Zimbabwe to “Elders”: Get lost
posted at 10:30 am on November 22, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Zimbabwe has refused entry to Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan for a humanitarian mission intended on estimating the amount of intervention needed to stave off a famine in the breadbasket of Africa. Along with human-rights actvist Graca Machel, the so-called “Elders” assembled by Nelson Mandela failed in their opening mission to solve world hunger and “foster peace”:
Zimbabwe has refused to let Kofi Annan and two eminent colleagues visit the impoverished African country for a humanitarian mission, the three said Saturday.
The former U.N. secretary-general, ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and rights advocate Graca Machel had planned to assess the country’s needs. They are members of The Elders group, formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela to foster peace and tackle world conflicts.
Zimbabweans are suffering from disease and hunger while political crisis over a power-sharing government occupies its politicians. A current cholera outbreak has killed nearly 300 people in Zimbabwe, the United Nations said.
But the three were told Friday night by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating the political crisis, that efforts to secure travel visas for the a two-day trip had failed.
There is no small amount of irony in this snub. Robert Mugabe began his tyranny with the assistance of the Carter administration, as James Kirchick reported at the Weekly Standard last year. Without Carter, Mugabe would likely have been just another terrorist thug chased around in the wilderness for a while until murdered by his own people.
Kofi Annan provides a different kind of irony. The last humanitarian mission Annan led was the Oil-for-Food program at the UN. That led to the worst corruption in history, with everyone getting paid off while enriching Saddam Hussein beyond the dreams of avarice. The only people to suffer in that arrangement were the Iraqis that were supposed to get fed through direct aid, bypassing Iraqi sanctions.
Only Nelson Mandela would have thought to send these two on a mission to Harare. Not even Mugabe wants to see these two frauds.
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Good, this is funny. I can not stand jimmy.
L
letget on November 22, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Carter’s Mugabe refuses Carter … my how the worm has turned.
tarpon on November 22, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Africa’s children have been starving for 50 years. It’s comforting to know this will all “change” when BO takes office. Can’t wait.
Mojave Mark on November 22, 2008 at 10:45 AM
But Y’all… I have a dream, I have a plan, I have a Playboy and y’all still won’t lemme in.. so sad..
Lincoln Cadillac on November 22, 2008 at 10:46 AM
He had lust in his heart … to fix what he broke. Ahh, the sadness of unrequited love.
GoHskrs on November 22, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Send in The One. /sarc
DannoJyd on November 22, 2008 at 10:50 AM
This would be great if any of them would learn anything from it. But they won’t.
Cindy Munford on November 22, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Well,
It looks like folks are finally realizing that, wherever United Nations support arrives, there also comes graft, rape, murder, political corruption, and a proportional increase in human misery.
Americans long ago learned to fear the words “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.
AW1 Tim on November 22, 2008 at 10:53 AM
How do these people live with themselves? They used to call Zimbabwe the jewel of Africa…Good Job Jimmy Carter, explain this one to your maker, when you explain your efforts to what? Make things FAIR. (More Social Engineering Gone Bad) There is a saying. When you can do no good at least do no harm.
Dr Evil on November 22, 2008 at 10:59 AM
I thought EVERYONE would love us once The One was elected.
Hey Jimmah, you’re needed in Minnesota …. election wrongdoings. Go get’em peanutbrain.
fogw on November 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
As the years go on, will the “elders” be replaced like in the boy band Menudo?
RobCon on November 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
No second Nobel Prize for Mista Jimmah.
tru2tx on November 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Won’t it be wonderful come Jan. 20th, when the messiah is sworn in and all the world’s problems just miraculously disappear?
LOL-and I think it is funny as hell that Jihad Jimmy was refused entry into a country run by a thug that he helped put in power.
-Dave
Dave R. on November 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Yep, Muggerbee is smart enough to reject a bad proposition times two. It is a shame that most American voters have no clue what the UN is really about.
Laura in Maryland on November 22, 2008 at 11:01 AM
Makes me think of a Stephen Sondheim song.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 22, 2008 at 11:01 AM
Absolute dictators have no use for milksops.
Jimmy, baby, maybe you can devote your time putting the genie of radical Islamicism back in the bottle you so inconveniently opened back in 1979.
coldwarrior on November 22, 2008 at 11:01 AM
Reading that WS article made me physically ill.
