Proving that he’s as shameless as he is stupid, J. Earl Carter announced yesterday that G. W. Bush’s foreign policy is “the worst in history.” Perhaps this criticism sounds plausible to those who have paid no attention to Carter’s own disastrous record of policies, but Carter, more than any other American president, has demonstrated, both during and after his presidency, an uncanny eagerness to betray freedom in the service of tyranny, and it won’t do to allow Carter’s statements to pass without comment.

During his own presidency, Carter liked to characterize his foreign policy as one of “constant decency.” In truth, his policies led to astonishingly inhumane consequences. Carter’s “principled” abandonment of American allies engineered the victory of communist guerillas over Somoza in Nicaragua and Eric Gairy in Grenada. Carter’s policies destabilized friendly governments in Guyana, El Salvador, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. Most famously, Carters policies brought about the fall of the Shah of Iran, giving Islamic extremists a foothold in the Middle East, creating the largest sponsor of international terrorism, and causing the hostage crisis that exposed Carter’s weakness and brought down his administration in shame. Carter’s presidency was a disaster for freedom-loving people everywhere.

Not content merely to be listed among the worst presidents of the twentieth century, Carter has continued to work tirelessly in support of despotism.

For example, in North Korea, Carter brokered the deal that eventually led the U.S. to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea while they continued to pursue nuclear weapons without further interruption.

In Liberia, Carter and his “The Carter Center” oversaw the sham election of warlord Charles Taylor, who was trained by Qaddafi in Libya. In spite of the troubling fact that the only candidate with an army garnered 75% of the votes in a 3-way election, Carter gave Liberia’s election a clean bill of health. In a shocking display of idiocy, Carter said of Taylor, “Although known as a brutal warlord, he is shrewd, competent, a good politician, and is eager to be accepted as legitimate and responsible by the international community and especially by the United States.” Seriously, he actually said that. Thanks to Carter’s rubber stamp, Charles Taylor’s despotism gained international legitimacy, allowing him to commit war crimes and numerous other atrocities against his people for years before he was finally driven into exile.

We’ve seen in the past 3 years since Americans re-elected Bush a slew of elections (Germany, Canada, France) which show the European and the Global political tide finally shifting in favor of American foreign policy. Apparently, the post-election “I’m sorry, Europe” response of America’s Democrats ended up taking for granted what Europeans were just beginning to reject, making American Democrats the largest electorate that remains unconvinced that Bush’s fight against terrorism is actually important. And Carter is more than happy to press his questionable credentials into service to try to undermine confidence in Bush’s foreign policy. He’s practically an axis-of-evil unto himself.

Contrary to what Carter says, we do have reason to be greatful: Bush may not be another Thatcher or another Reagan, but at least he’s not another Carter.