John Bolton's Bomb Iran Du Jour

Raw Story: Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the ouster of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would speed the timetable for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

... "I don't think there’s much time to act. And I think the fall of a Egyptian government committed to the peace agreement will almost certainly speed that timetable up."

Bolton chided the protests in Egypt last week, saying that "the real alternative is not Jefferson democracy versus the Mubarak regime, but that it’s the Muslim Brotherhood versus the Mubarak regime, and that has enormous implications for the US, for Israel, and our other friends in the region."

Ah, yes. They all love spreading democracy... until they realize they might not like the outcome.

And so goes Bolton's latest excuse for bombing Iran. Unrest in Gaza? Bomb Iran. George W. Bush leaving office? Bomb Iran. Protests in Egypt? Bomb Iran.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bolton also said that the consistency of his poached eggs at tomorrow morning's breakfast would speed the timetable for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "If they're not runny enough, there'll be hell to pay,"said Bolton as he picked the crumbs of toast out of his mustache.

What Do Conservatives Think of Nuke Treaty? SURPRISE! Hate It!

Bolton can suck it.

In a potential preview of conservative arguments for rejecting the Obama administration’s new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia in the Senate, John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush, said the treaty reflected “stunning naivete” and placed it in the context of threats to American sovereignty during a wide-ranging speech to the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.

Yes, let's take foreign diplomacy advice of a man who once said you could lose ten floors of the United Nations and it wouldn't make a difference.

Diplomacy Works

NY Times: Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea on Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.

Of course, some might not agree. Here's Wally Walrus:

...the Clinton trip is a significant propaganda victory for North Korea, whether or not he carried an official message from President Obama. Despite decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages, it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so.

...Negotiating from a position of strength, where the benefits to American interests will exceed the costs, is one thing. Negotiating merely for the sake of it, in the face of palpable recent failures, is something else indeed.

And not negotiating at all worked so well for the Bush administration, that North Korea reconstituted its nuclear program. As Jon Stewart posed, who wouldn't Bolton bomb?

Jon Stewart Asks John Bolton: "Who Wouldn't You Bomb?"

The douchiest thing I've heard uttered in a long time.

John Bolton: "There's not that much difference between me and the people who want a world where no government has nuclear weapons. There's not much different. I only want one government to have nuclear weapons."

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Bolton's At It Again - What Global Warming?

Crooks and Liars: When asked about mandatory limits on climate change, Bolton had this to say [on Fox News]:

Well, it’s not unusual for Vice President Gore to be wrong, either, as he is in this case. Of the G8 industrialized democracies, four — the United States, Japan, Canada, and Russia –share our view…If you look at the developing countries, Brazil, India, and China all oppose these targets as well. So, the notion that this is the fault of the U.S. is wrong.

If anybody’s isolated here, I think it’s the Europeans and Al Gore…

Isolation? How about the US being the only country out of 184 that haven't signed the Kyoto treaty? At least the White House is starting to back down lest everyone in the world regards us as lunatics. Too little, too late for this administration.

Following gruelling all-night talks, the conference of 190 nations finally launched a process to negotiate a new treaty for when the UN Kyoto Protocol's commitments expire in 2012.

...The United States, the only major industrialised nation to reject the Kyoto treaty, reached a compromise with the European Union to avoid mentioning any figures as a target for slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

[The senior US negotiator, Paula] Dobriansky was loudly booed by other delegations, and a US environmental activist representing Papua New Guinea said to rousing cheers: "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way."

...After repeated verbal lashings, Dobriansky again took the microphone and said that Washington would "go forward and join consensus," to the cheers of the conference.

Unbelievable. Is that what it takes? Being heckled? I suppose tar and feathering was next.

Daily Show - John Bolton Interview

I completely missed this John Bolton interview on The Daily Show back in March, 2007. Since the writer's strike, reruns allowed me to catch it.

Bolton and Stewart trade verbal jabs and run in circles regarding what goes on behind closed doors in the White House, until Stewart smacks him down with this one:

BOLTON: "I think you should be held accountable for your performance... (LAUGHTER FROM STEWART AND THE AUDIENCE)... let me just finish. You should be held accountable for your actions, but the ability to have candid exchanges of views in private is very important."

STEWART: "I'll tell you what: If you give us the first part of that, I'll give you the latter, because we haven't had that for a long time."