Re: RIP Jimmy Carter (Off Topic)

On Mon, 30 Dec 2024 10:06:39 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

Before it was brought up by President Trump, I had no idea Jimmy Carter
gave away authority over the Panama Canal. I already thought that he was
the dumbest human being after Joe Biden, but this just bumped him up to
the biggest cretin the White House has ever seen.

There is some history there. Panama was part of Columbia but when a treaty
fell apart in 1903 the US supported the brave freedom fighters in their
revolt against Columbia and the achieved independence.

The US has been plagued by desperately wanting to be an empire without
having the appearance of being an imperialist nation. Sometimes the scheme
doesn't work and it wound up with an albatross like Puerto Rico.

Still, it was a mistake giving away the Canal Zone. Torrijos and later
Noriega were supposed to keep a lid on it.

To his defense Carter inherited a huge bag of shit from the Nixon/Ford
handling of the inflation brought about by the oil embargo.