Why do you think we threw him out of the White House after four years? He
was too nice to be President. Secretary of State, maybe, but not President.




"Barry Test" wrote:
All Jimmy boy knows how to do is grow peanuts.
"~ Pretzels R Us ~"
wrote in message
. com...
Carter Savages Blair and Bush: 'Their War
was Based on Lies'
by Andrew Buncombe in Atlanta

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has
strongly criticized George
Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary
war to oust Saddam
Hussein based on "lies or misinterpretations".
The 2002 Nobel peace
prize winner said Mr Blair had allowed his
better judgment to be
swayed by Mr Bush's desire to finish a war
that his father had
started.

In an interview with The Independent on the
first anniversary of the
American and British invasion of Iraq, Mr
Carter, who was president
from 1977 to 1981, said the two leaders probably
knew that many of the
claims being made about Saddam Hussein's weapons
of mass destruction
were based on imperfect intelligence.

He said: "There was no reason for us to become
involved in Iraq
recently. That was a war based on lies and
misinterpretations from
London and from Washington, claiming falsely
that Saddam Hussein was
responsible for [the] 9/11 attacks, claiming
falsely that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction. And I think that
President Bush and Prime
Minister Blair probably knew that many of
the allegations were based
on uncertain intelligence ... a decision was
made to go to war [then
people said] 'Let's find a reason to do so'."

Before the war Mr Carter made clear his opposition
to a unilateral
attack and said the US did not have the authority
to create a "Pax
Americana". During his Nobel prize acceptance
speech in December 2002
he warned of the danger of "uncontrollable
violence" if countries
sought to resolve problems without United
Nations input.

His latest comments, made during an interview
at the Carter Center in
Atlanta, are notable for their condemnation
of the two serving
leaders. It is extremely rare for a former
US president to criticize
an incumbent, or a British prime minister.
Mr Carter's comments will
add to the mounting pressure on Mr Bush and
Mr Blair.

Mr Carter said he believed the momentum for
the invasion came from
Washington and that many of Mr Bush's senior
advisers had long ago
signaled their desire to remove Saddam by
force. Once a decision had
been taken to go to war, every effort was
made to find a reason for
doing do, he said.

"I think the basic reason was made not in
London but in Washington. I
think that Bush Jnr was inclined to finish
a war that his father had
precipitated against Iraq. I think it was
that commitment of Bush that
prevailed over, I think, the better judgment
of Tony Blair and Tony
Blair became an enthusiastic supporter of
the Bush policy".

Mr Carter's criticisms coincided with damaging
claims yesterday from a
former White House anti-terrorism co-ordinator.
Richard Clarke said
that President Bush ignored the threat from
al-Qaida before 11
September but in the immediate aftermath sought
to hold Iraq
responsible, in defiance of senior intelligence
advisers who told him
that Saddam had nothing to do with the conspiracy.

With an eye to November's presidential elections,
Mr Bush sought on
Friday to use the anniversary of the Iraq
invasion to say that
differences between the US and opponents of
the war belonged "to the
past".

Speaking at the White House, he told about
80 foreign ambassadors:
"There is no neutral ground in the fight between
civilization and
terror. There can be no separate peace with
the terrorist enemy."

But in the US and Britain, and elsewhere,
there is growing anger among
people who believe the war in Iraq was at
best a deadly distraction
and at worst an impediment to the war against
al-Qa'ida - diverting
resources and energy from countering those
groups responsible for
attacks such as the train bombings in Madrid.

Over the weekend millions of anti-war protesters
poured on to the
streets of cities around the world to call
for the withdrawal of
US-led troops from Iraq. It was estimated
that in Rome - which saw the
biggest crowds - up to one million turned
out.

Mr Carter, 79, has recently published a novel.
The Hornet's Nest is
centered on America's revolutionary war against
the British. That
period had many lessons for the present day,
Mr Carter said.

© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0322-01.htm




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