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

[phil]

If you were a presidential candidate, is this the type of response you would offer to a 7 year old asking why you want to be president?

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/07/obama-america-is-no-longer-what-it-once-was/

Remember, we live in America, and America is the reason why anyone can be a president.

[D2]

I think it better to compare Bush to Billy Carter.

[Don]

Call George Bush a lot of things but one thing is certain, George Bush is a patriot of the United States of America. That is a lot more than Mr. Obama and his wife can say for themselves.

[Nima]

What has George Bush got right in his entire presidency for this to be a second one? He distrusts he should trust and trusts the ones he should be careful about.

[Vince]

A comparison to Carter? It might need to be noted that Jimmy never started any wars that were based on lies where thousands of innocent people died. I don't think Carter ever committed any war crimes, at least none that I know of.

[Steve]

To compare any president to Jimmy Carter is ridiculous because Carter was the worst president we have ever had bar none. If you think the economy is in bad shape now you didn't live thru the Carter years. I was in business for 32 years and never was the economic environment worse than the Carter years.
Not a big fan of GBush but Jimmy Carter should have stuck to growing peanuts . Steve P

[MiddleEasterner]

Is Russia doing anything the USA hasn't done (plenty of times) ? The "morale high ground" has been lost from the USA's point of view and it is very difficult to see what case the neo-cons will be making against Russia now. People like Perle, who is essentially a strategist for Israel not America, should not even be consulted on any issue nor given any semblemce of dignity by allowing them to give their opinion on in the mediar. If anyone wants to give them media coverage it should really be the Israelis not anyone in America - a country these people actually destroyed for the sake of Israeli interests.

[A Republican Ex VN Era Veteran]

Perle(man) - that's rich. President Bush "understanding" anything. Our experts on Russia, especially Rice, have failed by any reasonable metric.

President Carter has a soul. He often looked at a current crisis through a moral filter. Perhaps his actions did not manifest hawkishly.

Our current chief executive does not have soul, nor has he demonstrated any ability to develop useful responses to any crisis.

[Jay Arr]

Whether you like it or not, Perle is right. When an American presidency is winding down, it is the perfect time for another power to move. The US will do nothing about Georgia. Russia will do anything it wants, including annexing Georgia back into the Russian fold. After all, what has Georgia got? A piece of a pipeline to the Med Sea. Control the pipe flow, taxes and fees; just like Russia does with its pipes to Europe.

Simple and effective strategy. Russia will lose a half dozen troops and walk all over Georgia. George and Condi are lost in the dust. There is nothing either can do. Their army is tied up in Iraq. There is no other military force. No money. No allies to help. Bankrupt response.. Russia wins. If you were a military commander, you'd look for the same opp.

It is scenarios like this that strike at the weakest point for Presidents...when they come in....or go out. Look at the timing for Korea, Cuban Missle Crisis, Vietnam, Iranian Hostages, 9/11, Georgia. Lessons never remembered.

[Klemens Kotowski]

Me too, I am
a "silent observers from distant lands" ; I am sad to have to believe Putin rather then the White House. Iraq weakened America credibilty.
Iraq did not kill Americans, Geogia did kill Russians, or ?

[w.j. O'Connell]

You should be ashamed of yourself, comparing Butsh to Mr. C.. What an embarrasment for Jimmy.
J.C had real issues at hand, and internationnaly.Unfortunately, he was hamstrung by his own party, left out in the field alone while corporate america bought out every politician in the land, including Mr McCant,and big oil money pushed foreign oil on us as J.C. fought to keep imported oil to a minimum,only as a staple to our own supply.Remember the embargo??
The only presidential position Bush has made in his 8 years is to screw up our allready underachieving education system,put social security into the dark ages for anyone who might be in need of some, and make Liars and Fools of every American for his foolish war.
You should seriously think of renaming this article " a Hapless Reagan" for Reagan would be the only other president ever to get us into a endless war.We are in the "War on Terrorism" (by the way, not a real war, or legal by our own standards) and reagan begat "the War on Drugs", two HUGE blunders by the GOP, excuses for spending billions of dollars, our taxes and borrowed, on events that have no real front, no real face, and no true end.Did you all know that the "War on Drugs" was still being undertaken until two years ago??And why end it after such a good job of keeping Drugs, criminals and terrorists out of our country!!!!

[Jay Arr]

What Peripheral Observer fails to recognize is this: Whichever nation is top alpha dog, top dog rules, controls and sucks up the rewards. Doesn't make any difference which nation is top dog, same rules and controls apply. Remember Spain, England, France, USSR. Hey even the Dutch were up for for a while. China's next for alpha dog status in the modern era. And when China assumes its place, peripheral observer will crow the same tune.

[James Hovland]

Peripheral Observer.

Some of us in America know too, and more and more are starting to realize.

I think Russia could have handled this better, but this was a good wake up call for America and Israel that will pay off for everyone in the long run. Nobody wants a war with Russia, not even America, and Russia just proved that. It's time to stop all the fighting.

