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John Bolton Actively Sabotaging Condoleezza Rice: Finally Shows Real Stripes
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Several people in high places, both in the State Department and in the United Nations, have commented to me that John Bolton really surprised them when he embarked on his new duties after moving into the Ambassador's apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria.
They said that it was like Bolton had gone to charm school and went out of his way to "meet and greet" everyone, from high-ranking to the lowest of low-ranking staff at the U.N. One senior NGO official and former diplomat told me that the facilitators of the Millennium Summit document process -- about 30 people -- were shocked that Bolton had sought each of them out to say hello and offer a genuine human connection, sort of a "Bill Clinton type thing" to do.
The storm about the Millennium Summit document, and Bolton's 750 suggested line changes, came later, but at least they thought he was a far nicer guy than his critics had described.
Now, it seems that the real John Bolton has boldly stepped beyond the veneer. And true to form, just as he woke up each morning for the first four years of the Bush administration asking what he could do to make Colin Powell's life miserable and, at the same time, doing Vice President Cheney's bidding, John Bolton has now target Condoleezza Rice's efforts to get America back on a more balanced foreign policy track with the rest of the world.
The American Prospect's Mark Leon Goldberg writes the first serious assessment of John Bolton's tenure thus far as the recess-appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
For a pdf version of this article, TWN readers can email for a copy at steve@thewashingtonnote.com. (The article is now also available on the web here.
The headlines for the piece titled "The Arsonist" run:
In his first six months at the UN, John Bolton has offended allies, blocked crucial negotiations, undermined the Secretary of State -- and harmed U.S. interests.We expected bad; we didn't expect this bad.
Goldberg establishes that John Bolton has approached his job with the zeal of a true believer -- arriving at work first and often leaving the office last. He is taking his job seriously and has complete confidence in his ability to twist the U.N. bureaucracy, and maybe the State Department as well, to his will.
But what drives Bolton's impressive work ethic?
Goldberg notes that among his efforts have been gutting global efforts to begin to try and get the "developing nation problem" right during the historically important U.N. Millennium Summit, which for many reasons -- and mainly Bolton's undermining it -- turned out to be a dud.
In his first moves at the U.N., Bolton made the "eye-popping" proposal to rid the Millennium Summit document of any of the 14 references to Millennium Development Goals. Goldberg documents the uproar that ensued, and no less than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to put this diplomatic fiasco he created back in order –- compelling Bolton at the end of the day to step back and relent.
But the big news that Mark Goldberg breaks is that the American Prospect has confirmed that it was John Bolton himself who scuttled Secretary of State Rice's efforts to offer Syria a Libya-like opportunity to get itself out of the international dog house. Goldberg writes:
. . .the tension between Rice and Bolton has grown dramatically in several areas, most notably with regard to Syria: The Prospect has learned that Bolton was the source of an October leak to the British press that submarined sensitive negotiations Rice was overseeing with that country.
Goldberg's piece is good through and through, but the juiciest, news-breaking revelations come in this depiction of Condi's commendable efforts with Syria:
Indeed, it was Rice, not Bolton, who achieved the one significant success of Bolton's first 100 days at the United Nations: a unanimous October 30 Security Council vote requiring Syria to fully cooperate with a UN investigation into the suspected Syria-sponsored assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.The Prospect has learned that in the days and weeks leading up to the late October UN report on Hariri's assassination, Rice sought to sideline Bolton from the negotiations over the Security Council resolution that the report inspired. She also made the State Department, not the U.S. Mission to the UN, the central address for
discussions on the resolution.One of the first signs that a bureaucratic battle was brewing between Bolton and Rice over Syria came on October 18, when the State Department press corps was shocked to find that Rice had unexpectedly flown to New York to meet Annan. A State Department spokesman explained that the two met to "compare notes" in advance of a widely anticipated report by Detlev Mehlis, the secretary-general's special investigator for the Hariri assassination.
Yet Bolton, the man in charge of the United States' day-to-day operations at the UN, was conspicuously absent from that meeting. In what appears to have been less of an accident than a matter of intentional timing, Rice made her trip to New York on the very morning that Bolton had to be in Washington, testifying before the Senate on the progress (or lack thereof) of UN reforms.
The Prospect has further learned that, rather than forging Security Council strategy with America's European allies at the UN building in New York, much of the diplomatic legwork has been carried out in Foggy Bottom.
