John Bolton, a stereotype

The anti-diplomat

The diplomat; the term conveys the vision of a highly intellectual individual, knowledgeable in international affairs and politics, multilingual, able to defuse tense situation with a clever speech or phrase.

Then we have John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; an anti-diplomat if there ever was one. John Bolton fits the right wing imperialist American stereotype. Loud, stupid, crass, “pro-America and the rest of the world be damned”.

Quotations of from this questionable man:

“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.” (1994)

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. United States makes the U.N. work, when it wants it to work.” (1994)

“… the United Nations can be a useful instrument in the conduct of American foreign policy.” (1997)

It is almost obscene that this man is now an ambassador to the United Nations. John Bolton’s contempt for the United Nations as an organisation represents a larger view of US foreign policy. It is contempt for world opinion that contradicts the goals of American hegemony. The United States does not want to “work with” the global community, it wants to run it.

Bolton’s attack on the UN came renewed this week following a speech by Mr Malloch Brown, deputy secretary general of the UN. In the speech, Mr Brown stated that the United States did not defend that United Nations against its domestic critics and that “public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News”. Furthermore, that “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping” was “simply not sustainable” and that “you will lose the UN one way or another”.

In essence, common sense. Nevertheless, the hyperbole of Bolton knows no bounds with his proclamation that “I think this is … probably the most severe political mistake that any high official of the UN has made…”

Brown responds:

“Engage here, engage consistently and go out and engage with the American public to say the UN matters, and for the life of me, I can’t understand how that can be construed as an anti-American speech.”

John Bolton – another in the party of dangerous fools. He is well kept in the company of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice.

From: BBC News