[SYZYGY6]

I think the best thing "W", Chaney, Rice, Perle, et.al, can do is, ask Jesus what to do. After all, has Jesus failed them yet?

[GnarlyOne]

How wonderful that we have so many political and military strategists are here to inform us as to the true nature of our role in local and world events! What wild opinions, some of which even have an element of fact. Pseudo-Intellects arise! LOL

[Ruben Safir]

Perle is of course correct except for two factors. Afghanistan really was in a corner of the world almost impossible to reach without applying devastating US military power. And Afghanistan was not a Democratic Western leaning power.

Goergia is both, and Bush shouldn't let domestic politic problems from taking a firm action to support Georgia, even to include an airlift, and NATO military support. This is a very bad event for the West. Teddy Roosevelt like politics needs to commence. We should talk softly and carry a big stick. We need to give the Russians verbal coverage for a withdrawl and reenforce our position that we hope for Russia to be a fully integrated and Westernized nation as well. Meanwhile, the troops in Iraq might well need to be diverted, and defensive support including a protective air defense of Georgia needs to be commenced by Nato.

The West needs to show that it can defend itself, not only against Islamic fundementalism, but would be Mogal invaders, or even Chinese communists.

[John]

just tell Russia to get the hell out and move a fairly large contingent of American forces into Eastern Europe immediately.
Impose economic sanctions on Russian businesses and Russian regime living in Europe and America. Withdraw all investments out of Russia and let Putin and Authoritarian Russians figure out why the Soviet collapsed by a decade of isolation and economic collapse. In the good old Soveit days there was no jam or tomatoes in the Shop and the shelves resembled Zimbawe notwithstanding Putin's longings for the Empire.
He is a stupid pretentious idiot.

[joseph]

I remember when Lebanon was begging for a cease fire and the US didnt do anything about it. What goes around comes around

[John]

This just makes me laugh all the harder when McCain and friends mock Obama for not having enough experience. So this is where experience leads us, eh? We are so much better off with these government careerist Republicans running the shop, I see. Yeah, "experience" has gotten us far...

Oh, and Repblicans are also good for the stock market too, goes the myth. Right, just go to Google and check that one out.

[Walter Herzog]

Isn't Perle's a friend of Conrad Black? Isn't Conrad Black in the slammer now?
How does Perle pick his friends? Does he use the same judgment making policy as he does selecting friends?
Wally

[allergic to perle]

I cannot believe this guy is still given a forum. He should go to his farmhouse in France and pontificate to the olive trees. They like hot air.

And by the way, I wonder if the world would not have been better off with the Russians in Afghanistan. They broke it. And yet we ended up "owning" it.

[Douglas Dunn]

You guys are being way too hard on our President. Shame on you. He has given us some of the best kill ratios in recorded history. For every person who died in the 9/11 attacks by Saudi Arabia extremists intent on showing their discontent with U.S. support of the Saudi regime, the Bush administration has already killed over 220 Iraqis. That will teach the Saudis not to mess with us.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601017_655000_iraq_war_deaths/

First Lady Laura Bush seems concerned about her husbands legacy. Honey, let me tell you something, he may have missed the target, but your boy will never be forgetten, I can assure you that. With a kill ratio like that and the U.S. economy in ruins, I am pretty sure he will go down in history. You must be proud of him. I just hope the thought of all those dead men, women and children do not haunt your dreams at night. I just hope when you look at your hubby you don't start to see a mass murderer because we all know and appreciate the importance of cheap oil (not to mention oil profits). He's my hero lady, I can assure you of that. I thank God every day for sending us such a strong leader.

Ah, but this isn't over quite yet. Senator McCain wants to try to do better. Man if he tops 1,000,000 Iraqi deaths for every American the Saudi terrorists killed, that will be a kill ration of 336-to-1. Now that's got to be some kind of record. Doesn't it just make you beam with pride to be the leaders of the free world? We got the best kill ratios in history.

[Dimitri]

The snakes came out from under the rock.
This group of people are the biggest group of thugs i ever saw in my life.
The Sopranos are scouts in front of them.
They turned this country from a super power to a turtle unable to act because is overstretched in every level financially, militarily, socialy, etc (for me they are traitors they exploited the patriotism of the Americans and feed them with lies) so their buddies will make some bucks. The war in Georgia gave allot of points to Russia and put her back in the word as an untouchable super power and there is nothing we can do about it. I don't know if the US will ever recover the damage from this administration with the rising of Russia and China as military and economical powers.

[Liberty for Life]

Excerpts of GWB "PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" October 12, 2000

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec00/for-policy_10-12.html
"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us; if we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we've got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom."

"I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be. We can help. And maybe it's just our difference in government, the way we view government. I mean I want to empower people. I want to help people help themselves, not have government tell people what to do. I just don't think it's the role of the United States to walk into a country and say; we do it this way, so should you."

Forget a minute about moral. Where can we find an "accountable administration"? One that will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Will the real patriots, please stand up and step forward!

[David Price]

Hmm, interesting comparison of Bush to Carter. Each has an energy crisis and high profile hostage release. What's next for W....a Nobel???