On October 22, a French delegation from the UN traveled to Washington for initial discussions on the Syria resolution (later called Security Council Resolution 1636), of which the French were the original authors.
According to a diplomatic source, Bolton was not initially invited to that meeting. The French, however, insisted on his presence. So Bolton attended, but not without three chaperones: Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch, Welch's deputy (and vice-presidential daughter) Elizabeth Cheney, and National Security Council Middle East chief Michael Doran.
"It's like they stuck a strong team from the [State Department and National Security Council] to watch him," said the diplomat.
Despite Rice's tight oversight of the resolution negotiations, the unanimity of the council was still in doubt one day before the Security Council meeting. Finally, in a last-minute lunch meeting with her foreign-minister counterparts from the veto-wielding permanent five Security Council members, Rice personally removed references to sanctions that had been inserted by the United States. With those obstacles to unanimous consent gone, Resolution 1636 passed 15 to 0.
Rice's involvement came after Bolton had won round one in the Syria battle. Bolton and Rice's bureaucratic tiffs over Syria had actually boiled over two weeks prior to the Security Council vote. Journalist Ibrahim Hamidi, writing in the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat, reported -- and the Prospect has independently confirmed -- that Bolton had leaked to British newspapers that the Bush administration had signaled its willingness to offer Syria a "Libya-style deal" -- a reference to Libyan President Muammar Quaddafi's decision last year to give up pursuing weapons of mass destruction and renounce terrorism in return for a restoration of relations with the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to The Times of London, Syria responded positively to the secret U.S. offer, which was made through a third party. But after Bolton publicly aired the details of the potential deal -- which would require Syria to cooperate with the Mehlis investigation, end interference in Lebanese affairs and alleged interference in Iraqi affairs, and cease supporting militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah -- Damascus quickly denied that such a deal was in the offing.
"It is no secret that Mr. Bolton and Dr. Rice are not the closest friends," a well-placed UN official told the Prospect. "Indeed, I've heard it said that the main reason he came here was that she didn't want him in Foggy Bottom."
In conversations with a senior State Department official, TWN has also confirmed that relations between John Bolton and Secretary Rice have grown more strained, and that while this individual was not surprised by the "confirmation" that Bolton worked to sabotage Rice's Syria efforts, this information was certainly going to complicate their relationship and probably result in the State Department again deploying a "Put Bolton in the Box" effort much like former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson said had been applied when John Bolton was Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
Mark Goldberg then exposes Bolton's pugnacious obsession with attempting to single-handedly shut down U.N. financing pending reform implementation.
The sad truth is that many of the reforms Bolton is seeking make a great deal of sense. The problem is that his manner and approach undermine his and America's interests and objectives.
Goldberg writes:
By December, a looming crisis over the UN budget was testing Bolton and Rice's relationship once again. At the time of this writing, the United Nations was in chaos. Kofi Annan had just canceled a trip to Asia to oversee negotiations over the UN's biennium budget, which was being derailed by an American threat to withhold support for the UN's two-year operating budget until a number of management reforms are passed.With a December 31 deadline looming, Bolton proposed that the world body adopt a three- or four-month interim budget -- just enough time to force other member states to accept the reforms. These reforms are backed by Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the secretary-general himself. Yet Bolton's strong-arm tactics led their representatives to warn that his proposal would starve the United Nations and disrupt other important UN business like peacekeeping operations.
The rumor mill at the Vienna Cafe has suggested that Bolton must have bypassed Rice and received support for holding the UN budget hostage from the President himself -- a view widely held as the truth among UN diplomats. Regardless of the accuracy of this rumor, Bolton's move is paradigmatic of his self-defeating approach to the UN: Instead of banding together with powerful allies, he alienates them.
And in doing so he empowers adversaries like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and other spoilers content with a UN that is tied in knots. Critics feared that Bolton's tenure would be problematic for American interests. The evidence suggests it's been even worse.
On the personnel front, Goldberg captures the "fear factor" to which Bolton treats his staff (TWN notes, however, that this tactic is used regularly in many offices in Washington. . .).
Goldberg writes:
Bolton arrived at work, already living up to his boss-from-hell reputation. Eight months before, he had sent shivers down the spine of staffers at the United States Mission to the United Nations with an e-mail from his chief of staff saying he required a copy of everyone's resume. By the time he set foot in his new office, morale was already low.The Prospect has learned that Bolton's first staff meeting did little to improve things: He told the roughly 100 people present that he wanted to personally sign off on every cable from the mission to Washington.
