How Bolton tried to sabotage the UN resolution on Lebanon...

[tocqueville]

A former US Central Intelligence Agency officer confirmed this view: "I am under the impression that George Bush and Condoleezza Rice were surprised when the Europeans disagreed with the US position - they were running around saying, 'But how can you disagree, don't you understand? Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.'"

The normally taciturn La Sabliere was particularly enraged when Bolton indirectly accused him of naivety. Responding to a reporter's question about the French position calling for a ceasefire prior to a troop deployment, Bolton was at his arrogant best: "I think it simplistic, among other things. I want somebody to address the problem on how to get a ceasefire with a terrorist organization."

Bolton then took a leaf from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's 2003 criticism of France and Germany as "old Europe" - calling the French ceasefire initiative "old thinking". La Sabliere not only bristled at Bolton's language, he threatened to end all discussions with the US over ending the Lebanon conflict.

.......

"The Bush people have never heard a shot fired in anger, and it's apparent," an official in the UN Secretary General's Office noted. "The French were quite fearful that one miscalculation, one stray rocket could set the region on fire. No one in Washington seemed willing to admit that as a possibility."

Bolton's continued "cheerleading for Israel" didn't help, according to this same official. "It's a real row that started with Bolton's statement that you couldn't compare the deaths of Lebanese to the deaths of Israelis," the official said. "He implied that because Lebanon harbored Hezbollah, Lebanese lives were forfeit. It was a stupid thing to say. It tore the scab off the wound."

my excuses for the 5th paragraph (rules) but it's for the understanding...

more at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH08Ak01.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. contrast this with the Senate's statements on Bolton

as having learned diplomacy.

AIPAC is hard at work.

[stepnw1f]

2. People Really Need to Know Who AIPAC is

and what they do.

[The Stranger]

3. Bolton is a Nazi, and that is no hyperbole.

His descriptions of other ethnicities and races in hegemonic terms disqualifies him to hold office of any kind, anywhere.

[Double T]

4. Bolton is the worst choice for UN representative.........

known psychopaths do not make good diplomats

[Dhalgren]

5. This is the most telling statement:

"The Bush people have never heard a shot fired in anger, and it's apparent," This is a fundamental truth of the Bush dictatorship. These people have no concept of any hardships whatsoever. They are elite, soft-handed, lords and have no experience with the real world issues of war, death, privation, suffering... They are collectively the Marie Antoinette class of American Entitleds. Of course the life a Lebanese is of no account, neither would be the life of an Israeli if it weren't situationally of use to these fops...

[leftchick]

6. very interesting

<snip>

There are more difficult days ahead - particularly when the US and France square off in the coming week over the draft of a second resolution. With nearly everyone now wondering whether the US position in the Middle East is unraveling, one UN diplomat said the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict may spell the end of an era in which the US and Europe established a tradition of diplomatic cooperation: "We might as well face up to it. Sooner or later the United States is going to have to choose what is more important - its strategic alliance with Europe, or its friendship with Israel."

No matter what the answer to that question might be, the very fact that it has been asked means that the real loser in the current Middle East conflict is the Atlantic alliance.

[KharmaTrain]

7. And The Wingnuts Want Him To Replace Condi

This goon is in "fuck you all mode" 24/7...if anything he relishes the chance to be a total ass on the world stage. It plays well in Wingnutistan where he's "standing up" to those evil Frenchies. That's all he cares.

For this regime, the world ends where their noses and special interests do. Peace in that region is the last thing they want...it's not good for business. Right now those missile and ammo factories are going 24/7...they can't crank the stuff out fast enough...and as long as those profits mean more than peace. Also, this regime still lives in a bubble in "American superiority"...that somehow through economic or some other "moral authority", this country lives by special rules from the rest of the world. Bolton can bully, lie or distort and that's ok since "we're the USA"...we can veto, we pay the bills, the building is on our shores...yada yada.

The damage this regime has done to our image worldwide will take the rest of our lives to clean up.

[Hubert Flottz]

8. And Bolton is the best that the GOP, the neocons, the PNAC, has

to offer to the world and to the American people. Heckuva a Job Johnny!