The American Spectator

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p> SEEN, NOT HEARD br> Re: Philip Klein's Carter Fades Away : /p>

Pursuant to former President Carter's on-stage appearance at the Democratic National Convention last night, Mr. Klein begins his article with the observation: "Poof. Just like that, he was gone," referring to Carter's presence on the American political scene. He then concludes by noting that "like an old soldier, Carter is fading away." If only such things could also be said of the legacy Mr. Carter's foreign policy leaves behind.

Some of us are old enough to remember Mr. Carter's administration. We recall his colossal ignorance of economics, and the fiasco that ensued when federal government borrowing, largely to fund his social programs, usurped such excess capital in our society that there was little left for the private sector to borrow. Quite predictably, business then stagnated, inflation increased, interest rates skyrocketed to nearly twenty percent, and the value of the American people's homes began dropping due to the resultant reduced demand. We also recall the Iranian revolution, and how the leaders of that fundamentalist Islamic movement, Mr. Ahmadinejad apparently among them, attacked the sovereign territory of our Iranian Embassy. They then seized possession of it and held our ambassadorial staff as hostages for over a year. Although considered an Act of War under international law, Mr. Carter, being a great humanitarian, nonetheless counseled restraint and diplomacy in effecting their release, a course of action that ultimately proved to be spectacularly unsuccessful. Ignoring the utter ridicule heaped upon both him and America almost daily by our Iranian adversaries during this period of negotiation, and largely ignoring for months the plight of the American hostages themselves, Mr. Carter, ever the humanitarian, finally launched his final solution -- a "rescue mission." In keeping with the man's utter incompetence as a national leader, that failed even more spectacularly than his diplomacy.

There aren't many of us left anymore, but some of us still work the land for our livelihood. Unlike our urban brethren, whose lives are largely lived indoors, we work outdoors and thus contend daily with those self-evident, unchangeable truths of the natural world which clearly govern all life on earth. As I tend my fields or cut firewood from the forested part of my farm, the first truth that governs all life is constantly in evidence around me: the truth which states that weakness invites attack. For example, each and every day, animals, insects and microbes all attack my crops. A harvest, I assure you, is only possible if one attacks them back. Likewise, I watch robins wrest earthworms from the sun-up till sun-down and, not infrequently, I see hawks kill rabbits; minks kill muskrats and coyotes kill fawns. Always, everywhere I look, the weak exist in a constant state of attack by the strong. So too is it with human beings. My customers buy my food for nourishment -- to strengthen their bodies against attack by disease. In the same manner, many urban folks arm themselves against the chance of being attacked by a criminal -- their fellow man. Likewise, throughout the course of human history, strong nations intent on conquest such as Hitler's Germany or the former Soviet Union have always attacked their weaker neighbors. After the initial attack occurs, whether it be by an owl against a squirrel; a murderer against his victim; or a totalitarian dictatorship against a neighboring state, another inescapable truth can always be observed: only the strong survive the attack. Thus it is, in the conduct of affairs between nations, that "walk softly but carry a big stick" will forevermore be sound advice.

Mr. Carter's foreign policy failing was ultimately, his refusal to conduct foreign affairs in accordance with the realities of life on this planet. He indeed walked softly, and he had as well a "big stick" in the form of American military might, but its deployment clashed with his humanitarian values. Foolishly, he communicated this reluctance to our Islamic adversaries through his failure to deploy force. At a time when the enemies of freedom all around the globe were already emboldened by the ill-advised retreat from communist expansionism counseled by Democratic Party leaders during the Vietnam era, Mr. Carter chose, through his pacifism, to also ignore natural law and thus dangerously embolden radical Islam further. Successive administrations, both Democratic and Republican, did the same, through their failure to forcefully respond to repeated Islamic attacks on American interests during the ensuing decades. One day, sadly, the inaction of our various leaders finally emboldened our Islamic adversaries enough. Instead of confining themselves to the low-risk bombing of our embassies abroad, they went for the "kill" by planning the "surgical strike" of September 11 throughout nearly the entire course of the Clinton administration. Shortly thereafter, they struck, attacking the very epicenters of American economic and military power. The fourth aircraft, which crashed in Pennsylvania, would likely have struck an epicenter of our political power as well. Had it actually reached an intended political target -- Congress, for example -- America may well not have survived the loss of it's leadership. To those of us who understand the realities of the natural world, the message of 9/11 was unmistakable: because we fear you no longer, we are coming.

p>Many fault President Bush for his response to 9/11. Democrats criticize incessantly his subsequent conduct, faulting especially the methods used to interrogate our adversaries and the curtailment of civil liberties Bush deemed necessary to electronically spy on them. Their proposed solution? Yet again, the prominent Democrats of this generation, supposedly well-educated people like Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Reid, display their utter foolishness by counseling restraint and retreat. They do so in total disregard of the natural laws which govern all life on this planet. Mr. Obama, the socialist's current pipe-dreamer of choice, expands even Carter's irrational mantra by advising us that he will meet with America's adversaries completely without precondition. Frankly, I, for one, would feel better if the preservation of American life and liberty happened to be a precondition he deemed important. Alas, a man who counsels "unity" on a planet where crows don't flock with geese; "one-ness" on a planet where the weak, both human and otherwise, are under constant attack by the strong; and "peace" on a planet where the very history of government is written in the blood of the vanquished, is neither a "uniter" nor a "visionary." He is, to the contrary, a dangerously ignorant man whose flowery prose invites aggression because it displays his underlying inability to understand and confront the realities of life. Mr. Obama has advised us that, given the choice, he will conduct his foreign policy by attempting to reconcile differences through negotiation. In other words, he thinks it wisest to operate from a position of weakness or, at best, parity. By doing so, history shows that he will inevitably only embolden those with whom he seeks to negotiate. He may indeed be well-educated but, unlike Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, Bush and a host of others, Mr. Obama suffers the same malady as Mr. Carter did: a lack of the plain common sense necessary to deal with our adversaries. If he had any, he would realize that the olive branch of peace is typically sincerely accepted only if it is offered from a position of strength. Human nature being what it is, if one seeks to ensure it's acceptance, one offers it instead over the barrel of a cocked and loaded gun. Ah, if only things were different but, unfortunately, our planet has its realities. br> -- Thomas Donley br> Remus, Michigan /p>

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Foreign Policy, John McCain, Economics, Business, Islam, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Energy