There can be up to five of these cables sent to Foggy Bottom each day, and though the ambassador technically signs them, in practice previous UN ambassadors would not normally read them all. "He wanted to get in the weeds," said someone present at that meeting. "It seemed to be his way of scaring people."
Given Bolton's obsession with National Security Agency intercepts in his old job, TWN is not surprised by Goldberg's finding about Bolton's desire to micro-control his staff and get into the 'roots' of the weeds.
Besides demanding to eyeball every cable that went to Washington, Bolton stopped his staff at the U.S. delegation to the United Nations from traveling to Washington to confer and coordinate with State Department officials who worked in the same portfolio area. He also seriously curtailed the "representational funds" account that allows America's U.N.-based foreign service staff to have lunch and dinner meetings and engage in the kind of meal and drinks-led public diplomacy that helps America secure what it wants from other foreign missions at the U.N.
What TWN finds most disturbing about Bolton's efforts, however, was his effort during the Millennium Summit document preparation process to remove any references to disarmament, arms control, and nuclear non-proliferation.
As Mark Goldberg writes:
Bolton tried to purge the section concerning nonproliferation of any mention of disarmament. The alliance of Israel, India, and Pakistanâ€â€nuclear powers that are not parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons -- retorted by introducing language emphasizing disarmament and deleted references to the non-proliferation treaty."We could not get back the balance between nonproliferation and disarmament [from earlier drafts]," a European diplomat told Jim Wurst of the Global Security Newswire. Eventually the entire section was scrapped. By the time heads of state signed on to reforms, the document contained not a single word on nuclear nonproliferation, and had even lost its pledge to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists.
John Bolton has two weeks of paid employment in his UN job left this year and then a full work year of 365 days in 2006, plus a few extra days until the next Congress convenes in January 2007.
His term will then end, by law -- if not earlier by his resignation or via a "nudging out the door" by the Secretary of State who promised Senator George Voinovich she would "manage him."
John Bolton is not perceived at home or abroad to be the legitimate Ambassador of this country to the United Nations without confirmation from the United States Senate. The President may want Bolton to hold his position without the legitimating seal of approval of the Senate, but the damage he is now doing needs to be contained.
It's time to limit Bolton's freedom of movement and encourage Bob Zoellick to do what Richard Armitage and Lawrence Wilkerson did for the Secretary of State for whom they worked -- shut Bolton down.
-- Steve Clemons
« Previous Article - Heading Back to D.C. -- Sneak Peak Later this Evening of Major Article on John Bolton About to Appear» Next Article - Torture Deal? Keep Your Powder Dry. . .Vice President Cheney's Power May Be on the Rise Again
Like many other bully leaders before them that want to appear diplomatic, they put a tough, crazy pitbull in charge of foreign affairs and then step in to "moderate" that zeal when other nations complain about the unreasonableness, even irrationality, of the pitbull. In this sense, if nothing else, we can say that the Great Leader understands a certain subtlety in the art of marginalizing allies and pressuring enemies "diplomatically". Perhaps the Great Leader is more like Bushler than Busholini then was heretofore believed in uncertain circles.
Oh no Steve....(deep,deep, sigh) another good cop/bad cop story. Condi as the noble warrior being betrayed by the evil Bolton. (who is evil by the way, IMHO) This is the Colin Powell story updated and gender adjusted.
Look, they both suck. They both have track records of disaster. They both are so knee deep in debt to Bush Co, and both so bloody ambitious, as to say or do anything so long as it advances themselves.
Please don't give a version two of the story. Who the hell believed the first version?
sez jonst, "...another good cop/bad cop story. Condi as the noble warrior being betrayed by the evil Bolton. .....Look, they both suck. They both have track records of disaster. "
Thank u for reminding us of reality inthis discussion. I think u're right especially about the good cop/bad cop story. Everyone saw through Condi's "explanation" of US policy on NO TORTURE. for her trip, they moved the prisoners outside of Europe and according to news reports, to countries in North Africa.
Actually, your explanation makes all these Administration maneuvers sensible. It's all for "show", to give the US public and the world this public image of Condi, and Powell before, to mouth the platitudes while we continue to torture both in the prisons and on the battlefields.
unfortunately, the way washington works is that in order to get rid of the really bad cop, you have to suck up to the seedy and incompetent cops to get the dirt on the really bad cop.
