pursue perceived national interests through warfare.
The first stage of our widely publicized war plan is to launch 3,000 bombs and missiles on a relatively defenseless Iraqi population within the first few hours of an invasion, with the purpose of so damaging and demoralizing the people that they will change their obnoxious leader, who will most likely be hidden and safe during the bombardment.
Here Carter shows his hand, adopting as his own the prejudicial language of a war protestor, rather than showing the judgment and temperance of an elder statesman. His statement implies that the US objective will be to inflict maximum casualties among Iraqi civilians, rather than to destroy and disable the security forces that for thirty years have made the lives of those civilians a totalitarian Hell.
Throughout the rest of the piece, Carter demonstrates the same weak-mindedness, self-righteousness, and self-serving bias. One can hope that a victory in Iraq will permanently marginalize voices like Carter's, and force the internationalist left to come up with new, more intellectually honest spokespeople. By the same token, one of the greatest risks of the Bush policy is that failure will put the fate of this country, and of the world, in the hands of individuals like him.