Center for International Policy

Bolton's disruptive agenda all too obvious

By Jim Mullins, CIP Senior Fellow
South Florida Sun-Sentinel – 9/15/2005

Since his recess appointment by President Bush to represent the United States at the United Nations, John Bolton has proceeded to live up to the hubris of his previous comments:

"There's no such thing as the United Nations." If U.N. headquarters in New York "lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a difference." And there was his threat, while undersecretary of state in 2002, to withhold U.S. dues if the U.N. didn't fire Jose Bustani, director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Bustani wanted the authority to investigate violations -- with Iraq as the first target. Had Bustani prevailed, Bush's constant refrain about WMD in Iraq would have been proved false, leaving his utopian adventure without its main rationale.

Bolton accused Cuba, Syria and Libya, among others, of having chemical and biological weapons -- disproved by U.S. intelligence agencies -- and was described at his confirmation hearings as a "serial abuser" of those who provided facts that challenged his assertions.

Such behavior alone should disqualify him for a diplomatic post. His failure to prepare for the five-year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the U.S. was to host in 2004 was disastrous.

Its agenda was to report on the directives from the previous conference and recommend proposals for strenghening the NPT's performance. Bolton, as undersecretary for arms control, was required to prepare the agenda. He did nothing. When the National Security Council stepped in at the last moment, it was too late, and litttle was acccomplished.

President Bush said in a headlined speech at the National Defense University in February 2004: "There is a consensus among nations that proliferation cannot be tolerated; yet this consensus means nothing unless it is translated into action." How could he send Bolton to the U.N. after his inaction torpedoed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review?

Bolton has lived up to his reputation by introducing a bombshell list of late changes to the 40-page report on U.N. reform, which members have labored over for the past year.

The World Summit on U.N. reform is taking place through Friday in New York.
Bolton's changes to the report are not minor, but strike at the heart of reforms that would bolster world peace by addressing problems of poverty and lack of primary education agreed to by the U.S. at the G-8 conference at Gleneagles. Among them: a peace-building commission to help with conflict resolution, a human rights council, protecting citizens of the world from genocide, curbing the arms trade and defining "terrorism."

Bolton's radical changes will emasculate or destroy the proposals in the draft agreement. He is using the same tactics as when he burst into the Tallahassee library where the recount of the 2000 election votes was taking place, with the battle cry: "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team and I am here to stop the count."

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is leading a campaign with other foreign ministers to block Bolton -- and the Bush administration that apparently supports his actions -- from an attempt to throw the World Summit into chaos and inevitable collapse.

Michael Brown should have been fired a year ago for his incompetent handling of Florida's four 2004 hurricanes. Bolton should be removed for his destructive tactics that weaken the U.N.'s role in confronting the problems that threaten the world, and increasing anti-Americanism spawned by the Bush adminstration's unilateralist ways in contempt of world opinion.

It should be obvious that Bolton was picked for his ability to browbeat the U.N. into being a toady for the U.S. -- rubberstamping U.S. actions like the Duma in the former Soviet Union. It won't happen if the American people stand up and demand that the United Nations be allowed to follow its founding principles as a beacon for peace and betterment for all the world's peoples.

Jim Mullins is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., and a resident of Delray Beach.

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