Carter: Blair's Blind Support of Iraq War 'Abominable'

In a Saturday, May 19, 2007 interview with BBC radio, former President Jimmy Carter was asked how he would describe outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's attitude to President George W. Bush. He replied: "Abominable. Loyal, blind, apparently subservient.... I think that 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." He said he hoped the unpopularity of the "unwarranted invasion" in Britain and the United States would lead to a withdrawal of troops, AFP said in reporting on the interview.

In an interview with the Arkansas Gazette , which was also published on Saturday, the former President also minced no words in describing President George W. Bush's disastrous foreign policy. Carter harshly criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" with Israel, and for having "abandoned or directly refuted" every arms control treaty negotiated by former U.S. administrations. "I think," Carter summarized, "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...has been the most disturbing to me." He particularly assailed the Bush-Cheney doctrine of preventive and preemptive war, "where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened." Carter declared that this was "a radical departure from all previous administration policies."

Former President Carter also criticized President Bush's so-called "faith based initiative" as a violation of the separation of church and state, again singling out the current administration as a total break from all previous presidencies: "As a traditional Baptist," Carter began, "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."

Such public criticisms of a sitting President are highly unusual, given the larger Institution of the Presidency, which incorporates all living former Presidents as active participants. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the crises brought on by the bankrupt policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration, have created the kind of extraordinary circumstances in which outspoken comments like those of Jimmy Carter are both needed and valuable. Recently, Lyndon LaRouche endorsed another controversial comment by the former President about Israel's apartheid policies towards the Palestinian people [See].