Carter vs Bush

39^th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, has blasted Britain’s support for United State’s war in Iraq, calling it a “major tragedy”. He judges Blair’s unwavering support for the war loyal yet blind. In addition, Carter calls Bush’s administration the “worst in history”. "One of the defenses of the Bush administration, in the American public and on a worldwide basis -- and it's not been successful in my opinion -- has been that, OK, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us.” Carter spoke out against the 2003 invasion during an interview with BBC radio. Thus, he believes that the Bush and Blair partnership has indeed strengthened the effort on the war and made opposition more vulnerable and less effective, prolonging the war and increasing the amount of tragedies because of the war. However, Amber Wilkinson, Republican National Committee spokeswomen, rebutted that Carter and his comments were not to be taken seriously as he also previously challenged Ronald Reagan’s strategy for the cold war.

After reading this article, I feel that Jimmy Carter’s comments on Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq were justified. Just looking at the effects of the war would tell anyone that. Firstly, the war costs a hefty sum of US$150 million a day. In addition, casualties have been numerous; the war has claimed 2,300 American lives and at least 17,000 other soldiers have been injured and that is just the impact to America.

Iraq, especially, is paying the price for this unjustified attack. The society has been in unrest as the whole foundation of the nation was blown up to pieces and had to be rebuilt all over again. Gun fights happen all over the city and morale in the country is at an all-time low. In addition, the innocent civilians have to live with dangerous conditions every single day, causing countless unjustified deaths.

Bush said on November 2005 that the threat of jihadist terrorism to the United States’ interest would have been far greater if not for the war and that war is reducing the global pool of terrorist. Yet, reports have shown that these assumptions have yet to be proven by any concrete evidence; even the White House has been unable to prove this.

Thus, I feel deep pity for the innocent people involved, be it the civilians of Iraq or the fighting soldiers of America and her allies and unless Bush provides a fair reason for this pre-emptive war, the war would be useless. However, I do believe that Carter’s comments are unprecedented as calling someone the worst president ever is as good as fighting.

To conclude, I strongly believe that Bush should look over his administration of the Iraq war and perhaps make it a more peaceful and stable form of assistance for Iraq.