Is George Bush a 'hapless Jimmy Carter'?

Richard Perle, a leader of the neocon movement widely presented as a central factor in shaping U.S. foreign policy at the start of the Bush administration, took a look this afternoon at the challenge President Bush is facing at the end of his tenure with the Russian attacks in Georgia.

Perle first made a name for himself as an advisor to the late Democratic Sen. Henry M. Jackson of Washington -- a hard-liner when it came to dealing with the Soviet Union. Perle served as a senior Pentagon official in the Ronald Reagan administration, at the height of the Cold War when the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a central focus, and early on advised the current administration on defense policy.

Countdown to Crawford asked for his thoughts on the current situation in Georgia.

In response, Perle equated Bush's position at the moment with that of Jimmy Carter facing another Kremlin military move -- and suggested that Bush and his secretary of state, like Carter, had put too much faith in the Kremlin.

He wrote:

Now President Bush will understand the Hapless Jimmy Carter when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan at Christmas, 1979 and the scales (remember the 'inordinate fear of communism?') fell from his eyes. Bush and his expert Condi Rice have misunderstood Putin from the beginning and built an American policy towards Russia on a ludicrous look into Putin's soul.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Miguel Villagran / Action Press      

Comments

[Dave]

Richard Perle would know about "hapless."

[Mike]

Bush isn't going back to Crawford. That was just another Bush charade. Compound W will be safe for brush once more.

[fred fred]

The ugly little troll has crawled out from under his rock.

Hasn't he caused enough trouble already?

Maybe he sees a quick buck to be made from the bombing. He did sell us out as soon as he could by brokering deals for military secrets concerning Afghanistan and Iraq.

One of the most corrupt men on the planet.

[robert chapman]

It is impossible to compare GW Bush to Jimmy Carter.

Carter was a shrewd judge of character informed by a biblical perspective.
That is to say Carter used a high moral standard in making his Presidential decisions.

GW Bush is a shallow man morally and capable only of an Oz-like pretense at substantive decision making.

[DavidB]

Since Secretary of State Dr. Condolezza Rice has her background and expertise with Russia (Brent Scowcroft's Soviet expert on the United States National Security Council, and a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University), one has to ask why she did not see this coming, and sound the alarms.

Come to think of it, she wasn't sounding the alarms in 2001 prior to 9/11, either.

[Andy Nachala]

I'll say this for the neo-cons, they are consistent. They never saw a war they didn't like.

[ed]

Richard Perle and the neocon idiots are the source of what went wrong with U.S. Foreign Policy for the last twenty years. They keep recycling these idiots every time they get in power. Can't the Republicans come up with some new blood that isn't part of the cold war linany

[Doorman]

To listen Richard Perle's "pearls of wisdom" and analysis; is a bit like listening to the Captain of the Titanic giving criticism to seafarers of the northern seas.

The man's political value is bankrupt and there is an entirely different manner of seeing this as well.

Had Bush not opened the doors to unilateral action and invaded a sovereign country; perhaps we would not be looking at this Russian action today.

[SoStubborn.Com]

George W Bush has proven to be much slower witted than mr Jimmy Carter.
At least carter was a peanut man before office.
actually i take that back.. Dick Cheney is probably the ultimate culprit ..
and dont forget condi rice and mr rumsfeld..
They are all very very stubborn
Karl rove.... another very stubborn one

SoStubborn.Com

thank YOU
Ciao!

[Don]

What an incredible insult to Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter declared vehemently about the need for the USA to be off of oil by the year 2000. All the fools laughed at him.

Then Ronald Reagan became president and, his first day in office, ordered the removal of the solar panels that Carter had installed on the roof of the White House. That'll show that Liberal....

[roz]

I disagree with him but he is sort of right. We have now a very weak president and more than that, we have very limited capability to deter this sort of bad behavior.

The problem is that our military is totally engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan was a necessary response to 9/11, Iraq was not. Pearle was one the architects and advocates of Iraq, so he is partly responsible for this situation.

Chalk this crisis, and the potential implications of it as an additional cost of the war in Iraq.

Its also crazy that Bush has been antagonizing Iran and Russia at a time when we are totally engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are limits to our power and the number of things we can hope to accomplish at any one time.

[Ralph Spyer]

Remember when George stop drinking we have to deal with his marvelous personality that started him drinking in the first place. Our military intelligence is a contradition in terms they drop the ball again,ithey drap the ball in Iraq'.In puplic affairs,stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.

Many silent observers from distant lands like myself see US aggression everywhere and its bloody finger pointing and accusing Russia when it is the US which trained, and supplied military hardware as well as flying Georgian soldiers to fight in the war. It is a strategy of diversion to launch its war with Iran that becomes clear to many like myself who observe from the periphery. Just because the media is controlled by the neo-cons and the West tells lies does not mean that the rest of the world can be fooled into believing them. We know who the true aggressors are.

