By Cernig
Whenever John Bolton opens his hirsute mouth to advocate attacking Iran or Syria or North Korea or (insert latest enemy de jour here), it's worth reminding ourselves that he really is out there on the far fringe of the insane wing of the Republican Party
The man who
once wrote that he bodyswerved Vietnam because he had "no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy" and "considered the war in Vietnam already lost" (not knowing that one day his fellow-travellers would say it was a win after all), really does want war forever to assuage his endless paranoia. To get it, he's willing to call his old boss's only real diplomatic success as a snow-job.
The Hill reports:
Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton is urging GOP lawmakers to oppose the Bush administration’s recent agreement with North Korea to end its nuclear programs, according to House Republican sources.
While Bolton’s skepticism of North Korea is well-known, this is believed to be the first time a former top adviser to the president has taken the unusual step of lobbying against a pillar of the administration’s current foreign policy. It is particularly surprising given the value the administration has placed on loyalty.
...in an address last week to a joint meeting of Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans and Republican Policy Committee members, as well as in a separate session with the Conservative Opportunity Society, a group of right-leaning Republicans founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). In both meetings, Bolton expressed his concerns about the nuclear agreement reached by the U.S., North Korea and four other countries earlier this month.
Forty-two members attended the joint meeting where Bolton reiterated his longstanding position that trusting North Korea to abide by its promises is the wrong approach, according to a GOP aide who attended. He also spoke about North Korea's role in Syria's nuclear ambitions and encouraged members to review controversial testimony he gave to the Foreign Affairs Committee in September 2003 that figured into his contentious Senate confirmation battle.
Some House Republican lawmakers share Bolton’s view, but members and staff who attended the meetings with Bolton were wary about opposing the Bush administration publicly, and most contacted for this article declined to comment about the meeting’s contents.
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It's a soapbox Walrus-face has been pounding for a long time, and Bush comes in for more of the same in his book
Sanity Surrender Is Not An Option in which he writes that:
the loss of “hardliners” like himself made the administration vulnerable to a “bureaucratic offense.”
“Our historical experience tells us that North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons voluntarily, and that it is only a matter of time before their cheating is exposed, at which point one hopes that Bush will repudiate this charade that the Risen Bureaucracy has perpetuated,” he wrote.
And Iraq's WMD's were smuggled out to Syria by the Russians, and that's what Israel bombed last month and the Syrians are now bulldozing - which is why Iraq had WMD's and we know it but now can never prove it! But not being able to prove it proves it's true!
Yeah, John - have you tried anti-psychotics?