The only U.S. 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 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.” Carter then said the U.S. 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.
The U.S. 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.
Carter said of U.S. 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 leftover,” Carter told his congregation. “We’d have 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.”
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