“Bush Gives The U.N. The Finger”

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.” “The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.” The man who made this statement is John Bolton whom President Bush recently nominated to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

On April 7, hearings on Bolton’s nomination will start before the Senate Foreign relations Committee. Last Tuesday, 59 former American diplomats sent a letter to the Committee’s chairman, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), urging him “to reject that nomination.” The signers, who served both Republican and Democratic administrations, criticized Bolton’s “insistence that the U.N. is valuable only when it directly serves the United States.” They also lamented the nominee’s “exceptional record” of opposition to international arms control and arms reduction.

Since the Reagan administration, the 57-year old Bolton has served in high-level positions in the Departments of State and Justice, as well as in the Agency for International Development. During the 1990s he joined the neoconservative Project for the New American Century advocating unilateral action, whenever and wherever necessary, in the pursuit of American goals. For the Cato Institute’s book Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention, Bolton contributed a chapter on “The Creation, Fall, Rise, and Fall of the United Nations.”

In 2001 President George W. Bush appointed him Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. In 2003, however, Bolton had to resign from the U.S. delegation to the negotiations about North Korea’s nuclear program because he called North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il a “tyrannical dictator” and life under his regime “a hellish nightmare.” That may have been true but it was certainly not acceptable to the North Koreans with whom the Bush administration wanted to come to an arms control agreement.

“ Choice of Bolton shows US mood,” claims The Financial Times. USA Today calls him a “guided missile” while Counterpunch sees him as “The latest Mad Man at Foggy Bottom” (the building complex housing the U.S. Department of State).

Lack of diplomatic tact has long characterized Mr. Bolton’s rhetoric and conduct in foreign affairs. He defends his record as one that “demonstrates clear support for effective multilateral diplomacy.” Columnist Robert Novak finds the nominee “misunderstood by many.” Frank Gaffney, the neoconservative columnist of the Washington Times, greeted the President’s choice of Bolton as “A Bolt of Good Sense.” It will be revealing to see which members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee agree with Bolton’s justification of his “diplomacy” for the promotion of America’s interests throughout the world.

In 2000, when Vice President-elect Cheney was asked what job Bolton would get in the new administration, Cheney said: “My answer is anything he wants.” When announcing Bolton's assignment as top U.S. spokesman at the U.N., Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called him a “tough-minded diplomat” who has a “proven track record of multilateralism.”

Yet, the evidence shows that, since the 1970s, Bolton has aggressively and stridently attacked multilateral institutions and activities unless they were initiated and controlled by the U.S., such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or the president’s “coalition of the willing” in Iraq.

Rice explained: “The president and I have asked John to do this work because he knows how to get things done.” That certainly is true for his fierce and successful opposition to existing and proposed international treaties restricting landmines, biological weapons, nuclear weapons testing, small arms trade, and missile defense.

The prevailing criticism of Bolton’s nomination here and abroad seems best summed up by a headline in The Nation: “Bush gives the U.N. the Finger.”

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	04-03-05
“Bush Gives The U.N. The Finger”
“There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.” “The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.” The man who made this statement is John Bolton whom President Bush recently nominated to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. On April 7, hearings on Bolton’s nomination will start before the Senate Foreign relations Committee. Last Tuesday, 59 former American diplomats sent a letter to the Committee’s chairman, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), urging him “to reject that nomination.” The signers, who served both Republican and Democratic administrations, criticized Bolton’s “insistence that the U.N. is valuable only when it directly serves the United States.” They also lamented the nominee’s “exceptional record” of opposition to international arms control and arms reduction. Since the Reagan administration, the 57-year old Bolton has served in high-level positions in the Departments of State and Justice, as well as in the Agency for International Development. During the 1990s he joined the neoconservative Project for the New American Century advocating unilateral action, whenever and wherever necessary, in the pursuit of American goals. For the Cato Institute’s book Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention, Bolton contributed a chapter on “The Creation, Fall, Rise, and Fall of the United Nations.” In 2001 President George W. Bush appointed him Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. In 2003, however, Bolton had to resign from the U.S. delegation to the negotiations about North Korea’s nuclear program because he called North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il a “tyrannical dictator” and life under his regime “a hellish nightmare.” That may have been true but it was certainly not acceptable to the North Koreans with whom the Bush administration wanted to come to an arms control agreement. “ Choice of Bolton shows US mood,” claims The Financial Times. USA Today calls him a “guided missile” while Counterpunch sees him as “The latest Mad Man at Foggy Bottom” (the building complex housing the U.S. Department of State). Lack of diplomatic tact has long characterized Mr. Bolton’s rhetoric and conduct in foreign affairs. He defends his record as one that “demonstrates clear support for effective multilateral diplomacy.” Columnist Robert Novak finds the nominee “misunderstood by many.” Frank Gaffney, the neoconservative columnist of the Washington Times, greeted the President’s choice of Bolton as “A Bolt of Good Sense.” It will be revealing to see which members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee agree with Bolton’s justification of his “diplomacy” for the promotion of America’s interests throughout the world. In 2000, when Vice President-elect Cheney was asked what job Bolton would get in the new administration, Cheney said: “My answer is anything he wants.” When announcing Bolton's assignment as top U.S. spokesman at the U.N., Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called him a “tough-minded diplomat” who has a “proven track record of multilateralism.” Yet, the evidence shows that, since the 1970s, Bolton has aggressively and stridently attacked multilateral institutions and activities unless they were initiated and controlled by the U.S., such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or the president’s “coalition of the willing” in Iraq. Rice explained: “The president and I have asked John to do this work because he knows how to get things done.” That certainly is true for his fierce and successful opposition to existing and proposed international treaties restricting landmines, biological weapons, nuclear weapons testing, small arms trade, and missile defense. The prevailing criticism of Bolton’s nomination here and abroad seems best summed up by a headline in The Nation: “Bush gives the U.N. the Finger.”

Wolf D. Fuhrig

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04-03-05

“Bush Gives The U.N. The Finger”