This sort of thing is why I spent so much money and time campaigning against Obama. I’m afraid he’ll make long-term messes like this, because it’s true that leftists don’t learn from history.
I think Obama is smarter than Carter, but there’s little we can do about him if he starts doing things like this. We don’t have much say in government now.
juliesa on November 22, 2008 at 11:05 AM
G. Gordon Liddy said that song is going to be the theme song for the new and improved incoming administration.
*snort*
tru2tx on November 22, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Maybe they check yes on question 59.
Speakup on November 22, 2008 at 11:08 AM
It’s so bad, it’s almost poetic. I love it.
marklmail on November 22, 2008 at 11:09 AM
they should go and see the handiwork of polices designed to defeat the rich.
rob verdi on November 22, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Jimmy Carter is impervious to experience.
Cicero43 on November 22, 2008 at 11:21 AM
hahaha
lodge on November 22, 2008 at 11:22 AM
This is to funny! Carter is a weenie. Both crooks. Now we need to get the UN out of our Country. Worse we could have ever done is to let them here.
sheebe on November 22, 2008 at 11:26 AM
For once, I agree with Mugabe.
PattyJ on November 22, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Its just as well, the stink of death will not appeal to Jimmy and Kofi.
rob verdi on November 22, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Now if only we’d follow suit.
James on November 22, 2008 at 11:42 AM
There will be no hunger or illness when the ONE takes office.
KBird on November 22, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Caed Mille Failte Jimah and Kofi!
Just kidding!
Limerick on November 22, 2008 at 11:46 AM
Can we refuse Jimma Carter’s entry back into this country?
Kini on November 22, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Hillary, the Secretary of States’s first piece of business should be to finally take away that passport from Jimmy. But the way our luck has been running, maybe Obama will give the good old peanut farmer a cabinet position.
Knucklehead on November 22, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Larry, Curly and Moe were funnier and more relevant.
Tennman on November 22, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Jimmy should get some helicopters and head out on a rescue mission
This time he should make a point to be in the helicopter
entagor on November 22, 2008 at 12:12 PM
The Zimbabwe article was very informative and enlightening. I sure hope BO’s administration is not as moronic as Jimmuh’s was.
HawaiiLwyr on November 22, 2008 at 12:15 PM
Note as well the AP article pussyfooting around, saying that the politicians are occupied with shared-government problems.
No, Mugabe and his people are totalitarian thugs.
PattyJ on November 22, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Wait.
Mugabe loses the election and should be out of power.
And you are laughing at Carter/Kofi for being shunned by Mugabe?
Interesting.
lorien1973 on November 22, 2008 at 12:18 PM
I could think of a few worse things to befall the leboriphobic cat killer.
abinitioadinfinitum on November 22, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Graca Machel is Nelson Mandela’s wife. What I would like to know, is how much do these so called “elders” get paid? There is so much scamming going on with these so called diplomats and former diplomats it’s ridiculous. They always have their hands in the till. The entire EU is like that, too. The do nothing and pay themselves big salaries and perks.
It’s like Ramsey Clark. He runs around and gloms onto every leftard cause and get’s paid big bucks to file b.s. boiler plate motions.
Blake on November 22, 2008 at 12:27 PM
The One could text Mugabe
Kini on November 22, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Um…I think about 52% missed that lesson.
I’m taking a ‘wait and see’ approach.
Dee2008 on November 22, 2008 at 12:38 PM
I think we can enjoy Kofi and Jimmy’s discomfiture, while still recognizing the seriousness of the situation in Zimbabwe.
Dee2008 on November 22, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Robert Mugabe should have let them in and not let them out.
albill on November 22, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Don’t forget Rwanda. It was Annan’s dazzling can-do-nothing display in the face of genocide that helped earn him the top spot at the UN…
elgeneralisimo on November 22, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Probably the first time anyone of these as# clowns has heard the word…………………. NO!
Seven Percent Solution on November 22, 2008 at 12:51 PM
I think they took away his blackberry. Oops, is that racist?
abinitioadinfinitum on November 22, 2008 at 12:52 PM
My God, a Mugabe policy I agree with.
