John Bolton was an easy scapegoat for US Diplomacy. He had lied under oath about pushing fake evidence to support the Iraq war, and his record at the UN was a case study in heartlessness and paranoia. And now the International Community won’t have John Bolton to kick around anymore.
The only problem is that the International Community, with the exception of the few diplomats who actually had to work with the Walrus, didn’t ever want to kick around John Bolton. They wanted to welcome the US at the bargaining table, they wanted a strong US role at the United Nations, and they wanted a country with a cohesive, comprehensible, and consistant international policy.
John Bolton was a symptom of the Bush Foreign Policy, not a cause. The administration official who has overseen this collapse in its entirety is Condoleeza Rice. If anyone should resign, it should be Condi.
Condi Rice has been, by far, the worst Secretary of State in a long time. Leaving her tenure as the National Security Advisor alone, when she advised the US into Iraq, her diplomatic efforts have been disastrous on every front.
International support for the Iraq mission has declined. When she was appointed in 2004, W. kissed her on the cheek and said:
“In Dr. Rice, the world will see the strength, the grace and the decency of our country…The nation needs her.”
It is the whole world, however, not just the US that needs a Secretary of State. Since her appointment, the US has:
- Refused to censure or condemn the political repression taking place in Russia. Most recently, a former KGB operative and current dissident was assassinated in London.
- Seen the following members of the “coalition of the willing” disappear: Poland, Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands, Tonga. The UK and South Kirea have also indicated that they are considering withdrawal, which would leave only two countries with over 1,000 troops in Iraq: the US and Australia.
- Helped secure a potentially catastrophic and definitely illegal agreement to sell nuclear fuel and equipment to India, violating non-proliferation agreements and setting a poor standard for other nuclear powers.
- Failed to prevent the testing of a nuclear weapon in North Korea.
- Failed to halt the genocide in Darfur.
- Witnessed the rise of China as a serious diplomatic power in the absence of a strong US diplomatic presence in East Asia.
- Failed to halt the political destabilazation of Lebanon.
If Rumsfeld is so clearly accountable for the debacle that is Iraq, it is time to begin asking why Condi is not accountable for the plummeting international opinion of the United States. Of course, both failures can be attributable to the President, but his cabinet must also be held accountable.
It’s fine and good to rejoice in the demise of John Bolton, a true failure of a diplomat. But we must also begin looking up the ladder, for, when it comes to bringing America’s image back from the depths to which it has sunk, there are clearly bigger problems than one ornery walrus.