The Ghost of Banquo

Well, twice today I have read articles about the state of our nation where his name comes up. The guy who changed everything. You know, the man who served with distinction in the nation's armed services, married religion with politics in the deep south and ushered in the Reagan Revolution. I refer, of course, to Jimmy Carter.

In the first article, BU professor Andrew Bacevich argues in The Wilson Quarterly (sorry, the article's not online) that World War IV, the American decision to secure access to foreign oil through its military strength, has been underway since 1980. We have handled it poorly, he says. He notes that Carter was the last president to attempt to address America's dependence on foreign oil. Carter's clear vision led to conservation and the hated synfuels program, one of many nails in his coffin in 1980. This response to the program from Bill Bradley was typical. Diversify foreign oil sources Bill? How? OPEC's share of world production goes up every year from now 'til the end of time. (Idiot).

We took the easy way out, Bacevich says, using our immense military strength to secure the oil supply and creating a chain of unintended consequences that strings on to this day. In his view the Bush administration is the first to admit we are fighting this war, and the attack on Iraq is a logical move in their campaign (despite being an extremely illogical move in the War on Terrorism).

And the ghost of Jimmy haunts NewDonkey.com as well, as he ruminates about the Democrats' chances of coming back in the South.

Despite his loss to Reagan, Carter remains the only American president in my lifetime to have accomplished a permanent step toward peace in the mid-east, his brokering the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The Carter Library quietly notes the 25th anniversary of this accord.