The Bush regime has tortured, bombed, pillaged and destroyed millions around the world, and now, when Russia is standing up to its proxy war in Georgia, people like Perle seems to lecture to the rest of the world that America is the Mr. Nice Guy. No more with your fables now. We know enough from Afghanistan to Iraq to Iran and Latin America.

Peripheral Observer.

[Geo]

Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents outlining possible deals.

No surprise that he is upset... the pipeline crosses Georgia...

[Kevin in Colorado]

The problem is not just how W judges people in his gut rather than based on action and history, but how W has left us without any military leverage on the needed diplomacy. We are drawn so weak by the useless engagement in Iraq, that there is no weight to his scolding, regardless whether we wish to back up the scolding with action, direct or indirect.

[john l.]

oh george.

it's back to the bottle, once again.
then it'll be a couple lines of coke.
then the teeth'll be falling out from all the meth.

then condi'll turn up pregnant.
george sr. and barbara will finally "cut him off"
and he'll wind up in a trailer.

five years later, he'll turn up drunk off his ass,
claiming that he was president, once.

and no one will believe him.

[Korben Dallas]

What a useless piece of posturing! With 125 American military advisors in Georgia, are they still going to pretend that USA was not in the know on the upcoming Georgian military action against Ossetia? IS USA that stiput not to understand what Russian reaction would be in case of such attack? Stop being ridiculos. What we observe in Georgia is a carefully crafted jewel of Mr. McCain's pre-election campaign. These thousands of civilian souls massacred by Georgian criminals will not only be on Mr. Saakashvili consicence, but on the American one as well.

[SHawn]

Does anyone listen to what this neocon crackpot has to say anymore?

[Michael Wade]

Carter, the peace president, a peanut farmer. Bush, the war monger, munitions manufacturer and oil rigs owner.

[We are ourself worthless!]

As Americans, we are a pretty worthless bunch. We continue to allow Bush and the Neo-Cons to kill innocence at will around the world. We know exactly why and how this particular conflict was started. Yet we will do nothing. Innocent people are tortured, and children are used as sex slaves by contractors making billions of dollars through federal contracting services.

Of course the exact nature of the engagement is to pre-occupy Russia, while Bush invades Iran.

Here we are, writing blogs about things we already know the answers to. While innocent people are slaughtered.

So I guess we just sit back and watch. We could take back our Democracy if we wanted, and bring sanity back to the world. We won't. We'll just wake up in the morning and go to work. This is all happening in slow motion!

I guess I'll go buy myself a 3.2GHZ MAC-Pro tomorrow. You guys think I should buy a 22 or 24in flat screen monitor? What about speakers, any suggestions?

Judging from the comment above we can assume that Georgia doesn't even have the right to defend itself, or have it's soldiers defend itself at this point because they made the mistake of springing the long planned Russian trap. It's sad that we have so many loud and proud intellectual cowards here in the West, but I guess that's the price of real freedom.

[American Clarity]

Doesn't anyone find it more then a bit hypocritical that Putin and the Kremlin would lecture the 'West' about keeping their noes in their own business when Russia was dealing with Chechin rebels inside their country. But now suddenly its ok for Russia to butt in the internal affairs of a fellow sovern nation like Georgia when their dealing with a breakaway regions of their own?

So now its ok to invade other countries and side with their rebels because their pro-Russia?

Look, I'm not trying to say that Bush is blame free here. Far from it. It's his bumbling administration that has so expertly overextended our military in Iraq as so many others here have already pointed out.

But lets not give Russia a free pass here either. Their meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, landing troops and armor to support rebels! Rebels that by all accounts would have been violently suppressed had they sprung up in Russia instead of Georgia.

This kind of unrestrained military aggression undermines everything that international organizations like NATO and the UN have been founded to prevent. To say nothing of the disruption of relative international piece we have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War.

These kinds of actions CAN NOT STAND! They must be opposed from every corner of the globe! No matter if its Russia or the US that instigates it.

[Jerry Kirle]

We'd have a much bigger position of strength right now (ie not have the bulk of our military in Iraq) and not be viewed as a hypocrite by Russia (Iraq was a sovereign nation too) if it weren't for the neocons like Richard Perle, so it's hard to swallow "wisdom" from him, when he's been wrong so many times before.

[SenorPescado]

"Is George Bush a 'hapless Jimmy Carter'?"
what a lame by line, another stupid bought off rag with these type of lines?
what an insult to the last best President
you and all you so called big city rags, are gone thank GOD for the web and real news
I am ashamed google put this in 'their news' but then again maybe for a joke
why does this reporter and all CEO's of big biz bought off rags not hang yourselves, even further
Viva La Revolucion
to The Hague and then the firing squad
if you think
you can hide hide in Paraguay
ask Somoza
vale verga los diablos de Bush-Crowley
GOD rules over all,

[don]

(get over it you lost) president bush is a great man and great father and husband carter was a joke