Jimmy Carter: US ‘Most
Warlike Nation in History of the World’
Former
president says peaceful China 'ahead of us in almost every way.'
by Brett Wilkins Posted
on April 20, 2019
The only US president to complete his term without
war, military attack or occupation has called the United States “the most
warlike nation in the history of the world.”
During his regular Sunday school lesson at
Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter revealed that he had recently spoken with
President Donald Trump about China. Carter, 94, said Trump was worried about
China’s growing economy and expressed concern that “China is getting ahead of
us.”
Carter, who normalized diplomatic relations between
Washington and Beijing in 1979, said he told Trump that much of China’s success
was due to its peaceful foreign policy.
“Since 1979, do you know how many times China has
been at war with anybody?” Carter asked. “None and we have stayed at war.”
While it is true that China’s last major war – an invasion of Vietnam –
occurred in 1979, its People’s Liberation Army pounded border regions of
Vietnam with artillery and its navy battled its Vietnamese counterpart in the
1980s. Since then, however, China has been at peace with its neighbors and the
world.
Carter then said the US has been at peace for only
16 of its 242 years as a nation. Counting wars, military attacks, and military
occupations, there have actually only been five years of peace in US history –
1976, the last year of the Gerald Ford administration and 1977-80, the entirety
of Carter’s presidency. Carter then referred to the US as “the most warlike
nation in the history of the world,” a result, he said, of the US forcing other
countries to “adopt our American principles.”
China’s peace dividend has allowed and enhanced its
economic growth, Carter said. “How many miles of high-speed railroad do we have
in this country?” he asked. China has around 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of high-speed rail lines while the US has “wasted, I think, $3 trillion” on military
spending. According to a November 2018 study by Brown University’s Watson
Institute of International and Public Affairs, the US has spent $5.9 trillion
waging war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nations since 2001.
“It’s more than you can imagine,” Carter said of US
war spending. “China has not wasted a single penny on war, and that’s why
they’re ahead of us. In almost every way.”
“And I think the difference is if you take $3
trillion and put it in American infrastructure you’d probably have $2 trillion
leftovers,” Carter told his congregation. “We’d have a high-speed railroad. We’d
have bridges that aren’t collapsing, we’d have roads that are maintained
properly. Our education system would be as good as that of say South Korea or
Hong Kong.”
While there is a prevalent belief in the United
States that the country almost always wages war for noble purposes and in
defense of freedom, global public opinion and facts paint a very different
picture. Most countries surveyed in a 2013 WIN/Gallup poll identified the United States as the
greatest threat to world peace, and a 2017 Pew Research poll found that a record number of people in
30 surveyed nations viewed US power and influence as a “major threat.”
The US has also invaded or bombed dozens of countries and supported nearly
every single right-wing dictatorship in the world since the end of World War
II. It has overthrown or attempted to overthrow
dozens of foreign governments since 1949 and has actively sought to crush
nearly every single people’s liberation movement over that same period. It has
also meddled in scores of elections, in
countries that are allies and adversaries alike.
Brett Wilkins is editor-at-large for US news at
Digital Journal. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social
justice, human rights, and war and peace. This originally appeared at CommonDreams.
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