Lets face it, if a subordinate is making trouble for his immediate superior that boss is a complete incompetent idiot if she doesn't get rid of the troublemaker forthwith. And if that subordinate has powerful sponsors elsewhere in the bureaucracy that makes such a move impossible, the supervisor has to be willing to resign.
Rice needs to start playing the same kind of hardball that Cheney and Rumsfeld play. Rice needs to walk into Bush's office with two pieces of paper -- one her resignation, and the other an order removing Bolton from any connection to the State Department -- and tell Bush that he's got 15 minutes to decide which piece of paper she leaves on his desk, and which one she walks out of his office with.
If she doesn't, she's simply complicit in Bolton's efforts.
All this in a few months? Can anyone image what this guy can do in a full year?
While we comment and Rice tries to repair continuing damage, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee needs to exercise oversight. I'd prefer public oversight but it may be have to be done in private.
Is she satisfied that Bolton is performing his job to best advance national interests? Is he in check such that she supports the style and substance of his performance?
p.lukasiak - the moment in the Oval office with the 2 sheets of paper is the stuff of movies - heroes and villians.
One more example of the complete disaster of leadership that is the hallmark of the Bush administration. Either this story is an attempt to ingratiate Rice back into our good graces,(the "good cop bad cop" scenario described in a prior post) or it is a true account of an administration frought with individual opportunists pursuing their own ideological agendas willy nilly at the cost of coherant and cohesive policies. One reads such accounts and the logical conclusion is that we are teetering on a razor's edge, and sooner or later one of these loose cannons is going to push the wrong button and ignite a fire that Monkey Boy and the Dick will be incapable of extinguishing.
I say send mamma Bush in with a leather corset and an ax, and see if she can't clean up her spawn's mess.
p.lukasiak - the moment in the Oval office with the 2 sheets of paper is the stuff of movies - heroes and villians.
that's not a movie, its a beach boys song! ;)
but seriously, its not just the stuff of movies. Lots of people have resigned because interference has made it impossible for them to do their jobs. (Lots of them worked under this administration, in fact.)
Sometimes you gotta take a stand -- and sometimes that requires going into full Diva mode.
Right wingers want us out of the UN. They believe that U.S. membership in the United Nations poses a very real threat to our survival as a free and independent nation.
Bolton is a hero to these people. Everything he does is aimed at debilitating, if not destroying, an institution which is important and popular in the United States, but one which they passionately despise.
Telling the truth about Bolton's activities as UN ambassador is the only way that we can impede his pernicious schemes. Steve deserves a lot of credit for keeping the truth about John Bolton before our eyes.
It's way past time that someone has finally stood up and told it like it is regarding the UN, an institution which has long been a haven for terrorists and every arab-muslim despot in the Middle East. A place which has openly endorsed and celebrated the murder of Israeli citizens by arab terrorists. A place where Israel is vanquished from its maps.
There is good reason to despise the corrupt, terror-supporting UN.
I just love it when Bu$hCo cocksuckers and rimjobbers go after each other. Is that jism or shit on Bolton's moustache?
"Right wingers want us out of the UN. They believe that U.S. membership in the United Nations poses a very real threat to our survival as a free and independent nation."
That is correct. There is nothing democratic about the United Nations. Of course the USA should have relations and trade with other countries, but membership in an undemocratic quasi-world government is not in our national interest. UN bureaucrats are in a delerium. Kofi et alia think they have been picked 6.4B humans to run the world.
Every 15 minutes the UN tries some sinister power grab, whether its trying to control the internet Chinese style, the Law of Seas Treaty tax grab, International Criminal Court (to be run by criminal countries that make up the UN). Everytime I go to a pro-UN meeting or pro-ICC meeting, the speaker is full of flowery words and the audience always wants to try Bush and American soldiers at the Hague as well as establish one world government. The audience is always the truth revealer at these pr events.
There is very little grassroots support in the USA for the UN, despite the billions the UN lovers spend in its pr campaign, such as model UN nation. Nobody ever tells the kids that 1/2 the general assembly they play act represent are military dictatorships that did not achieve power yapping around a conference table in the school library.
