The Europeans aren't comfortable with John Bolton. China and North Korea don't like him. The United Nations can't bear him. Splendid credentials all. Sounds like Bolton is the ideal guy to become Washington's next ambassador to Turtle Bay.The Asia Times' Jim Lobe gets into the spirit with a rendition of some of the more endearing whines:--- NY Daily News Editorial
In a breathtaking victory for right-wing hawks, US President George W Bush has nominated Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton to become his next ambassador to the United Nations.Hot damn! No wonder they're all atwitter!
...
"This is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse," said Heather Hamilton, vice president of programs for Citizens for Global Solutions, formerly the World Federalist Association (WFA), who called Bolton the "Armageddon nominee".
The Armageddon allusion was to Bolton's long-time loyalty to former ultra-right Senator Jesse Helms who, on retiring from public life, described Bolton as "the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world".
"His nomination sends exactly the wrong message to the world about the Bush administration's willingness to work with other countries and in multilateral institutions. There's no one who has a greater track record of offending other countries, including our closest allies," Hamilton said.I don't know about you, but I go whole weeks at a time without worrying about what's troubling the World Federalists. And when was the last time any of these handwringers get flustered about someone offending the United States?
He also advocated withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty [er, we did. - ed.] and railed against "nation-building", international arms-control agreements and threats supposedly posed to US sovereignty by the UN and its Secretary General Kofi Annan. At one point, Bolton suggested the US simply halt payments to the world body.Be still, my heart!
Bolton is also a long-time activist in the Federalist Society, an association of right-wing, nationalistic lawyers who have been particularly opposed to the application of international or foreign law in their decisions, a practice that they say threatens US sovereignty.I guess American nationalism is a no-no in the Brave New World. They want us to be sensitive to the latest "legal" fads among Third World thugocracies and the Euroweenies. Hey, Bobby Mugabe, any advice?
The society is also strongly opposed to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that seek the adoption of international law and standards in the US. Along with the AEI, the society sponsors "NGOWatch", which seeks to expose such efforts, as well as the funding sources of NGOs that take such positions.More like a fox among the Toyota Taliban, I guess. NGOWatch is here.
In the summer of 2001, he shocked foreign delegations and NGOs at the a UN conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons when he announced that Washington would oppose any attempt to regulate the trade in firearms or non-military rifles, or any other effort that would "abrogat[e] the constitutional right to bear arms".As should any representative of the USA.
Within the State Department, Bolton led the drive to renounce the US signature on the 1998 Rome Statute that created the new International Criminal Court, the first permanent tribunal with jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.I'm so jealous!
When Bush decided to withdraw the US signature to the treaty, Bolton prevailed on Powell to permit him to sign the formal notification to Annan, an act he later described to the Wall Street Journal as "the happiest moment of my government service".
In a speech in Seoul that same month, for example, just as Pyongyang agreed to enter multilateral talks on its nuclear program as the administration had demanded, Bolton described life in North Korea as a "hellish nightmare", and accused its leader, Kim Jong-il, of being a "dictator" or "tyrant" running a "dictatorship" or "tyranny" no less than a dozen times.It's not? He's not?
More hilarity by following the link, but you can see why the handwringers are nervous. Someone had the effrontery to observe that Emperor Kofi was stark naked!
Some other notable whines:
The Australian's David Nason:
THE shock appointment of hardline neo-conservative John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN stunned the diplomatic community yesterday and raised questions about George W. Bush's commitment to work constructively for reform of the world body in its 60th anniversary year.Sounds like "reform of the world body" to me.
Known as a "hawk's hawk", Mr Bolton, the tough-on-terrorism undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, has been an architect of US policy in Iraq and is a notorious UN-basher.
The Yale-educated lawyer has urged starving the UN of funds, led the fight against a UN-mandated international criminal court and once said "it wouldn't make a bit of difference" if the UN secretariat building in New York "lost" 10 of its 38 storeys.
The Brookings Institution's Susan Rice in The Washington Post:
The job of U.N. ambassador is always important and delicate, but arguably never more so than now. The United Nations is facing unprecedented, justified criticism for its role in the oil-for-food scandal and its failure to prevent peacekeepers from sexually exploiting civilians in Congo. Several Republican members of Congress are gunning for Secretary General Kofi Annan's head. In response, Annan is shaking up his management team and reminding the United States how badly it needs the United Nations.Those are a couple of laughers! Maybe we need them to see if the federal government's check book still works? As for reform, the hints are that the big reform is to pad the Security Council with more folks to be bribed before anything can be done. Zzzzzz.
Indeed, the United States is relying on the United Nations to carry out a massive tsunami recovery effort and 17 peacekeeping missions, to support the democratization processes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to pressure Iran to halt its nuclear program.I guess Susan hasn't been keeping up with current events.
Beth Gardiner at the AP:
"Talk about reopening old wounds," said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research think-tank. "This sends entirely the wrong message.""Effective multilaterism" is a euphemism for the peanut gallery telling us what to do and us footing the bill. Sorry, Francois.
In Europe, Heisbourg said, "this is really going to reopen all of the worst suspicions about the Bush administration's refusal to engage in effective multilateralism."
"This is an extremely bad message that Bush has submitted to the neo-conservatives," said Imad Shoueibi, a Syrian political analyst in Damascus. "They should have a more moderate figure representing them at the United Nations, but instead they have one of the most radical."A "Syrian political analyst in Damscus" - my, my. Yet another foreign "legal" system that we don't need any advice from.
And don't forget Global Test Boy, John Kerry:
"If the president is serious about reaching out to the world, why would he choose someone who has expressed such disdain for working with our allies?We're not talking allies, Lurch. We're talking the UN. And from the same source:
I think any nomination, any designation, is to send a message. I don't know what is the message." - Argentina's U.N. Ambassador Cesar Mayoral.Incoming!
