Carter: Iraq War is 'Unjust'

A flailing President and a failed Presidency best sums up the tenure of Jimmy Carter in the White House. A one term President who's naiveity was surpassed only by his intellectual bewilderment. A Don Quixote mentality without the heart to do battle.

BIRMINGHAM, England — Former President Jimmy Carter said Saturday the detention of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base was an embarrassment and had given extremists an excuse to attack the United States.

Carter also criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq as "unnecessary and unjust."

"I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A.," he told a news conference at the Baptist World Alliance's centenary conference in Birmingham, England.

"I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts."

Carter said, however, that terrorist acts could not be justified, and that while Guantanamo "may be an aggravating factor ... it's not the basis of terrorism."

Critics of President Bush's administration have long accused the U.S. government of unjustly detaining terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. Hundreds of men have been held indefinitely at the prison, without charge or access to lawyers.

"What has happened at Guantanamo Bay ... does not represent the will of the American people," Carter said. "I'm embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people."

For me this man is the perfect negative barometer. If he is on one side of an issue, you can bet the farm the other side is the place to be. During his Presidency how we escaped getting our a$$ kicked by Russia or for that matter Cuba is a miracle.

Update: I have been doing some guest blogging at the Jawa Report recently and I cross posted this commentary there. Surpisingly there was a fair amount of dissention (all from the far left Kool-Aid sippers) concerning what Carter is presently doing and my opinion of the ex Pres.

J & W have grabbed the bull by the horns and offered a really excellent response to the never say die lefty rationalists concerning Carter and his past behaviors. Swing over there, it's worth a read.

Update II: Pete Fischer sets the record straight here