BTW, can we refuse them entry into the US too?
rbj on November 22, 2008 at 1:15 PM
…the irony is delicious….
…Carter…Mandela…Annan…Mugabe…you only need to add Riff, Chino, Bernardo and Tony, and a snappy Bernstein score, and you’d have quite the street gang there….
…”When you’re a rat, you’re a rat all the way…from your first corrupt international outrage to your last dyin’ daaaaaaaay”….
Puritan1648 on November 22, 2008 at 1:19 PM
How come Jimmah wasn’t supervising the biggest election fraud in history? Ours on November 4th.
What a wanker.
btw, wasn’t Zimbabwe the former Rhodesia? The former breadbasket of Africa that has turned into a sh*tehole of epic proportions after redistributing the wealth?
Let’s roll.
ex-Democrat on November 22, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Mugabe turns on his brothers?!?!
This can’t be good.
Let a little Rodney King in here Robert: “Can’t you all just get along?”
Fellow travelers going different ways.
Ah, the irony.
Amendment X on November 22, 2008 at 1:25 PM
I still think BO should have named Jimmah to be Sec of State. He has all this negotiating experience. Way more than Hillary. Plus he is a much better fit in the BO policies.
Corsair on November 22, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Carter screwed the world up so badly in his four years as America’s worst-evah – if I were a Habitat for Humanity home recipient, I would want any work Carter did on the place checked by a real contractor before I would set foot in it. I don’t believe he can even drive a nail properly.
whitetop on November 22, 2008 at 1:30 PM
The idea of these “Elders” creeped me out when these guys first got together.
If you’re not familiar with the group, here’s the site:
The Elders
Here’s a Front Page Magazine article on “The Elders” from June 2007:
The Elders’ Protocols
INC on November 22, 2008 at 1:33 PM
I wouldn’t take that bet tru2tx.
Remember how and why Jimmah got the first? And don’t forget the faher of modern terrorism Chairman Arafat is also a recipient.
Maybe this trip was to get good ol’ Mr. Oil for Food himself a shot at the now discredited Nobel Peace prize.
Just a thought.
Amendment X on November 22, 2008 at 1:34 PM
mugabe might not want to see them, but it’s not because they are frauds. Anything they might say about Zimbabwe won’t be Kumbaya, and that’s what Mugabe wants to prevent.
unclesmrgol on November 22, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Things must be pretty bad for dictator commie supporter Carter to be denied entry from his second worst foreign policy acolyte (Ayatollah Khomenei was Carter’s worst foreign policy disaster). Captain Ed forgot one more disaster of Kofi Annan-he was in charge of the Rwanda massacre ‘humanitarian’ aid. We know how well that went too.
eaglewingz08 on November 22, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Heh, I thought this was about Joycelyn Elders at first, thinking that Zimbabwe didn’t want to go blind.
digitalintrigue on November 22, 2008 at 2:02 PM
At least they have the good sense to keep Carter out of the country…
right2bright on November 22, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Just enjoy their desperate attempts to be relevant. The fact they are ignored by everyone makes it soooo sweet. Imagine the hurt, bewildered looks they exchange with each other when they finally realize the truth,…that everyone knows they are all frauds.
a capella on November 22, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Schadenfreude is a base and ignoble emotion, and we would do well to imagine what Thomas Aquinas, for example, would have made of it.
warbaby on November 22, 2008 at 2:57 PM
(continued)
Nevertheless…..
warbaby on November 22, 2008 at 2:58 PM
We have Hezbollah in Lebanon thanks to Carter. Russia invaded Afghanistan which led to the creation of the modern Taliban and Al Qaeda thanks to Carter. The Sandanistas came to power in Nicaragua thanks to Carter and look like they are poised for a reprise. Thousands starve in Zimbabwe thanks to Carter. Terrorism in the Palestinian territories was validated as a mechanism to power and Arafat raised to the level of a head of state thanks to Carter.
Jimmy Carter has probably killed more people than anyone since Stalin and they are still dying to this day, almost 30 years after we rode him out of DC on a rail.
