A nobel for Carter.

Byline: The Register-Guard

It's fitting that Jimmy Carter should become the first U.S. president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after leaving office. Carter is far more popular as an ex-president than he was during his four years in the White House. He has set an admirable example of how to make good use of the ex-presidency, a position of high but undefined standing that Carter has employed in productive private diplomacy, human rights advocacy and humanitarian work.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Carter for his "vital contribution" to the Camp David Accords of 1978, the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt that remains in place today. Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt received the peace prize that year, but Carter deserved an equal share of the credit then, and the 2002 prize will correct the oversight.

But it is as ex-president that Carter has truly distinguished himself - as an unofficial but authoritative diplomat, defusing potential conflicts in Haiti, North Korea and East Timor; through the Carter Center, which promotes human rights and free elections around the world; as a member of international teams of observers in Panama, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia and elsewhere, and as the most visible worker for Habitat for Humanity, the housing agency that combines charity and self-help.

Committee chairman Gunnar Berge pointedly contrasted Carter's record at Camp David to President Bush's policy toward Iraq, saying that the prize "should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken." Such comments detract from the value of the peace prize by making Carter's quarter-century-long record a platform for commentary on today's events.

It would have been better to let Carter speak for himself, in words of advice to his successor, Ronald Reagan:

"I'd like to see our country be a champion of basic human rights in a broad sense so that people would turn to America for correction of human rights abuses, and we would not be guilty of human rights abuses ourselves. I'd like for our country to be looked upon as a foremost proponent and protector of liberty, freedom and democracy... . I'd like to see our country be unselfish for a change... . I would say peace and freedom and alleviation of suffering are the characteristics, in my opinion, of a great nation, and we don't exhibit those."