Where's Jimmy? A past president goes silent on his Iran legacy
Thursday, August 6, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
By Sheda Vasseghi
"Where is Jimmy?" Has anyone seen or heard from Jimmy Carter while the Islamic Republic regime in Iran and its thugs brutally beat, torture, and murder civilians on a daily basis? After all it was Carter carrying his human rights banner who turned his back on the late Shah when the country was suddenly overrun by Islamic militants in cahoots with the leftists.
During an interview, Carter said, "Éwhen the Shah came here to visit in November of 1977, my first year in office, I knew that he had been an intimate friend of six presidents before me and a staunch ally that provided stability in that region of the world. But I knew also that SAVAK, his secret military service, had attacked some student demonstratorsÉ." So in 1979, without understanding the dynamics of a complex and ancient country such as Iran in a volatile region, Iran's unprecedented social and political achievements in just a few short decades despite overwhelming internal and external obstacles, and the fundamentals of Islamic political philosophy, Carter rejoiced at the coming of "His Holiness" the Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic Revolution because he believed the Islamists would bring instant democracy.
The past few weeks taped live on the streets of Iran have left no question in anyone's mind that the na•ve and misguided human rights claims by the Carter Administration against the former Shah's regime are in no way, shape or form comparable to the terror unleashed by the agents of the Islamic Republic. Yet, there is no word from Jimmy. And those in privileged media and political classes who hold past presidents accountable for their past sins are silent as well.
Internet search, e-mail and verbal inquiries, and The Carter Center website revealed nothing. It seems there has been no public outcry by the self-proclaimed humanitarian Jimmy Carter against the brutality of the illegitimate government in Tehran. The Carter Center website, however, offered a recent article by Jimmy preaching that God does "not justify cruelty to women." According to Carter, "[i]n some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job." Presumably one of the Islamic nations to which Carter refers is the Islamic Republic of Iran since thirty years ago Khomeini annulled all civil rights granted to women by the late Shah.
Carter's concerns about women's mistreatments in Islamic nations are indeed baffling since he supported the creation of at least one Islamic regime - the one in Iran. During Carter's presidency, Andrew Young, Carter's ambassador to UN, said "Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint"; William Sullivan, Carter's Ambassador to Iran, said "Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure"; and James Bill, an advisor to Carter, said Khomeini was a man of "impeccable integrity and honesty." Jimmy Carter believed a reactionary fanatic Islamist such as Khomeini would be better for Iran than a pro-Western secular monarch to whom Iranians owe any and all traces of modernity.
Carter confirms he is not trained in religion or theology yet continues to make dangerous conclusions about the very topic in which he admits and has proven himself incompetent. Thirty years has passed since the terror unleashed on Iranians by the clerics, and their most recent indisputably vicious acts against civilians have been recorded live on thousands of cameras for the world to see, and yet Carter still makes statements about what he thinks certain religious founders had in mind with respect to equality and human rights. Carter is responsible for Iran's derailment from its path to greatness and the conditions in which Iranians are living as they are kept hostage by a bunch of backwards mullahs. Carter is responsible for Iranian women losing their civil rights under the same Islamic regime he promoted while he now laments poor treatment of women in Islamic countries. Carter's dangerous foreign policies contributed to the 9/11 tragedy becoming a part of American history. In short, Jimmy's "some student demonstrators" became tens of thousands of Nedas at the hands of Khomeini and his mullahs and millions of displaced Iranians across the globe.
In the midst of the fraudulent elections this past June and military coup, following the footsteps of Jimmy Carter, the Obama Administration first acknowledged Ahmadinejad as the "elected" president and then realizing the political implications lowered his legitimacy to a "fact." President Obama gave Iran until next month to show signs for open dialogue since he seems eager to work with the theocratic dictators rather than the Iranian people, who want a secular democracy. In view of the current butchery in Iran and Obama's plans on improving relations with a rogue and dangerous regime, one may wonder why U.S. policymakers have not learned from the disastrous consequences of Jimmy's human rights policies for Iran.