When the 2008 primaries come around, getting the USA out of the UN is going to be one of my top issues as I hold the candidates' feet to the fire. That means Condi needs to be re-educated and informed on American sovereignty issues. She needs to pull those black boots out and start stepping on the UN a la Nancy Sinatra.
I love attacking the UN; it's such a corrupt, hypocritical cesspool. It's like going to a shooting gallery and hitting the target EVERY time you take a shot. Like shooting goldfish in a barrel. A perfect example would be the so-called UN "human rights" commission with basically the top 10 human rights violators like China, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, Cuba and Libya running the show there. That is the real UN to me. Israel is not on the UN map and they won't let Taiwan, a true democracy, in instead of China.
The UN in China loves, loves, loves abortion and winks and looks the other way at forced sterilizations and forced abortions for women and a MANDATORY one-child policy. Yet in Africa, the UN says we are supposed to give them money for mosquito nets and food and medication for impoverished Africans as well as a big battle against HIV and AIDS. So I guess the UN wants a population crisis in Africa so it can support lots of abortions and MANDATORY one-child policies in Africa, too. The key element is the UN wants your money and to be in charge without you having much, if any, say-so.
Come to think of it, Bill Clinton would provide the ideal moral and ethical leadership to the UN as Secretary General. Generally speaking, he likes secretaries.
Guns. The UN wants to take away EVERYONE's handguns, but they want to keep the big guns for themselves. The UN told Condi that they want "scarier troops" for their "peacekeeping." If you are a 13 year old girl getting raped by French pervert UN peacekeepers, you probably think UN troops are scary enough already.
The bottom line is the United Nations was not conceived with democratic intentions nor does it have democratic goals today. It is time to CTRL-ALT-DEL that place and the sooner, the better.
it appears more and more that we have at work presently two governments. We have the one that is acting like it is accountable to the American people and the other that is working behind the scenes doing a vast amount of dirty work. Bolton and Cheney belong to the latter.
Shorter Robert Morrow: "US always good, UN always bad".
No nuance, no subtlety (anyone reminded of a certain U.S. UN representative?)
It's like playing a tape.
"There is nothing democratic about the United Nations. Of course the USA should have relations and trade with other countries, but membership in an undemocratic quasi-world government is not in our national interest."
Seems to me that the UN has no more power than that granted by member nations, has no military other than those troops donated, sets no policies not permitted by member nations.
The real problem then would be that the UN is one place where the US can't control the discussion, is subject to veto, can't bully other countries into submission. Where every country, no matter how small, has the same vote as the US.
Sometime I think of the US as the world's teenager. Strong, vitalic, controlling a lot of the worlds resources, quick to break into fighting. But also arrogant and self-absorbed. Older nations have got to wonder how long it will take us to get through this phase into adult hood.
"A place which has openly endorsed and celebrated the murder of Israeli citizens by arab terrorists."
I must have missed that. Was there cake and balloons?
I did not have sex with Condoleeza Rice. Not then and not at the U.N.. I did however, have sex with Richard Perle and that was very special indeed.
If the NY Daily News is right that the White House considered offering the UN ambassadorship to Lieberman until he turned it down, that means Bolton might not have become our UN ambassador.
Obviously, it doesn't bother the Bush crowd to tick off the rest of the world...but way they pushed to place Bolton in this job...it still puzzles me.
The guy is almost universally disliked, he is a complete jerk (to put it bluntly) and he is given a job where he is certain to make the U.S. look even worse to the world community than we already do. They had to know he'd be an embarassment.
Is his mission to tie the UN in knots? Did they give him the job he wanted to keep him from writing an embarassing book? ???
"Rice needs to start playing the same kind of hardball that Cheney and Rumsfeld play. Rice needs to walk into Bush's office with two pieces of paper -- one her resignation, and the other an order removing Bolton from any connection to the State Department -- and tell Bush that he's got 15 minutes to decide which piece of paper she leaves on his desk, and which one she walks out of his office with."
Damn right.
"If the NY Daily News is right that the White House considered offering the UN ambassadorship to Lieberman..."
"Rumors that Lieberman could replace Rumsfeld started flying early this week, and Bush and Vice President Cheney fanned the flames by quoting the former Democratic veep candidate's pro-war statements."
Boy, rumor-wise, Joe is a hot commodity.
