Who Says Sucking Up To Castro Doesn’t Pay?

11 Oct, 2002 by John Hawkins

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Who Says Sucking Up To Castro Doesn’t Pay?: Jimmy “Malaise Forever” Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. I know the first thought you probably had was, “What has Jimmy Carter done lately to deserve that?” It wasn’t really about what he did or didn’t do, it was about who the Nobel Committee could cheese off by giving him the award…

“At a news conference, Nobel Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge said that, in addition to honoring Carter, the 2002 prize “should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current (U.S.) administration has taken.”

“It’s a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States,” he added.”

That’s such typical thinking for the European left. If you back terrorists and oppress your own people like Saddam Hussein or Ayatollah Ali Khamenei you get a sly wink and a “we’ll do everything we can to help” when no one’s looking. If you want to do something about the terrorists you get a “kick in the leg.” The only upside to this is that Carter is such a mediocre failure that giving him the award (especially after Berge’s comments) will actually diminish the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize (at least in the US). The Nobel Committee will have no one to blame but themselves for that.

**Update**: Stephen Green at VodkaPundit lists Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy “accomplishments” during his Presidency. It’s worth a look…

**Update #2**: The Telegraph gives an apt description of what Jimmy Carter has been doing for the last 22 years…

“Since the end of his one-term presidency, in 1980, Mr Carter has done little but potter about the world, generally making a nuisance of himself by meeting the likes of Fidel Castro.”