St. Jimmy (redux)

Mark Steyn:

Iraq's messy. So? What isn't? America has no Colonial Office, no political administrators with decades of experience in far-flung climes; its occupation of Iraq was learnt on the fly, because there was no other way. But the ludicrous defeatism over what's at worst a partial success is unbecoming to a great nation. If the present Democratic-media complex had been around earlier, America would never have mustered the will to win World War II or, come to that, the Revolutionary War. There would be no America. You'd be part of a Greater Canada, with Queen Elizabeth on your coins and government health care.

Shockingly, Jimmy Carter agrees. About the Revolutionary War part anyway:

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about – this is going to cause some trouble with people but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force. Do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War more than any other war until recently has been the most bloody war we’ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war. Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial’s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a non-violent way.

Oh, yes. The eighteenth century British Parliament was known throughout the world for its sensitivity. And suppose that our Founders had remained loyal to the Crown: the United States would have achieved true independence when, exactly? The 1870s? The 1940s?

In this exchange, Carter reveals an attitude common within today's Democratic Party—a deep distrust of American power, coupled with a disturbing eagerness to shackle American sovereignty. See also: Gerard Van der Leun's Yearning for the Mud: The Kerry-Heinz Ticket and the Psychotic Party Platform.

And more from our sanctimonious ex-president: Bush exploits suffering of 9/11, says Carter. Rather rich, from a man whose favorite movies are Casablanca and Fahrenheit 9/11.

My original St. Jimmy post is here.