{"id":3763,"date":"2007-08-02T11:29:24","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T18:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/02\/why-do-they-hate-us-start-with-john-bolton\/"},"modified":"2007-08-02T11:31:09","modified_gmt":"2007-08-02T18:31:09","slug":"why-do-they-hate-us-start-with-john-bolton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/02\/why-do-they-hate-us-start-with-john-bolton\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do They Hate Us? Start With John Bolton"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Visit Lobelog.com<\/a> for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service’s Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.<\/i><\/p>\n

Does former UN Amb. John Bolton \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now with the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d still speak for Dick Cheney?<\/p>\n

The new British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown must be scratching its collective head over that question given the truly unbelievably arrogant and threatening op-ed Bolton<\/a>, a Cheney protege, published in Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Financial Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The column\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Britain Cannot Have Two Best Friends,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d refers to what Bolton calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a clear decision point\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for Britain \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to choose between the United States and the European Union or, as he refers to it, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153European porridge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of which he so clearly disapproves. For Bolton, it is a zero-sum game, and, in his view, it is now up to Brown to make the choice. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[W]hether the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcspecial relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 grows stronger or weaker lies entirely in British hands,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he states.<\/p>\n

The catalyst for Bolton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s outburst appears to have been Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement during his visit with Bush last week that Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153single most important bilateral relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is with the U.S. The only U.S. ambassador to the UN never to have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite repeated attempts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c calls that characterization a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clever but meaningless dodge.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Drop the word \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbilateral\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. What is Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most important \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrelationship\u00e2\u20ac\u2122? Does Mr. Brown regard the EU as a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcstate under construction\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, as some EU supporters proclaim, or not?<\/p>\n

The answers to these questions are what Washington really needs to know. What London needs to know is that its answer will have consequences.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/strong>[Emphasis added]<\/p>\n

For example, Bolton goes on, Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absorption into the European porridge raises questions about whether it (as well as Sarkozy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s France) should still be entitled to a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course the Security Council permanent seat is not the real issue \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it is the question of whether Britain still has sovereignty over its foreign policy or whether it has simply taken its assigned place in the EU food chain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Consider also the US-UK intelligence relationship. Fundamental to that relationship is that pooled intelligence is not shared with others without mutual consent. Tension immediately arises in EU circles, however, when Britain advocates policies based on intelligence [such as Saddam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uranium purchases from Niger, for example?] that other EU members do not have. How tempting it must already be to British diplomats to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcvery privately\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reveal what they know to European colleagues. How does Mr. Brown feel about sharing US intelligence with other Europeans?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Finally there is Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nuclear weapons programme, which will prove in the long run more important for both countries than the current turmoil in Iraq. Here the US has followed the EU lead in a failed diplomatic effort to dissuade Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons. If Mr. Bush decides that the only way to stop Iran is to use military force, where will Mr Brown come down? Supporting the US or allowing Iran to goose-step towards nuclear weapons?<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d[Emphasis added]<\/p>\n

Bolton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coda displays the kind of diplomacy for which he became widely despised throughout the UN during his ruinous tenure there. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I will wait for answers to these and other questions before I draw conclusions about \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe special relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 under Mr. Brown,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he harrumphs. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But not forever.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d At least, he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use the royal \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Still, one must positively wonder at the tone, content, and not least the intent of Bolton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s utterly offensive bloviation. Is he trying to provoke Brown into proving his independence from Washington? Is he trying to drive the new prime minister closer to his former UN nemesis, Mark Malloch Brown, as part of some bizarre masochistic compulsion? Is he trying to create even more anti-American feeling in Britain and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Eurabia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as some of his Anglo-chauvinist friends refer to Western Europe these days? Is he trying to split the West? Does he actually work for bin Laden? (Is AEI an al-Qaeda sleeper cell?) And does Bolton still speak for Cheney?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service’s Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe. Does former UN Amb. John Bolton \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now with the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d still speak for Dick Cheney? The new British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown must be scratching its collective head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}