Jimmy Carter: American Hero

[EWolfe]

Copyright 2007,

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

by Frank Lockwood

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

 

 

 

In a stinging rebuke to President Bush, former President Carter on Friday called the current administration “the worst in history” when it comes to international relations.

 

During a telephone interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from the Carter Center in Atlanta, the ex-president also accused the current White House occupant of eliminating the line between church and state and of abandoning “America’s basic values.”

 

“I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history. 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 said.

 

The 39th president said that during Bush’s two terms in office, he has radically departed from every other U.S. president.

 

“We have a new policy now on war,” Carter said. “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. But that’s been a radical departure from all previous administration policies.”

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who brokered the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, also faulted Bush’s Middle East diplomacy skills. “For the first time since Israel was founded, we’ve had zero peace talks to try to bring a resolution of differences in the Middle East. That’s a radical departure from the past,” he said.

 

Carter, who signed the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) with the Soviet Union in 1979, said the current White House has “also abandoned or directly refuted every nuclear arms control agreement ever negotiated down through history. And I think we’ve had a radical departure in my opinion.”

On the environment, Bush also has failed, Carter suggested. “We’ve had an abandonment of almost every previous administration’s policy on environmental quality. Many of the basic laws were passed under Richard Nixon and other Republican presidents as a matter of fact. We’ve pretty well abandoned those.”

But the Baptist Sunday School teacher saved some of his harshest criticism for Bush’s “faith-based” agenda.

 

Citing an article in The New York Times, Carter said hundreds of millions of dollars in federal earmarks are now going to fund religious institutions.

 

“Individual churches and religious seminaries and other strictly religious organizations have their own lobbyists now in Washington to make sure they get their share of taxpayers’ funds. And, as you know, 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. Those things in my opinion are quite disturbing,” 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.”

Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley said the comments were unprecedented by the 39th president.

 

“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 made the comments while promoting his new audiobook series, Sunday Mornings in Plains — a recording of the weekly Bible lessons he teaches at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga.

 

In March, Simon & Schuster Audio released Leading a Worthy Life, a four-disk set. This week, the second title, Measuring Our Success, went on sale.

 

The latest release “was actually recorded about the same time we invaded Iraq, so I interrelate my condemnation and criticism of this unnecessary invasion with the ministry of Christ as the prince of peace,” Carter explained.

 

The ex-president’s comments come at a time when Bush’s public support is dropping. A Newsweek poll this month showed that only 28 percent of Americans approve of the job he’s doing — the lowest presidential ratings in about three decades. (Carter’s approval rating dipped to 28 percent in 1979.)

 

Brinkley said Bush and Carter are “on opposite sides of the seesaw on international affairs.” Carter stressed diplomacy during his presidency. Bush has preferred “muscular militarism,” Brinkley added.

 

A White House spokesman, Blair C. Jones, didn’t comment, referring a reporter to the Republican National Committee.

 

Republican National Committee spokesman Amber Wilkerson questioned why a Sunday School teacher would attack the commander in chief.

 

“Apparently, Sunday mornings in Plains for former President Carter includes hurling reckless accusations at your fellow man,” she said. “It’s hard to take a lecture on foreign policy seriously from President Carter considering he’s the same person who challenged Ronald Reagan’s strategy for the Cold War.

 

“I think most Americans will probably take his criticism with a grain of salt considering history has proven him wrong in the past,” she said.

 

Foreign policy experts, however, were less likely to dismiss Carter’s criticisms.

 

“It is somewhat unusual for a former president to be this outspoken, but in this case, it might be warranted,” said Christopher A. Preble, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, based in Washington.

 

Bush’s “open-ended, ill-advised military adventures” have been costly and ineffective, Preble said.

Peter Beinhart, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, said he wasn’t terribly surprised by Carter’s statements. “He’s more ideologically polarizing than most ex-presidents. He’s taken some positions that are very controversial.”

 

Labeling the Bush administration as the “worst” is “a pretty harsh statement, [but] I think he may be right,” Beinhart added.

 

Carlos Pascual, vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, said recent polling indicates that America’s image has been tarnished since Bush took office.

 

“Generally around the world, the U.S. is not well-regarded. There’s a lack of trust and confidence in the United States as a partner. Even in most European countries, the U.S. was considered a greater threat to international security than Iran,” Pascual said. “This president and this administration is seen as acting unilaterally without consent or regard for the international community.”

 

Officials at the conservative Heritage Foundation and the American Center for Law and Justice weren’t available for comment.

 

But Gerald A. Dorfman, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said he wouldn’t describe the current president as the biggest failure.

 

“It’s very difficult from an intellectual point of view to come down and describe a particular president as the worst,” he said. “Presidents go up and down. When I was a kid, Harry Truman was regarded as the bottom of the barrel. Now everybody, Republican and Democrat, wants to claim him as their own.”

 

 

[joblo7]

disney-reporting; that type of reporting always has something for everyone.

 

strong criticism,objectivity scrutiny, mixed reactions, and ends with a blanket rebuke

 

plausible deny ability rules.

 

carter is right.99.9%