Bolton drops the bomb

11 Comments

1. 

   Oui on May 28, 2005 at 4:31 am

   .
   Apocalypse Soon
   By Robert S. McNamara  

   From one hawk to another hawk:
   On US policy and proliferation, Congress never wasted its time on a debate.
   Frist, Coleman and Congress go after Annan, Al Baradei and Lubbers. Major issues in our Global War on Terror.

   
   Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
leaving the Senate chamber.

   GO Johnny GO!

   Do your thing at the UN, Wolf at the World Bank, we can invent policy where the US corporations profit from our UN money (22%), let’s see some profit returns.

   Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité

   • 

     rba on May 28, 2005 at 6:28 am

     Thanks for McNamara link.  The “what ifs” of another Cuban crisis with a demagogue in the  WH is too scary to think about.  Both Kennedy & Khruschev bucked their advisors to pull the world back from the brink.  I lived through those times Mr. Bush, and you’re not Kennedy.

   • 

     Mnemosyne on May 28, 2005 at 7:55 am

     This is a little OT, but that picture of Frist gives me the willies.

     I don’t watch TV, so don’t usually see these characters live and in living color. My take on the still shot is that this person is totally a control freak, very up tight, and frightened of losing control. The narrow, restricted mouth line is very negative. When I read the caption and saw that it was Frist, that explained it.

     If I ever had to “consult” a doctor who behaved the way his body language suggests, I would immediately seek opinions elsewhere.

2. 

   Athenian on May 28, 2005 at 4:41 am

   Month of Talks Fails to Bolster Nuclear Treaty

   A monthlong conference at the United Nations to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty ended Friday in failure, with its chairman declaring that the disagreements between nuclear-armed and non-nuclear states ran so deep that “very little has been accomplished.”
   [snip]
   But in the months leading up to the meeting, it became clear that little progress was likely, and in the end the bickering between the United States, which wanted to focus on North Korea and Iran, and countries demanding that Washington shrink its own arsenals, ran so deep that no real negotiations over how to stem proliferation ever took place.
   [snip]
   Though President Bush has repeatedly declared that nuclear proliferation, including the risk of terrorists’ obtaining a nuclear weapon, is the biggest single threat to the United States, the administration decided against sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the conference, leaving arguments to midlevel diplomats. The 150 or so nations at the conference spent several weeks just arguing about the agenda.
   [snip]
   In the end, conferees criticized, without naming them, the United States for ignoring its commitments, and other nations for failing to grapple with the Iran and North Korea problems. The Canadian representative, Paul Meyer, said, “We have let the pursuit of short-term, parochial interest override the collective long-term interest in sustaining this treaty’s authority and integrity.”
   [snip]
   After haggling for several weeks over the agenda, a number of nations, led by Iran and Egypt, demanded that any change in the system begin with assurances that the United States and other nuclear nations would never attack a non-nuclear nation. They also demanded that Washington ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the Bush administration has said would weaken the United States. It has declared the treaty dead, and it has never been taken up by the Senate. Emphasis mine.

   No word on Bolton but it seems clear to me that the entire administration has dropped the ball on this.

   • 

     rba on May 28, 2005 at 6:37 am

     ….dropped the ball on this.

     They threw the ball away the day they got into office.

   • 

     Sven Triloqvist on May 28, 2005 at 6:58 am

     One begins to see that the plan to neuter all international institutions will be further advanced by Bolton as UN Ambassador (actually a step down in the hierarchy from where he is now)

     That is why Bolton’s nomination HAS to be defeated – it takes out one vital link in their plan.

3. 

   vida on May 28, 2005 at 6:42 am

   Was it a deliberate plan to screw up the conference?
   Is he totally out of his mind?

   Yes to both of the above.

   • 

     Sven Triloqvist on May 28, 2005 at 6:53 am

     Yes, I assume it is deliberate. And part of the overall nutcase plan to withdraw USA from all international agreements, so that it can do whatever it wants, and use force to maintain that isolation from world obligations.

     It is a stupid plan of course. ‘Create chaos and weaken all opposition’. If you live in a bubble, you think the world is concave. But bubbles burst to reveal the interconnectedness of all things.

     Righting all these wrongs will be taking place long, long after the cowboy goes back to his non-existent cattle. There won’t be a place for him in the Carlysle Group either. He’s done what they planned for him to do, and then they will discard him.

     • 

       Wu on May 28, 2005 at 7:32 am

            It is a stupid plan of course. ‘Create chaos and weaken all opposition’.

            It doesn’t even make sense as a stupid plan. What’s the “opposition”?  How is it supposed to be weakened?
            I think what we really have here is simply a perverse desire not to do whatever Clinton or Poppy Bush would have done.  Pushing for a stronger anti-proliferation regime is exactly the sort of goody two-shoes internationalism that Shrub can’t stand.  So he’s not going to do it–you can almost hear him going “nyaaah nyaaah nyaaah”.
            F. Scott Fitzgerald had Shrub’s number 80+ years ago.
            

       They were careless people, Tom and Daisy–they smashed up things and creatures and retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…

       • 

         Sven Triloqvist on May 28, 2005 at 8:54 am

         The ‘opposition’ is the rest of the world.

         The plan (maybe) is to weaken international diplomacy, by destroying the interwoven fabric of treaties and agreements = chaos.

         It is a classic manoeuvre to sow discontent in the opposition, (by unglueing the pieces held tenuously together by diplomacy).

         Bush is fairly meaningless in this plan, he’s just a pawn; a mouthpiece to say the words, while opposite actions are undertaken.

         The ‘stupidness’ of this plan is that it assumes the EU, China, and Russia (and maybe some elements of the ME) are incapable of acting together in the future.

         Taking oil off the dollar standard and into euros is already being discussed by these countries. That will be the end of US military/industrial powerbase, and their ability to print money to finance their plans.

         It won’t happen yet, because it will be very painful for the whole world. But there will come a point when the alternative (subjugation to the megalomaniac US foreign policy) will be even more painful.

4. 

   polydactyl on May 28, 2005 at 10:42 pm

   But this line is such a crock:

   Nuclear non-proliferation is a cornerstone of Bush-on-down international policy