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BOLTON APPT MEANS IRAN IS NEXT
If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member [the United States] because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world : John Bolton / next U.S.Ambassador to U.N.
George Bush's appointment of John Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N. is not only a slap in the face to the United Nations but a sure signal to the world that Iran is next.
It's also fresh meat for Bush's rabid right wing conservative hawks who are eager for more action.
The Center for American Progress uncloaks Bolton and calls him " Unilateralism Personified "
Excerpt: " Chas Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia under the first President Bush, said naming Bolton to the U.N. job was "the equivalent of dropping a neutron bomb on the organization ."...... Bolton's career has been defined by his passionate antagonism toward international cooperation.....John Bolton wears his extreme disdain for the United Nations like a badge ~ Late last year, Bolton mocked the very notion of diplomacy with Iran .. At least one unabashed supporter of Bolton exists: Vice President Dick Cheney once said Bolton deserved "any job he wants" in the Bush administration ... The selection of Bolton reflects one of the Bush administration's fundamental foreign policy goals: to restrain, undermine, and delegitimize the world's most valuable institution for multilateral problem solving . "
Allen L Roland
Unilateralism Personified
President Bush yesterday named neoconservative, unilateralist hawk John Bolton as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The appointment of Bolton, whose loathing for the United Nations is unmatched even within the Bush administration, is a gift to the most caustic isolationists on the right. Chas Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia under the first President Bush, said naming Bolton to the U.N. job was "the equivalent of dropping a neutron bomb on the organization." Some prominent conservatives in Congress, including Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), have also expressed reservations, signaling a difficult confirmation process. Still, like the right-wing effort to twist the oil-for-food corruption scandal into an anti-U.N. smear campaign, the selection of Bolton reflects one of the Bush administration's fundamental foreign policy goals: to restrain, undermine, and delegitimize the world's most valuable institution for multilateral problem solving.
LIKE STEINBRENNER TAKING OVER THE RED SOX: As with President Bush's selections for attorney general (who considers landmark international law "quaint" and "obsolete") and national intelligence director (known for altering intelligence reports to cover up grotesque human rights abuses), the White House choice for U.N. ambassador seems to have the very opposite values than those that would be appropriate for the position. John Bolton wears his extreme disdain for the United Nations like a badge. In 1994, he actually claimed, "There's no such thing as the United Nations," arguing that ''If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.'' Four years later, he attacked the international body again, declaring that the failure of the United States to win support at the United Nations would "simply provide further evidence to many why nothing more should be paid to the U.N. system."
COOPERATION, "KICKING AND SCREAMING"-STYLE: After yesterday's announcement, supporters were forced to trade in creative euphemisms to cloak Bolton's radical past. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Bolton a "tough-minded diplomat," perhaps referring to the time Bolton answered a question about U.S. policy toward North Korea by grabbing a book from the shelf – "The End of North Korea" – and saying, "That is our policy." Bolton backer Nile Gardiner of the right-wing Heritage Foundation described how Bolton would "aggressively [pursue] the U.S. national interest at the United Nations," even if he had to drag the U.N. "kicking and screaming." At least one unabashed supporter of Bolton exists: Vice President Dick Cheney once said Bolton deserved "any job he wants" in the Bush administration.
EFFECTIVE LIKE A MISSILE: Secretary Rice also claimed Bolton had a "proven track record of effective multilateralism." Indeed, Bolton is known by his colleagues in the State Department as a ''guided missile'' because, "like a missile, Bolton has force and direction and often achieves his objectives, even if there is collateral damage." Like the time Bolton was ordered back to the United States just before crucial six-nation talks with North Korea after he thoughtlessly called Kim Jong-Il "scum." Or, for that matter, like most of Bolton's recent track record. As Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment put it, "Bolton has been totally unapologetic about his radical prescription for dealing with the proliferation threat. The main problem is that it hasn't worked anywhere."
HIGH PRINCE OF UNILATERALISM: Bolton's career has been defined by his passionate antagonism toward international cooperation. "If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member [the United States] because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world," Bolton said in 2000. When proponents of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty worried that its defeat was marking an isolationist turn for the U.S., Bolton said that "such fears are indications of a profoundly misguided and potentially dangerous philosophy in American foreign policy" and called them "timid and neo-pacifist." And when Bolton was given permission to sign the letter to the U.N. that stated Washington was renouncing the Rome Treaty creating the International Criminal Court, he described it as "the happiest moment of my government service."
LOOKING AHEAD – BOLTON ON IRAN: Iran is certain to be a major second term priority for the Bush administration, and Bolton's record on the issue makes a mockery of President Bush's claims that the impasse with Iran can be "solved diplomatically." In 2002, when Tehran "signaled interest in discussing its nuclear program," Bolton brushed it aside. Late last year, Bolton mocked the very notion of diplomacy with Iran. At a conference in London, Bolton "responded to a question about whether he would support Europe's attempt to offer Iran incentives with the terse one-liner: 'I don't do carrots.'" Bolton has also been the prime mover behind the White House campaign to oust the U.N.'s widely supported nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei, employing underhanded tactics like wiretaps on ElBaradei's phone and alleged leaks of false information.
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