In today's LA Times op-ed, John R. Bolton gave his Ming the Merciless criticism of Sen. Obama's speech in Berlin. Yeah, that John Bolton, the U.N. hater who said:
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.
So, with my bee firmly in my bonnet, I write to the LA Times:
Well, of course, Robert R. Bolton would bristle at Sen. Obama’s Berlin speech setting forth the concept of a world coalition. He and his PNAC colleagues have stated for all to know that they hold no quarter for any country, or indeed any of the US citizenry, unless it is in the service of US aggressive isolationist superiority.
In his criticism of Sen. Obama’s speech, he states:
“That he picked a foreign audience is perhaps not surprising, because they could be expected to welcome a less-assertive American view of its role in the world, at least at first glance. Even anti-American Europeans, however, are likely to regret a United States that sees itself as just one more nation in a ‘united’ world.”
This statement is also what is so patriotically maddening about Mr. Bolton and his ilk. This country by dint of its size, population, culture, spirit, technical and human resources could never be “just one more nation.” We are not now nor will we ever be a shrinking violet. Devising a worldwide interconnected policy for dealing with the problems that plague us all is not the weakness Mr. Bolton believes it to be, nor is it naïve. It is what is necessary when the policy of bludgeoning the world does not work.
For your information and something I didn't know until a friend sent to me the below-referenced publication, The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), was a neoconservative think tank, which counts as directors or signatories (in addition to Bolton), Fox News blood-monger William Kristol, Dick "I Sneer Even When I Smile" Cheney, Donald "Army We Got" Rumsfeld, Charles "My Boyfriend" Krauthammer, and I. Lewis "Already Has A Ludicrous Nickname" Libby. Quite a cabal.
In September of 2000, the PNAC published a white paper entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources For a New Century." It is a 90 page how-to for building up the military for world domination based on the premise that the U.S. has vanquished communism and now has a responsibility to, well, dominate, as well as protect U.S. "interests" (read "oil") in the Gulf. And oh, destroy Saddam Hussein; that too. I would like to link to it so you could read it for yourself, but the PNAC site where it was housed, has been taken offline. I am too cynical to believe that the Skull and Bones-esque organization has come to an end.
For the record, I believe that a strong military is never a bad thing, if only that it helps guarantee that it will never be used. Walking softly carrying a big stick is a viable policy in my view.
The money quote from the September 2000 paper:
Further, the process of [military] transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.
And just a year later...
The PNAC undoubtedly is old news to those who pay closer than the scant attention I have paid to politics in the past. Of course I knew that President Bush and his administration were less than honorable, but just how dedicated to their proposition they were comes to me sadly; both for my ignorance and their venality.
Evil-doers indeed.
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