I'm beginning to wonder if it's possible that Bolton has the mark 616 somewhere on him.
p.lukasiak
To me drama in politics means the the options are so different that finesse is no longer an option. The Beach Boys song that first comes to mind is "Good Vibrations." Having done the Google check now I get your "Heroes and Villians" comment. Good one!
From Rice's position she cannot afford to have Bush accept her resignation since she will not be disloyal to Bush in public. She has to be sure ahead of time that she will win since Bush values her more than whatever he feels he owes Cheney, Bolton, whomever else.
Gads, who turned over the troll rock?? You think Morrow dons panties when he morphs into Laura, or is he actually Laura in a jock strap?? Inquiring minds would like to know.
I love attacking the UN; it's such a corrupt, hypocritical cesspool.
Posted by Laura Morrow
I'm sure that Libby, Delay, Frist and Cunningham would agree with you. Dell would too, but he's busy shredding at the moment.
You got quoted on Dontbomb tonight and went up 30 points in my book.
Steve, You are in washington alot. You should tell John Murtha to go ahead and announce his intention to seek the election of President in 2008 right now so he can keep the American Public focused on the truth.
A visual opinion from Steve Bell for the Guardian.
Well, it's not like this is a surprise. In fact, there was a great deal of talk about how he was going to go in guns blazing to the horrible UN. All, I can say is, be careful what you wish for. We knew he was going to be an idiot and he is. Kind of like Bush. Worse than we thought.
hey, steve --
what's up with this?
http://tinyurl.com/845cg
A bit OT, but a statement on where we've come today.
The House is debating H. Con. Res. 294, condemning the Laogai Chinese labor camps. Seems like they participate in torture like sleep deprivation and cigarette burns, detention without trial, and prison labor.
I believe the US has one of the largest prison populations and forced labor systems of any industrial nation. The rest of the charges are also a bit ironic.
Of course, theirs is a large prison system. But I wonder if they'll even bother reading the whole resolution before condemning the US for what we've done in Guantanamo and at prisons throughout Iraq.
Even with the type of prisoners at GITMO, I have no real doubt they won't take this as a bit ironic.
In the end, I wonder what price we'll eventually pay for the Iraq bungling and loss of respect as a world leader.
Greetings folks -- I'm in jet lag land so should not post much in this condition. Some have queried about my views of my colleague, Maya Macguineas, and her proposal on a progressive privatization scheme of social security. The fact is that I haven't studied it closely. We don't require orthodox support of our various proposals at New America -- and I don't believe that social security is in danger from anything other than President Bush or others diverting vast amounts of money set aside for the retirement needs of Americans into brokerage management fees. The real issue is medicare/medicaid -- and I sometimes fear that the social security battle is fundamentally a distraction from larger issues. There may be merit in some of what Maya Macguineas proposes, but that's not an arena I have time to explore at the moment.
Some of you wanted my comment on Maya's proposal, and this will have to suffice for the time being. Now, you know my views.
Now, to bed...
Steve Clemons
I posted something related to the American Prospect article this evening, using Bolton's obstructionism on Syria as a point of departure for the broader question of Behavior Modification vs. Regime Change.
For all you folks who say Bush is the Taliban; Bush and the Republicans want to institute a theocracy: here is your REAL deal, Larry Kilgore who is running for governor against incumbent Rick Perry and Rhino Strayhorn.
http://www.larrykilgore.com/Issues.html
Kind of makes you wish for Dick Cheney, eh? I'll be supporting Perry. Kilgore is good on sovereignty issues, but he goes a little overboard on the execution thing. I have not found his position on eating at Hooters or looking at a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, but it is probably in the 5-10 lashes department.
This is definately part of the plan. Bolton is needed cause he is on the inside. He knows the "plan".
The plan to set up a Military-Industrial-Complex Coup in the USA.
It's done. The theft of money, the concentration camps reported in New Orleans.
The NWO owns you.. And your Patriot now says your now allowed to protest it.
"Land of the FREE home of the BRAVE"
to
"Land of the IMPRISONED home of the OPPRESSED".
Free MARKET is not FREEDOM.
It's way past time that someone has finally stood up and told it like it is regarding the UN, an institution which has long been a haven for terrorists and every arab-muslim despot in the Middle East. A place which has openly endorsed and celebrated the murder of Israeli citizens by arab terrorists. A place where Israel is vanquished from its maps.
Posted by: Laura at December 14, 2005 12:53 PM
There is good reason to despise the corrupt, terror-supporting UN.
