Posted on 05/19/2007 2:25:49 PM PDT by presidio9
Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.
The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.
"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."
Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed his comments to The Associated Press on Saturday and declined to elaborate. He spoke while promoting his new audiobook series, "Sunday Mornings in Plains," a collection of weekly Bible lessons from his hometown of Plains, Ga.
"Apparently, Sunday mornings in Plains for former President Carter includes hurling reckless accusations at your fellow man," said Amber Wilkerson, Republican National Committee spokeswoman. She said it was hard to take Carter seriously because he also "challenged Ronald Reagan's strategy for the Cold War."
Carter came down hard on the Iraq war.
"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," he said. "But that's been a radical departure from all previous administration policies."
Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts by other presidents.
Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive $2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone.
"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."
Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter's comments as unprecedented.
"This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president," Brinkley said. "When you call somebody the worst president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words."
Carter also lashed out Saturday at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how he would judge Blair's support of Bush, the former president said: "Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient."
"And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world," Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Tell us how successful you were with international relations, Jimmy - beginning with the Panama Canal giveaway ...
History has not written W’s story yet, but Carter’s has been written and it is not good. Why can’t Jimmy keep his mouth shut?
President Carter may have the worst ‘projection issues’ known to any human being on this planet.
Nope. Carter was the worst for US world relations.
Carter spawned Iranian terrorism because of the
lack of some payoffs to the DNC (ssdd).
Carter is breathtaking both for his hubris and his ignorance.
As usual, I posted this because I know what a big fan you are of Jimmy Carter. Trust me on this one: The man was a terrible president.
I’m not sure I understand your ‘Nope.’, although I understand and agree with the rest of your post.
I really think Carter has maggots eating away at his brain or something. He is unbelievably mean spirited and nasty.
Since he crossed the line earlier this spring, even the left have dismissed him, but I guess the news media just can’t resist printing this scurrilous nonsense.
George Bush may have irked some in the international community (until they have elections).
Jimmy Carter made us the laughing stock of the international community.
Don't sweat it Jimmah. We won't be a nation much longer, just a beaten path for the North American Union and El Presidente Jorge's stock with globalists will skyrocket.
That senile fool needs to be b!tchslapped for at least a couple of days to see if it’s still possible to knock some sense into him.
My sense about it is that dementia is setting in, and pretty soon Carter will be expounding upon how he “doesn’t think his debate with Reagan last week is going to cause him to lose his bid for re-election”, and other gems will start spewing from his mouth, like Miss Lillians’ latest recipe for peanut soup, Billy’s new investors from Libya, and all sorts of craziness.
Hey, it can’t be any more crazy than the garbage he’s puking up almost each and every single day!
Even in Ronald Reagan’s closing hours on this Earth, his once brilliant mind suffering from the last stages of Alzheimers, even THEN: Reagan had more common sense than Jimmy STP Carter had or will have on whatever is his ‘best’ day.
Anyone want an example of a total waste of skin and oxygen?
Look no further than the treasonous, demented buffoon from Plains, Georgia.
Carter is a moron whom doesn’t have a friggin’ presidential legacy other than 4 years of complete ineptitude. Shooting his mouth off is all he has left.
Jimmy Carter gave away our Panama Canal. I will always hate him for that and more.
Jimmy Carter Bush is about to give our entire United States
away.
There's a difference between being lazy and delibrately not caring because it irritates you personally. My work will be complete when you're in a straight jacket.
.
Enemy Within CARTER = Deposing the Shah of IRAN, in favor of a new Islamic State of IRAN =
American Soldiers now in Iraq losing their lives and limbs from IRAN-Produced roadside bombs.
Enemy Without IRAN = Stated recently that:
“It’s now time for the World to start imagining a World without an America in it”
Enemy Within CLINTON = Stated after 9/11 that:
“There may not evern be an America around in 300 years”
(After doing all he could to make it so while in our Oval Office)
Thus, THE Battle of the 21st Century has just been CLEARLY defined...
...by our Enemies.
.
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