WASHINGTON
-- Former President Jimmy Carter today said President Bush's second term is
showing an "arrogance" born of a fundamentalist belief that "we
can do anything we want and get away with it."Former President Carter attacks Bush 'arrogance'
WASHINGTON
-- Former President Jimmy Carter today said President Bush's second term is
showing an "arrogance" born of a fundamentalist belief that "we
can do anything we want and get away with it."
In the midst of promoting his 20th book, "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," published this week, the 81-year-old former president, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidency humanitarian work at the Carter Center, gave his harshest attack yet on the current president.
He said he wrote this book, his "first political" book, "with trepidation" but felt he had no choice. He argues that the nation is no longer perceived around the world as standing up for human rights, civil liberties, environmental protection and global freedom.
When he learned the administration is pushing for a legal right to torture foreign prisoners, he said he was appalled. "I never dreamed we'd ever even consider that."
He said that while he is convinced Mr. Bush is sincere in his Christian faith, the president's "fundamentalism" makes him rigid and unable to admit mistakes. He accused the administration of abrogating most international agreements which the United States has signed.
At a breakfast with reporters, he said that in his talks with Arab leaders he has found that they believe the United States intends to stay in Iraq permanently because of the large bases it is building and does not intend to permit other nations to profit economically from Iraq's oil. If the United States gave a timetable for absolute military withdrawal from Iraq after helping the Iraqi government become stable, he argued, the violence in Iraq would decrease rapidly.
Mr. Bush argues that providing such a timetable would play into the hands of the insurgents, who would wait until a U.S. pullout before taking the country over and making it a base for terrorists.
As for his own, weakened Democratic Party, Mr. Carter complained that its leaders are spending too much time on abortion, a subject that makes him uncomfortable. "Many Democrats, like me, have problems with killing a late-term baby as it emerges from the womb," he said.
Mr. Carter said he is displeased that members of Congress gave themselves raises totaling $30,000 while keeping the minimum wage at $5.15 an hour. He is angry that the United States is giving India nuclear fuel although it won't abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He says there is almost no concern in the administration about the 30,000 Iraqis who have died. He is worried about the explosive growth in the deficit.
But he said he is not without hope. "The American people have not endorsed the radical changes" he feels are occurring, he said. "The American people will do the right thing."