The Patriot Post® · Jimmy Carter Endorses John Bolton?

In an interview this week, Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was marred by an endless trail of foreign policy malfeasance, offered his assessment of former UN Ambassador John Bolton, whom Donald Trump has selected to replace H.R. McMaster as national security advisor in April.

Thus far, Trump has put China’s NoKo puppet on notice, making clear he will not put up with Kim Jong-un’s threats — which has Kim cowering and pleading for talks. Ambassador Bolton is yet another loud shot fired over Kim’s bow.

Carter declared, “The worst mistake that President Trump has made since he’s been in office is his employment of John Bolton, who has been advocating a war with North Korea for a long time and even an attack on Iran, and who has been one of the leading figures on orchestrating the decision to invade Iraq. [He’s] a disaster for our country.”

To better understand why I consider Carter’s condemnation of Bolton an endorsement, allow me to relate some details from a 1987 national security briefing, when Ronald Reagan was president — details that summed up Carter’s foreign policy failures. The briefer was “Chargin’ Charlie” Beckwith.

In 1980, Col. Beckwith was the Army DELTA SF regiment commander who was to lead Operation Eagle Claw, the mission to free 52 American hostages being held by the Islamist regime in Tehran. In a briefing with then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher (who would later become Bill Clinton’s secretary of state), Beckwith was asked by Christopher what he would do if he encountered student revolutionaries who were guarding the Americans.

Col. Beckwith replied, in his inimitable tempo, “Anyone who is holding a hostage, we intend to shoot him, and shoot him right between the eyes. We intend to shoot him twice.” Christopher, taken aback by Beckwith’s response, replied, “Would you consider shooting them in the leg, or in the ankle or the shoulder?”

And that, folks, adequately sums up our failed foreign policy under Carter and Clinton — and it went downhill from there under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

As you likely recall, on 20 January 1981, as President Reagan was 10 minutes into his 20-minute inaugural address, the Iranian regime announced that all of the hostages were to be freed. Smart decision — which was a good indication of President Reagan’s foreign policy successes in the years to come.

That notwithstanding, Jimmy Carter announced this week that he would be willing to be an emissary to North Korea. (No really, he offered.) Recall that in 1994, Bill Clinton sent him to Pyongyang where he, ostensibly, cut a “deal” whereby North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for cash. How did that work out?

Here are a few additional Bolton endorsements: