Op-Ed: Former President Jimmy Carter Calls Bush "The Worst in History"

Carter trying to give away his title?

From Carter to W. Bush, they all bear responsibility for the current situation in the ME. From appeasement to pre-emptive war and everything in between, they have all contributed, IMO.

@ S.H. Mills:
Carter trying to give away his title?

From Carter to W. Bush, they all bear responsibility for the current situation in the ME. From appeasement to pre-emptive war and everything in between, they have all contributed, IMO.

I totally agree. Every administration suffers from criticism, as politics wouldn't be politics without opposition and lashing out.

What I find interesting is the timing of this. Why did Carter choose to say all this now? And why Carter of all people?

Also, it's popular in many places to criticize Bush right now. I guess Carter is happy to shift the focus from the media coverage of his supposed Anti-Semitic sentiments onto someone else.

Plus, "the commander guy" is an easy target.

i believe carter is speaking out now because our nation is in the most danger it has ever been in and because our ethos or sense of liberty and justice is in the worst shape it has ever been in. for God's sake, we are using extraordinary rendition to take people to places like syria and egypt to be tortured. we are holding people indefinitely without charging them. we are abandoning the constitution. we are violating human rights and are saying that our actions are justified.

we have so abandoned our ethics that we can no longer cling to politeness or decorum or political standards of behavior. yes, carter's statements are unprecedented, and presidents don't tend to speak of each other in this way. but it's time to speak the truth and to be brutally honest. we are going down.

our country does not mean anything any more. we are no longer "above" certain standards of behavior like torture.

i don't believe carter is criticizing bush now because it's somehow popular--i don't think it's popular at all. look at what has happened to people who have spoken out, including musicians like the dixie chicks and linda ronstadt who are not even political figures and surely have the right to say whatever they want.

look at the former british ambassador to uzbekistan who spoke out against the british and american encouragement of and complicity in torture and lost his job. he said he never would have believed that he would be sacked for saying that torture is wrong and that the UK should not engage in it.

look how openly racist and misogynistic our culture is. this is, i believe, all connected to conservatism and our culture of pre-emptive violence. this is all connected to the increasingly popular non-separation of church and state. this is right-wing christianity and colonialist politics in action. yes, i do believe that our loss of human rights at home (right to safe abortions, freedom from surveillance, right to check out books at the library without ending up on some FBI list) is mirrored in our denial of human rights abroad.

look at how most of our democratic leaders fell down and let the bush regime walk right over them and into iraq.

people like me, who are not part of mainstream american culture, are really, really angry. and i feel quite desperate.

Most definitely the current administration has done things worth criticism, but I do strongly believe it's also coming from Carter because it's popular right now. When I say popular, I mean many people are doing it, not that it's unwarranted.

The current administration was criticized elsewhere around the world years ago -- all throughout Canada, Europe and especially in the Middle East, when the war in Iraq started. There was not a whole lot of vocal opposition back then in the U.S., though, or there at least was nothing like there is today.

The Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore and the lot have always criticized. That isn't new. But they've also always been labelled (by their critics) as uncouth liberalists who are promoting their own agendas.

What is popular now, IMO, is more than the Hollywood crew jumping on the Bush administration for everything. Bill Maher used to be the only person on television to lash out, but it's increasingly popular for it to now come from academia/scholars, business analysts, political commentators, the media, the working class, the military, etc.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with Carter, but it is popular (and safe) for him to speak out now. He didn't say this two or three years ago, yet there was arguably the same evidence to warrant criticism then too.

Great post Kurtrat. For some reason Bush is not unfazed with criticism, he just keeps chugging along like a freight train. He has won, America has lost, his buddies have won with hefty contracts, American public with heavy tax and deficit burdens. They should have said this long ago by not reelecting him, too late now. Only the next government can undo but there doesn't seem to be good choices available so far, they will be doing more like him in the name of politics.

I could not agree more with what Chris said. The "anti-Iraq" chorus was a very small minority of people who were basically tarred and labelled "treasonous" just a few short years ago and now that the pendulum has swung 180 degrees, it is almost treason to support the war Iraq.

I too question his timing and also, to me if find it very sad for him of all people to be labelling his confrere as the "worst" President.

Carter is the last one to be calling anyone the worst President.

Unlike Bush Carter can both read and write and he writes extremely well to boot. Is there anyone who would really like to stand up and claim that Bush is not a brain dead moron, recovering alcoholic with an uncanny ability to fail at everything he has ever tired in his life or that he lied us in to an unneeded and unjust war which he managed to lose with the most powerful military in history? The man was too stupid to get into Junior College in Texas for God’s sake! That’s why they sent him to Yale on a “heritage appointment.”

As for anyone who thinks that Carter is anti-Semitic they are probably illiterate as well as dumb. Has no one read “The Blood of Abraham” One of his many books and one that decisively proves that Carter is a whole lot smarter than any half dozen of his critics rolled into one. Anyone who bothers to investigate the Iran Contra scandal knows that the incoming Reagan administration was in cahoots with the Iranians to hold American hostages until Carter left office—a clear act of treason.

As a person who has opposed the war from the start I think that anyone who ever supported it has to prove that they can be trusted with sharp instruments. Only a liar claims that everyone thought that Saddam had, or would use, WMD’s. Bush just wanted to become a “War President,” and to chip away at the Constitution.

@ Chris Hogg:
Most definitely the current administration has done things worth criticism, but I do strongly believe it's also coming from Carter because it's popular right now. When I say popular, I mean many people are doing it, not that it's unwarranted.

The current administration was criticized elsewhere around the world years ago -- all throughout Canada, Europe and especially in the Middle East, when the war in Iraq started. There was not a whole lot of vocal opposition back then in the U.S., though, or there at least was nothing like there is today.

The Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore and the lot have always criticized. That isn't new. But they've also always been labelled (by their critics) as uncouth liberalists who are promoting their own agendas.

What is popular now, IMO, is more than the Hollywood crew jumping on the Bush administration for everything. Bill Maher used to be the only person on television to lash out, but it's increasingly popular for it to now come from academia/scholars, business analysts, political commentators, the media, the working class, the military, etc.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with Carter, but it is popular (and safe) for him to speak out now. He didn't say this two or three years ago, yet there was arguably the same evidence to warrant criticism then too.

As opposed to uncouth Conservative troglodytes promoting their own agendas?

The current Administration has done things worthy of war crimes trials.

@ Carolyn E. Price (gohomelaker):
I could not agree more with what Chris said. The "anti-Iraq" chorus was a very small minority of people who were basically tarred and labelled "treasonous" just a few short years ago and now that the pendulum has swung 180 degrees, it is almost treason to support the war Iraq.

I too question his timing and also, to me if find it very sad for him of all people to be labelling his confrere as the "worst" President.

We were the ones smart enough to see what was really going on and the rest of you are only now catching up. It should have always have been treason to support an unjust and unnecessary war.

What, Dubya worst U.S. president in history? "GET OUTTA HERE!"

@ Squidny:
What, Dubya worst U.S. president in history? "GET OUTTA HERE!"

Name a worse one! He has started and lost two wars and made this one of the most hated countries on Earth when at the beginning of his regime we were among the most loved. He pissed away the good will the world had for us after 9/11 and is the only President is US history to have a major city all but totally destroyed on his watch. He can barely speak an English sentence without embarrassing himself and he is a war criminal. What does it take to rate "worst in your book" death camps?

@Wefremen:
Uh, I was being sarcastic as in "who doesn't know G.W. is the worst" - sheesh...Dude, I agree with you...

@Wefremen:
But a good question is - if you feel so strongly about this, why haven't you upvoted Kurtrat's story?

@ Squidny:
@Wefremen:
But a good question is - if you feel so strongly about this, why haven't you upvoted Kurtrat's story?

Great, now he has 13 points. Isn't that unlucky?

@ wefremen:
Great, now he has 13 points. Isn't that unlucky?

Don't worry, 666Divine solved that problem!

@ Squidny:
Don't worry, 666Divine solved that problem!

Yes, I come in pretty handy at times. LOL

George Bush’s personal theme song.

Wow a Bush Bashing party! Can I join oh can I?

Bush is nothing but a puppet for his three puppet masters Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove. Those three have caused problems for a number of people. Do not forget that Congress has approved of everything Bush has done. That group of children will pretend they are unhappy or appalled but they support him. Right now he is the classic fall guy.

Bush has had to deal with more in his presidency than any other president since probably Lincoln. Oh how soon people forget the presidents before that pushed their problems off on the him. The situations he has had to deal with have been around much longer than he has been in office.

I understand our foreign and domestic policy contributed to 9/11 but I Think people forget that Bush was barely in office at the time. So whose administration was AL Qaeda reacting to? Bush Sr. and Clinton. Clinton also let a lot of stuff slide while he was president and made America look like a weakling to the rest of the world which is why they had the balls to try what they did again.

I know most of the world had good will for us, but again people are forgetting the people that were dancing in the street in celebration. People hated us long before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I agree with Jimmy Carter. Even though he made the mistake of supporting the Shah of Iran (not realizing, I believe, the extent of his regime's human rights violations.)

Whether or not Carter is right, this statement just proves what he is trying to do is working. Of course he realized the human rights violations, but did he care? Caring would have gone against his agenda.

I agree with Chris, Carter is just trying to do what the "popular kids" are doing.

@ Squidny:
@Wefremen:
But a good question is - if you feel so strongly about this, why haven't you upvoted Kurtrat's story?

Actually, a story should be bumped up as newsworthy, because it is newsworthy, not just because it's something a person agrees with. I don't necessarily agree.... I still found it newsworthy and upvoted it.

@ Chris Hogg:
I totally agree. Every administration suffers from criticism, as politics wouldn't be politics without opposition and lashing out.

What I find interesting is the timing of this. Why did Carter choose to say all this now? And why Carter of all people?

While it is indeed true that, "Every administration suffers from criticism ," I believe Carter's comments are only his attempts to appear relevant in a day where he is no longer necessary.

He has every right to speak out in opposition to his government, however considering his former status as POTUS (President of the United States) he should hold his tongue at least until the next administration takes office.

I consider his comments to be an assault on the Presidency itself, causing much harm and little good. He chose to speak now as a political pawn of the democratic party to assist in their 'War on Bush' at a time they should be focusing on a War on Terror, or countless other domestic issues.

Why Carter? Simple. Everyone else is dead from that era.

There is such an extreme hate for Bush that it has blinded a large number of Americans, and in turn caused themselves to be the victims of a truly cold meticulous manipulation campaign with deep roots within the DNC itself.

Don't be deceived.

It is much bigger than Jimmy Carter.

" their 'War on Bush' at a time they should be focusing on a War on Terror"

The War on Bush is War on Terror.