Jimmy Carter

– by AP

Grand Rapids, Michigan: A U.S. bombing attack against the Islamic State forces in Iraq could end up killing more civilians than militants unless there are American spotters on the ground, former President Jimmy Carter said Monday during an appearance at a community college in western Michigan.

The 39th president and his wife, Rosalynn, spoke for about 45 minutes as part of Grand Rapids Community College’s Diversity Lecture Series.

The 89-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner addressed a range of topics and answered student questions.

Carter said that he normally opposes the use of U.S. military force to solve problems. He said that the U.S. needs to exercise care so as not to harm noncombatants if it uses air power to attack the militants who refer to themselves as the Islamic State, sometimes referred to as ISIS.

“When ISIS forces go into a city and take it over, and then the United States goes over there with bombers and drops bombs, we are very likely to kill more civilians than ISIS members,” Carter said in a video broadcast by WOOD-TV (http://bit.ly/1pp4pWu ). “That’s why it’s very necessary for us to have our own people on the ground that can give us accurate information about exactly where to let a missile land or a bomb land to make sure that it kills the ISIS terrorists instead of normal civilians.”

Carter has written 28 books, including “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power.” It was released in March.

Source

– by Arun Kumar

Washington (IANS): Louisiana’s Indian-American Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has acknowledged that he’s considering a 2016 run for president, and will make his decision after the November Congressional elections.

His decision would not hinge on polls or fundraising, he told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast here Tuesday.

Only 3 percent of Republican primary voters backed him in a new CNN/ORC poll of Republican presidential possibles in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary in the US presidential election cycle.

The governor finished at the bottom of a field of 11 potential presidential candidates. But he says that would not be a factor, the Monitor reported.

“If I were to decide to run for 2016, it would have nothing to do with polls or fundraising,” said Jindal.

“It would simply be based on the same calculation that I made when I ran for… Congress or governor.”

He lost the Louisiana governor’s race in 2003, won a US House seat in 2004, and won the governorship in 2007 and was overwhelmingly reelected in 2011.

The determining questions, he said, were, “Do I think I can make a difference, do I think I have something unique to offer?”

“I think at this point polls are measuring name ID,” Jindal was quoted as saying by CNN.

“The first time I ran for office, I was… polling within the margin of error, which means I was at zero.”

“There’s no reason to be coy,” he said. “I am thinking, I am praying about whether I’ll run in 2016.”

Jindal, who is vice chair of the Republican Governors Association, also touted the progress that Louisiana has made while he has been governor.

Louisiana is becoming a state where more people are coming than going; boasting an economy that’s growing at twice the rate of the nation; creating more than 50,000 jobs, he said.

Jindal called President Barack Obama the worst American president since Jimmy Carter.

“Carter believed in American exceptionalism. I don’t think Obama does,” he said.

“Obama’s the most radical president, ideologically, in my lifetime. And I think he’s the most incompetent president.”

“Jimmy Carter,” he added, “was just incompetent.”

Jimmy Carter: US bomb attack on Islamic State 'likely to kill more civilians' than fighters

Bobby Jindal to decide on presidential run after November

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