Carter's life a contrast to US policies

THE irony of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to former US Democrat president Jimmy Carter will not be lost on the party’s current representatives in Congress, who have shifted their position on Iraq to now row in behind President Bush.

The prestigious award acknowledges his peace mediation efforts and promotion of human rights, citing him for “decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

In conferring the award, the chairman of the Nobel committee, Gunnar Berge, said it should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken, and a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States.

During his term as the thirty-ninth president, Jimmy Carter brokered the 1978 agreements that were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the US presidential retreat Camp David.

Following on the groundwork of his predecessors, he established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and completed negotiations on the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. Plans to ratify it, however, were suspended after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

In the twenty years since leaving politics, after his 1980 defeat for the presidency by Ronald Reagan, he has steadfastly promoted peace and negotiation in trouble spots around the world.

The former president has helped defuse growing nuclear tensions in Korea, then helped narrowly avert a US invasion of Haiti in 1994, as well as leading conflict mediation and elections monitoring efforts.

In awarding Mr. Carter the Nobel prize, the committee sent a very definite message to the present incumbent of the White House, and to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

That message was summarised in the citation which accompanied the award. It said that in a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international co-operation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development.

The House of Representatives has given President Bush the go-ahead to wage war on Iraq through voting on Wednesday night for a resolution supporting the use of force to remove the threat of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction if diplomatic efforts fail.

The Democrat-dominated Senate was also expected to ratify the Bush endeavour against Iraq in a vote expected to be carried yesterday. The fact that the mid-term elections are less than a month away, and the public largely support the president’s stance, has no doubt influenced the Democrats in changing from their hitherto delaying tactics, as a matter of political expediency.