This isn't the real America
rc...@mailinator.com
This isn't the real America
By Jimmy Carter
JIMMY CARTER was the 39th president of the United States. His newest
book is "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," published this
month by Simon & Schuster.
November 14, 2005
IN RECENT YEARS, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of
radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles
espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican.
These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic
and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.
Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with
truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with
respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.
At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from
the restraints of international organizations and have disavowed
long-standing global agreements - including agreements on nuclear
arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of
justice.
Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority
unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy
of "preemptive war," an unabridged right to attack other nations
unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When
there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as
international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to
resolve disputes.
Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top U.S.
leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world.
These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who
believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be
internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat
and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our
declaration of "You are either with us or against us!" has replaced the
forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual
interests, including the threat of terrorism.
Another disturbing realization is that, unlike during other times of
national crisis, the burden of conflict is now concentrated exclusively
on the few heroic men and women sent back repeatedly to fight in the
quagmire of Iraq. The rest of our nation has not been asked to make any
sacrifice, and every effort has been made to conceal or minimize public
awareness of casualties.
Instead of cherishing our role as the great champion of human rights,
we now find civil liberties and personal privacy grossly violated under
some extreme provisions of the Patriot Act.
Of even greater concern is that the U.S. has repudiated the Geneva
accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the
so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see
the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free
to perpetrate "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" on
people in U.S. custody.
Instead of reducing America's reliance on nuclear weapons and their
further proliferation, we have insisted on our right (and that of
others) to retain our arsenals, expand them, and therefore abrogate or
derogate almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during
the last 50 years. We have now become a prime culprit in global nuclear
proliferation. America also has abandoned the prohibition of "first
use" of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear nations, and is
contemplating the previously condemned deployment of weapons in space.
Protection of the environment has fallen by the wayside because of
government subservience to political pressure from the oil industry and
other powerful lobbying groups. The last five years have brought
continued lowering of pollution standards at home and almost universal
condemnation of our nation's global environmental policies.
Our government has abandoned fiscal responsibility by unprecedented
favors to the rich, while neglecting America's working families.
Members of Congress have increased their own pay by $30,000 per year
since freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour (the lowest among
industrialized nations).
I am extremely concerned by a fundamentalist shift in many houses of
worship and in government, as church and state have become increasingly
intertwined in ways previously thought unimaginable.
As the world's only superpower, America should be seen as the
unswerving champion of peace, freedom and human rights. Our country
should be the focal point around which other nations can gather to
combat threats to international security and to enhance the quality of
our common environment. We should be in the forefront of providing
human assistance to people in need.
It is time for the deep and disturbing political divisions within our
country to be substantially healed, with Americans united in a common
commitment to revive and nourish the historic political and moral
values that we have espoused during the last 230 years.