WORST PRESIDENT EVER
crosspatch on November 22, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Almost as funny as when the Israelis all but told Jimmy to go screw himself.
mjk on November 22, 2008 at 3:47 PM
Yes, he can do for them what he did for Kenya when he went there and campaigned for his cousin Raila Odinga who, when he lost the election, encouraged his thuggish followers to kill thousands of fellow Kenyans. Obama knows all about illegitimate “power-sharing” arrangements because Odinga has one of those now in Kenya, thanks in no small part to Obama — that great defender of democratic principles.
AZCoyote on November 22, 2008 at 4:02 PM
That should be written over the doorpost of the State Department.
History has shown it to be true, but the only one’s who continue to believe we can negotiate with these people are liberals. From Wilson to Chamberlain, and from Clark to Carter, what these people do is make the rest of us unsafe.
Children should never be allowed to sit at the same table with the adults.
Joe Pyne on November 22, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Now that, ladies and gentleman, is truth. Truth that NO ONE will hear about in the mainstream media. Truth that NO Republican will ever point out, because they are fearful of the possibility of media backlash.
It is a shame, crosspatch, that your spot on analysis will probably never see the light of day outside of this blog. What a pity.
Joe Pyne on November 22, 2008 at 4:20 PM
It is sad to see Nelson Mandela, a person I admire show so openly to the world that he has afterall grown senile. Sending in Carter and Kofi ? two worthless idiots who have a vastly exxagerated sense of their importance.
I thought i’d never say this – but Mugabe for once, has helped the world – he has now shown how useless the “Elders” are and what a horrible joke it is even when it comes to a situation like Zimbabwe where there is world wide consensus on how bad the situation.
No US leadership on a issue = the world watching silently and hoping for the US to act. after all doesnt this pass the “global test” ? and yet, no one can really do a thing about it.
Chalk it up for the wonders of multi lateralism… wow, its such a great concept, isnt it ? Every one unites to do nothing!
nagee76 on November 22, 2008 at 5:14 PM
Don’t worry “elders”. Give it ten more years and you just might be “old” enough. Ha! Ha!
RMR on November 22, 2008 at 6:12 PM
The Elders are just a bunch of mostly-lefty do gooders, like Carter, Tutu and Mary Robinson. It’s interesting that though there are prominent Christians, Muslims and Hindus in the group, there are no Jews. Also, someone you’d expect to be an Elder because of his prestige as a man of faith and peace, Tenzin Gyatso, aka the Dalai Lama, is nowhere to be found. Most likely because Carter, Tutu and the rest don’t want to offend China.
rokemronnie on November 22, 2008 at 6:25 PM
No, most likely because they are well unworthy to even walk in his shadow.
[And, of course, that China thingie…}
coldwarrior on November 22, 2008 at 6:49 PM
Obama — “This is not the Africa I knew”
Paul-Cincy on November 22, 2008 at 7:22 PM
That was wrong. They should have let the Elders in. Then, they should have eaten them. It might have helped stave of famine for a few families.
morganfrost on November 22, 2008 at 7:34 PM
Swell.
The Elders.
A global peace initiative based on the concept of a Spinal Tap reunion tour. All it lacks is Bongo and Me2.
warbaby on November 22, 2008 at 7:39 PM
I blame
BushObamaeeyore on November 22, 2008 at 7:40 PM
The elders should go play bridge at the old folks’ home instead.
AlexB on November 22, 2008 at 9:26 PM
Mugabe (rhymes with Huckabee) just needs to wait for the passage of Obama’s one piece of legislation (The Global Poverty Act S.2433 )and he’ll be rolling in our cash. Jeez with all that superior judgment and intellect you’d think The Messiah would have seen this economic meltdown coming before proposing to give away 1% of out GDP!
dmann on November 22, 2008 at 10:25 PM
3 blind mice…why isn’t Carter back home in Plains eating goobers?
Gohawgs on November 23, 2008 at 3:09 AM
Anyone who actually was wise would know better than to describe themselves as such. Humility comes with wisdom.
trigon on November 23, 2008 at 3:12 AM
When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought it was a reference to Joycelyn Elders, and that she was going to recommend that Mugabe’s thugs use “safer bullets.”
L.N. Smithee on November 23, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Oh my God!
There is a real thinking government in the world after all. Well, its about time someone decided to put Jimmah in his rightful place. The only thing left now is for Jimmah to STFU!!!
belad on November 23, 2008 at 9:20 PM
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