Transcript of Ed Peck on FNC

BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 1 month ago

Ed Peck, Chief of U.S. mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter, was interviewed on Fox News Channel today, and said some remarkable things (over at HotAir.com).  Here is the conversation I transcribed a few minutes ago.  Ed Peck is EP, and the Fox News Channel commentators are FN.  After being pressed on how to prevent World War III, Ed Peck begins:

EP: Maám, it’s a good question.  I’m a diplomat.  I believe very sincerely on the basis of my experience and whatever knowledge I have of history, that if there’s a problem between two groups, and they sit down to see if they can eliminate or reduce the problem — they talk about it — there’s a chance that they can achieve that objective.  But if they do not talk, there’s no chance.

FN: But Mr. Ambassador, Hezbollah is bent on … you know … sort of wiping Israel off the map.  So what is there more to say?

EP: Well, and Israel is bent on destroying everybody in Hezbollah, so what is there to say?  There is a middle ground, almost always.  But you’ve got to talk, just like we did to the Russians during the cold war, although we knew they could blast us off the face of the earth — at cost.

FN: But Mr. Ambassador, do you believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization?

EP: Well, a terrorist organization is in the eye of the beholder.

FN: I’m asking you.

EP: Okay.  You have to understand, now, we parachuted people into Europe in World War II.  You’re too young to remember that.  Their job was to kill Germans.  Now.  Were they terrorists or heros?

FN: Well, let’s go back to Hezbollah.  Do you think its a terrorist organization?

EP: No, I think it has objectives to which we object very strongly, and some of them are bloody, but other people are doing things quite similar to that, and they’re not called terrorists, because they’re on our side.

Permit be a bit of commentary since I went to the trouble of transcribing this juvenile conversation.  Here is a remarkable testimonial to a foreign policy that has been completely unhinged from any value system except, or course, relativism.

The sole criteria that Mr. Peck sees being used to define the word “terrorist” is whether we agree with them or not.  He is incapable of judging any further than that as to means, tactics, purposes or causes.  It represents the impotent Carter administration exactly, and it is again remarkable that Mr. Peck even brought up the examples that he did.  Let’s look at them for a moment.

He brings up the cold war and the talky-talk with Russia.  But Carter accomplished nothing during his administration except the strengthening of communism and terror around the world (well, he did bring us 16% inflation).  It was the Reagan administration that won the cold war, and Peck’s mentioning of it only highlights the abject failure that defined the Carter administration during these years.  That Peck defines this as a success is incredible but informative.

Peck brings up the airborne troops that were dropped into Europe during WWII, asking rhetorically if they were terrorists?  FN failed to give the answer.  Let me supply it.  No.  The U.S. showed incredible restraint in the years leading up to our involvement in WWII.  In the years 1939-1943, German U-Boats sank approximately 4700 U.S. merchant ships, sinking them at a greater rate than the U.S. could manufacture ships.  One merchant ship, in fact, was sunk at the mouth of the Mississippi River on May 12, 1942.

All pathologies bent on world domination (communism, Islamic facism, Nazism, etc.) use times of talking to re-arm, rest, strategize and re-group.  These times of talking have always occurred at strategically beneficial points for those bent on world domination.  Why wouldn’t they?  If all we are willing to do is talk, the enemy waits until he is ready.  We will always be ready.

But this strategic use of timing to re-arm is irrelevant if there is no good and no evil.  If there is no side of right and side of wrong, it really doesn’t matter who is strongest now.  Only under a system that is hopelessly incapable of ascertaining good and evil does one compare the American G.I. in WWII with Hezbollah terrorists who drag non-combatants in front of them to die in their stead — and then celebrate the death of those same non-combatants.

No, the talking that Ed Peck and Jimmy Carter did on their watch caused, at least in part, the situation we now face.

Jimmy and Ed should be ashamed.  But their value system will not allow it.

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Comments

  1. On July 27, 2006 at 11:47 pm, Mike said:

    Jimmy Carter was the best President Panama ever had! Maybe he’ll do us all a favor, and just die soon. Cheers, Jimmy!

  2. On July 29, 2006 at 1:32 am, Steve said:

    Hi Captain,
    I enjoy your blog but I wonder if you’re over-simplifying Carter’s record. What about the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt? That was pretty ground-breaking.
    And according to your transcription, Peck did not define the word “terrorist.” He said it was in the eye of the beholder, i.e. it means different things to different people.
    I’m wondering, did Peck advocate an immediate cease fire, or did he just say that as a diplomat, he felt diplomacy was something that will need to happen at some point. Isn’t that why Condi is going to the Middle-East tomorrow?

  3. On July 30, 2006 at 12:46 am, Herschel Smith said:

    Steve,

    We had a missionary come to our church recently and speak about his time so far in Egypt (about 18 years).  Egypt is an interesting study.  It has always been, compared to the other middle eastern countries, the voice of moderation.  This was especially true of Anwar Sadat’s Egypt, and his failure to push Israel for recognition of certain Palestinian “rights” gave rise to his assassination.  Mubarak is the same, although much more nationalistic and dictatorial.  Everyone has papers in Egypt: you are Christian or Muslim.  But you cannot change from one to the other.  To be sure, people do become Christian in Egypt, but they don’t even try to have their papers changed.  Proselytizing is illegal.  To proselytize would mean that the “apple cart” had been upset.  Changes are occurring, and change is not a good thing to a dictator.  Radicals like al Zawahiri are imprisoned in Egypt.

    So it should have been relatively easy to bring Sadat and Begin together to the Camp David Accords, especially given the humiliation caused to the Arab world from the Yom Kippur war (or the October war).  Why am I going into this?  Because the Camp David Accords did not accomplish much.  While Carter flirted with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, he worshiped Arafat.  Jay Nordlinger comments:

    But Carter is a different cat. He ended his memoirs with the boast that no American had died fighting abroad while he was president (omitting Desert One). Because some presidents allow threats to gather, other presidents have to make war—or at least be tougher. Jimmy Carter no doubt rallied Democrats with his speech. He should have rallied Republicans, too.

    Carter’s years are marked by “official” peace, along with things like the hostage crisis in Iran, an Iran who would not release them until Reagan came to power.  During these official times of peace, the terrorists became stronger.  Aaron Mannes comments:

    …it would not be accurate to say that Arafat was directly behind 9/11 and the growth of al Qaeda. But Arafat’s life’s work was to justify the use of random violence and equip a generation with the means to do so. He helped set in motion the web of alliances that has manifested itself in today’s super-terrorists. This is Yasser Arafat’s terrible legacy. 

    The title of Mannes’ piece is “Terrorism’s Godfather.”  It is an appropriate title for both an article and Arafat himself.  Carter enabled him by the talking and negotiating and the endless visits and discussions and calls to world peace.

    This is also Carter’s terrible legacy.

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This article is filed under the category(s) Politics, Terrorism, War & Warfare and was published July 27th, 2006 by Herschel Smith.

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