Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Old Liberals Never Die . . . And Carter Won't Fade Away

In an disgusting slap at his country's current foreign policy and its sitting President, former President Jimmy Carter met with leaders of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas today.  Carter is a private citizen, of course, and has every right to hold whatever opinion he chooses and talk to whomever he wants to talk to but this public spectacle with Hamas had all the bells and whistles of an official state visit.  The visit aids Hamas and hopes to veil it in undeserved respectability.  It also hurts America's image.

Democrats and liberals may not like it much but George W. Bush is the the President of the United States and foreign policy is in his hands.  Jimmy Carter clearly doesn't like it at all.  The country cannot present itself to the world as schizophrenic.  We must speak with one voice in foreign affair - the president's voice - no matter who holds the office.

Traditionally, politics ended at the water's edge.  What happened to that tradition?  Jimmy Carter like anybody else can argue, debate and fight for changes in foreign policy here at home but to act against the wishes of the current administration and to visit terrorist leaders abroad is overstepping his bounds.

Douglas MacArthur famously stated that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."  It is too bad that this old liberal can't seem to fade away.

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