Does This Mean He Has To Give Back The Nobel?

Wow. Like Stretch said when he send this story in, when you've lost Jimmeh Carter...

Jimmy Carter Accuses U.S. of 'Widespread Abuse of Human Rights'

A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists.

Jimmy Carter, America's 39 th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."

Wow, that sure is interesting, isn't it? Didn't Jimmy Carter *also* receive a Nobel Peace Prize for

...his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development

So it's not like this is some bumpkin who doesn't know what he's talking about, right?

Isn't this a quandry? Jimmy Carter - who by the Nobel Committee's own words knows a thing or two about international conflicts and human rights - is directly accusing another Nobel Peace Prize winner of Human Rights abuse. Let's face it - the policies about which Carter is complaining are policies either continued by Obama or outright started by him - there were no drones operating in the US under George Bush (oh, imagine the HOWLS if there had been...). Does this mean that Obama should lose his Nobel Peace Prize?

Oh, we know the committee will never admit it made a mistake. Carter was very careful to avoid calling out Obama by name, but some of the policies in place - wiretapping, etc. - have been started under Obama. Others, like the continued use of Guantanamo Bay as a detention facility - were specific Obama campaign promises that, in part, led to his Nobel prize. Four years later, Gitmo's still open, we're killing terrorists with unmanned drones, and listening in on American citizens - just like Obama criticized outgoing President Bush for doing.

It will be interesting to see how Carter's words will be taken. In 2002, the Nobel Committee admitted to nominating Carter as a "kick in the leg" to President Bush over his martial actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the time, he was heralded as an "elder statesman" and feted for daring to speak out against the evil Bush regime (remember the laughable Tim Robbins statement about a "chill wind" of censorship and oppression?). Now that he's talking out against actions taken by the US under Barack Obama, will his reception still be as warm?

In any case, it'd be interesting to be a fly on the wall at the next gathering of former Presidents...

That is all.