UN was right, Bolton was wrong on Iraq

[sandnsea]

In John Bolton we finally see, with absolute clarity, the arrogant, bullying, manipulative face of the Bush Administration foreign policy. Never before has one person so completely epitomized this Administration, what it’s about and exactly why it is so incredibly wrong for the country and the world. In John Bolton, we have a man who has bullied intelligence analysts, arrogantly said the UN doesn’t exist, and that the US should appeal to the UN only when it suits our interests.

Despite everything we now know about Iraq WMD, there has still been no acknowledgement by the Administration or Mr. Bolton, of the massive failure of Bush policy on the UN, international diplomacy and pre-emptive war. Bush’s unilateral US policy led to the intelligence failures, not the other way around.

As Senator Kerry stated, “We've just come off the most massive intelligence failure in our history, and we recognize that there are serious questions still outstanding about the degree to which that intelligence was manipulated or the degree to which a predetermined position to determine the outcome of that intelligence.”

Mr. Bolton has, on at least 2 occasions, engaged in questionable tactics in regards to intelligence analysts who disagreed with his conclusions. Yesterday, Carl Ford, “who ran the intelligence bureau at the time, said Bolton berated and intimidated a Mr. Westermann and then tried to have him fired”. While Secretary of State Colin L. Powell commended Westermann, Ford said that “word of the incident spread quickly through the bureau and that the analysts were "very negatively affected" and "scared" by it.” As Senator Obama stated, this question is so serious because “intimidating intelligence officers so that the facts will fit his positions, which is exactly what the debate was about with respect to the Iraqi war,''

Would it not be logical to want to avoid anyone who has been accused of intimidating analysts? Haven’t enough analysts stated that they were intimidated and pressured in the same fashion regarding the Iraq WMD?

Mr. Bolton has displayed the same disregard in his view of the UN, based on statements over the course of many years. This is the exact same disregard that was exhibited by this Administration in the run-up to the Iraq war. "There is no United Nations. If we were redoing the Security Council, I'd have one permanent member, because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world."

In an astonishing statement, Mr. Bolton said the Administration did not dispute the IAEA’s claims that there was no nuclear or uranium program in Iraq. “But I don't really think that the IAEA conclusions on the absence of an ongoing Iraqi uranium enrichment program were really disputed by the administration.” He blames the press for the nuclear weapon misconception, blatantly ignoring Cheney and Rice’s references to mushroom clouds, millions of deaths and the clear statement that Saddam “had in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.”

He also disregards the Administration statements against weapons inspections, and against the UN and those who supported international cooperation as appeasers and worse. It is clear Bolton is unwilling to admit that the preconceived notion against the UN was directly responsible for the Administration ignoring the obvious – that UN inspectors found no WMD because there were no WMD. Ignoring the obvious was clearly colored by views shared by Bolton and the Administration, that ‘There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world -- that's the United States -- when it suits our interests and when we can get others to go along.’

Clearly the UN should not have "gone along" with the US on Iraq WMD and the war. Continuing weapons inspections was the right policy because CIA intelligence was not turning up any WMD. The UN was right. Mr. Bolton and the US were wrong. There is no room for a UN policy that says “The United States makes the U.N. work when it wants it to work, and that is exactly the way it should be” when it is so clear that the US was horribly wrong on the most important decision a country can ever make, the decision to go to war.

Please join Senator Kerry in opposing John Bolton’s nomination and contact Senator Chaffee today.

Email

United States Senate
141A Russell
Washington, DC 20510
[phone]
170 Westminster Street
Suite 1100
Providence, RI 02903
[phone]
320 Thames Street
Room 272
Newport, RI 02840
[phone]
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=716

[whistle]

1. Tell them to not confirm Negroponte also....

....this must stop now...Bolton confirmation can be delayed by calling more witnesses to back what Carl Ford of I&R testified to yesterday, Negroponte can be stopped in the senate vote by filibuster

[sandnsea]

3. That won't happen

Unfortunately. Too many Dems like Lieberman. Very frustrating. I hate Negroponte too.

[Swamp Rat]

2. John Bolton is an alien lizard