Another Look at Jimmy Carter & a long Quote From Howard Zinn's Book

He May Have Published a Book That Look favorably on Palestinian Rights in ``Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,’’ but Research on Former President Carter shows another Side.

By Brother Tracy Gibson

If Former President Jimmy Carter is a ``Peace Lover and Man of Peace’’ I ask why won’t He take His name off the nuclear submarine named after Him? This sub, like all war machines of the United States, is a moving casket full of enough weapons to destroy this precious earth we live on. That doesn’t sound like a ``man of Peace’’ to me. Have you ever noticed the former president has nothing much to say about the plague of current information restraining legislation and oppressive legislation that was passed over the last 13 years after 9/11? These Laws called the Patriot Act I; The Patriot Act II and other such oppressive legislation have been used to water down civil liberties, for searches that otherwise would have been illegal & to justify anti-terrorist acts like torture, taking prisoners overseas and even murder? Here is part of the equation that provides an answer to the question about Jimmy Carter’s lack of support for more Progressive activities by He and the Carter Center:

 

From Howard Zinn’s book: ``A People’s History of the United States,’’  from pages 566-567: ``His {Carter’s} most crucial appointments, however, were in keeping with the Trilateral Commission report of Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, which said that, whatever groups voted to for a president, once elected ``what counts then is his ability to mobilize support from the leaders of key institutions.’’ Brzezinski, a traditional cold-war intellectual, became Carter’s National Security Advisor. His Secretary of Defense, Harold Brown, had, during the Vietnam war, according to the Pentagon Papers,   ``envisaged the elimination of virtually all the constraints under which the bombing them operated.’’ His Secretary of Energy, James Schlesinger, as Secretary of Defense under Nixon, was described by a member of the Washington press corps as showing ``an almost missionary drive in seeking to reverse a downward trend in the defense budget.’’  Schlesinger was also a strong proponent of nuclear energy.  ‘’

``His other cabinet appointees had strong corporate connections. A financial writer wrote, not long after Carter’s election: ``So far Mr. Carter’s actions, commentary, and particularly his Cabinet appointments, have been highly reassuring to the business community.’’ Veteran Washington correspondent Tom Wicker wrote: ``The available evidence is that Mr. Carter so far is opting for Wall Street confidence.’’

``Carter did initiate more sophisticated policies towards governments that oppressed their own people. He used United Nations Ambassador  Andrew Young to build up good will for the United States among the Black African nations, and urged that South Africa liberalize its policies towards blacks. A peaceful settlement in South Africa was necessary for strategic reasons; South Africa was used for radar tracking systems. Also, it had important U.S. corporate investments and was a critical source of needed raw materials (diamonds, especially). Therefore, what the United States needed was a stable government in South Africa; the continued oppression of blacks might create civil war.’’

``The same approach was used in other countries—combining practical strategic needs with the advancement of civil rights. But because the chief motivation was practicality, not humanity, there was a tendency toward token changes—as in Chile’s release of a few political prisoners. When Congressman Herman Badillo introduced in Congress a proposal the required the U.S. representatives to the World Bank and other international financial institutions to vote against loans to countries that systematically violated essential rights, by the use of torture or imprisonment without trial, Carter sent a personal letter to every Congressman urging the defeat of this amendment. It won a voice vote in the House, but lost in the Senate.’’

``Under Carter, the United States continued to support, all over the world, regimes that engaged in imprisonment of dissenters, torture, and mass murder: in the Philippines, in Iran, in Nicaragua, and in Indonesia, where the inhabitants of East Timor were being annihilated in a campaign bordering on genocide. ‘’

``The New Republic magazine, presumably on the liberal side of the Establishment, commented approvingly on the Carter policies: ``… American foreign policy in the next four years will essentially extend the philosophies developed … in the Nixon-Ford years. This is not at all a negative prospect … There should be continuity. It is part of history … ‘’