Posted by: Laura at December 14, 2005 12:54 PM
Ok Laura (I can only assume Colture as a last name...) for one thing the US views the UN this way because you are TOLD TO. Your propoganda spews forth Anti-UN stuff like no tomorrow.
For another, Israel is a terrorist state, and the US is a terrorist state. Palestine is an "Occupied Territory" Iraq is an "Occupied Territory" (By the way, in case you are wondering, that means, that the US and Israel are the only countries currently in the process of military subjugation)
The difference is, one has bigger guns and the other have no guns and live in Refugee camps.
It's called occupation and 30 years of terror, and if they blow a few Israelis up, thats a tragedy...
But the Palestinians are experiencing systematic genocide, and now, in the US, the Blacks felt the "US MILITARY" in the NOLA Concentration Camps and murders in Katrina. Murder by YOUR MILITARY which is not even ever ALLOWED to secure the population on the American homeland. (*Dec 9th DemocracyNOW.org)
You are so wrong and off base that the UN will throw out the US before it officially collapses FROM Bolton...
We don't need you stinking bloodmoney. Who wants US money, born of blood and oil.. and more blood.
It's not green, it's dripping red.
The worlds choice... The US or the UN... Not a tough call. You Neo-Cons Chisto-fascists really know how to be ignorant.
(*NOT allowed to protest it) *sigh* ;P
I'm in jet lag land so should not post much in this condition. Some have queried about my views of my colleague, Maya Macguineas, and her proposal on a progressive privatization scheme of social security. The fact is that I haven't studied it closely. We don't require orthodox support of our various proposals at New America
Steve, there is a huge difference between demanding orthodoxy, and having someone who embraces far right wing assumptions and rhetoric in charge of (and, apparently determining the official position of the NAF on) the NAF's "Fiscal Policy Program."
Key among her far right rhetoric is her statement "the payroll tax is insufficient to meet the future needs of Social Security and Medicare." Macgineas lumps together Social Security and Medicare, a common far right ploy used to justify a raid on the Social Security Trust Fund. And it appears that this raid is MacGineas's aim -- MacGineas's proposal to do away with Social Security payroll taxes and replace them with a sales tax treats the SS Trust like it doesn't exist. (and MacGineas employs two more right wing rhetorical tricks here -- she refers to "Social Security and Medicare deductions" as "payroll taxes" without ever using the words "Social Security and Medicare" until she bunches the two together to say that "payroll taxes will be insufficient", and she calls what everyone knows is a sales tax a "consumption tax" -- all the while exempting the accumulation of wealth from taxes to support SS & Medicare.)
....and lets not even talk about her embrace of the elimination of corporate taxes....
Its one thing to make nice to conservatives socially and in print to advance your own agenda. Its something entirely different to embrace their most damaging and dangerous rhetoric, assumptions, and proposals.
If there is one lesson to be learned from the past couple of decades, the neo-cons don't "compromise"; the only effect that progressive efforts at compromise achieve with neo-cons is that the "middle" moves to the right. MacGineas needs to get out of her hermetically sealed Think Tank world, and go back to "school."
Give Laura a break. She is just back from her freebie at the Jack Abramoff sniper school in the West Bank.
Such a deal! Money from people (Native Americans) whose lands were stolen long ago goes to people (Israelis) stealing land right now.
But then, like Gen. Boynkins said, Our god is better than their god, and our god has Steven Spielberg.
Im fairly conservative, but even I cant stand Bolton, his history of behavior and treatment of fellow employees is sickening to say the least. But, I also have very little care for Rice, she is undiplomatic herself, outside of Sino-Russian issues, she is not very knowledgeable about foreign affairs and the flashpoint that is the Middle East, I never understood why Bush made her Sec. of State.
That said, the UN is a mess, its not this bastion of goodwill and governance. Its sort of like in the movie Gladiator, there was a dream that was Rome. Well, there was a dream of the UN, it has not been realized to the fullest. The corruption scandal makes me sick to my stomach, and the inaction and hamster-racing going on in the UN offices to cover things up, makes the Bush-Cia Leak look like spilled milk at a day-care center.
Theres no internal reform mechanism for the UN, it has zero, I say, zero credibility in the Middle East among many arab citizens, especially Iraqi's because of its quick trigger on sanctions.
I dont know how to fix the UN, but its far from where it needs to be, the dream that it was after WWII.
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