Specters from the Carter dark days

We all remember all of the amazingly successful foreign policies that came out of the Carter Administration, don’t we? Um, don’t we? Well, we’re treated to a stream of opinions from these unmitigated failures – the latest being Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Washington Post yesterday morning entitled “The Smart Way Out of a Foolish War“.

Claiming that the best way to end the conflict in Iraq is to withdraw all of the US forces, “Biggy”, as he was known in those heady years of the Carter fiasco, makes predictions without the knowledge of yesterday’s events;

Contrary to Republican claims that our departure will mean calamity, a sensibly conducted disengagement will actually make Iraq more stable over the long term. The impasse in Shiite-Sunni relations is in large part the sour byproduct of the destructive U.S. occupation, which breeds Iraqi dependency even as it shatters Iraqi society. In this context, so highly reminiscent of the British colonial era, the longer we stay in Iraq, the less incentive various contending groups will have to compromise and the more reason simply to sit back. A serious dialogue with the Iraqi leaders about the forthcoming U.S. disengagement would shake them out of their stupor.

You can tell he’s just been holding on to that piece waiting for a flare up like what happened in Basra last week to rush it to an editor at the Post.

But the flare up in Basra proves just the opposite – the vacuum created by the British withdrawal in the city was the impetus of the fighting last week. Brzezinski completely ignores that.

And the proof that the US forces are holding Iraq together is what happened yesterday while the Post’s readers were just opening their copy – after US air power was applied to the situation, Mookey al-Sadr scrambled to save the remnants of his fighters. Save them for what? Well, for when the US pulls out and he can use them to seize the reins of government. Or to wait and see if there’ll be a Democrat President so Mookie can run the Americans out of Iraq and be the Great Savior of the New Islamic Republic Part II.

See, Carter and Brzezinski brought us to this point in our history. Their indifference to early events in Iran brought about the Islamic Revolution and installed the mullahs. Their weak responses (like boycotting the Olympics when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan), encouraged the mullah, in fact, encouraged terrorists worldwide. Protecting the Shah openly enraged the mullahs.

Pronouncing as the Carter Doctrine (the free flow of Persian Gulf oil at market prices) without having any intention of enforcing it made us a paper tiger. Allowing our military to deteriorate to the point that a few broken helicopters caused an operation to be canceled and cost the lives of eight military members deep inside Iran – giving us an even greater appearance of a paper tiger.

I don’t know which is more disgusting; Brzezinski thinking he has something valuable to lend to the discussion, or the Washington Post for allowing into print this gomer’s opinion.

Category: Foreign Policy, Jimmy Carter, Politics, Terror War