Sine Qua Non

Can Long-term Exposure to Peanuts Cause Dementia?

Everyone's favorite ex-president opens his mouth and once again removes all doubt:

Former President Jimmy Carter said Friday a "combined commitment" by the United States and other nations to guarantee North Korea security could help defuse the crisis over the communist nation's nuclear weapons program.

Uh, Jimmuh, I think the President is a little more focused on guaranteeing the security of the United States.

Carter blamed Washington and the communist state for the unraveling of a landmark U.S.-North Korean agreement that he helped mediate in 1994 but said he believed the current crisis could be resolved diplomatically with concessions on both sides.

Hmm, exactly what did "Washington" do to unravel the "landmark" agreement this goober came up with? And sorry Jimmuh, but I for one am glad that the we are no longer willing to pay Danegeld to keep them from attacking us or Japan or South Korea. If they want to attack China, well, we'll just sit back and watch the fireworks.

"There has to be some not yet apparent flexibility on both sides and the full support of other countries," he told reporters in Tokyo after meeting with Japanese officials to discuss humanitarian projects by his Georgia-based Carter Center. "I don't see it as an impossibility."

Sure Jimmuh, nothing's impossible -- especially with the full support of other countries. And monkeys might fly out of his ... oh, never mind.

The 76-year-old former U.S. president said Friday that North Korea's leaders would never trust a unilateral nonaggression pledge by Washington.

Do you ever get the feeling that Jimmuh is much, much more concerned with North Korea than with the United States? Anyway, who's going to be party to a mutli-lateral nonagression pledge by Washington. Maybe Kim Jong-Il remembers the statement by Clinton's press secretary that he kept all the promises he meant to keep, and therefore remains a bit worried. Either that, or he is more than a little worried about his inclusion as a charter member of the Axis of Evil.

"How do the other nations — primarily the United States — give North Korea absolute assurance that they will not be attacked or pressed further economically or efforts made to overthrow the regime?" he said. "This can come from a combined commitment from the United States and other countries involved in Beijing." In return, Pyongyang must abandon its nuclear weapons program, give the United Nations unimpeded access to its nuclear facilities and offer its own "unequivocal assurances" not to threaten its neighbors, he said.

Gosh, a unilateral nonaggression pledge by Pyongyang. It's funny who Jimmuh decides can be trusted and who can't, ain't it?

He described the North Korean leadership as isolated and fearful of outside threats.

He left out belligerent, insane, and desirous of nuclear weapons.

"This paranoid nation and the United States are facing what I believe to be the greatest threat in the world to regional and global peace," he said.

It's not easy to find moral equivalence stated so succinctly. But, uh..., what about freedom Jimmuh?

The former president said he had no plans to act as a mediator.

Perhaps Jimmuh's too embarrassed to try again after the fiasco from 1994.

"If haven't been called on," he said. "If I were called on — which I don't conceive to be possible — I would be glad to help."

Guess not. But Jimmuh is right about one thing, I don't conceive it to be possible either.

Maybe we should put these two nuts back in their shell.

Posted by Charles Austin at September 6, 2003 12:30 PM