Reply #68: Clearer sight from far away: great take on Bolton from a Pakistani paper

[Nothing Without Hope]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-4-2005_pg3_3

POSTCARD USA: UN gets a gift from Bush

—Khalid Hasan ; posted Sunday, April 17, 2005

Dorothy Parker once said to know in what contempt God holds money, all you have to do is look at the people He gives it to. That applies to Bush. To know what he thinks of the United Nations, just look at who he has nominated as the next US ambassador to the world body.

The man is John R Bolton, a serving official who was rather aptly described during his nomination hearing at the Senate as a “quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy”. This colourful characterisation came from Carl W Ford, a retired State Department official, who had worked with him. He said of Bolton, “He’s got a bigger kick, and it gets bigger and stronger the further down the bureaucracy he is kicking.” I should add that this holds true of every good Pakistani bureaucrat.

However, in Bush’s book, Bolton is eminently qualified as ambassador to the United Nations, since he holds the organisation in such contempt. Under questioning by the Senate’s Democratic members, when he said that he had been misquoted, Sen Barbara Boxer from California who is adept at putting the boot in, played a videotape of a 1994 speech in which Bolton had said, “There is no United Nations. 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.”

Pax Americana is what the President believes should be — and is — the new world order. If you don’t like a regime — and there is no shortage of bad ones in the world — invade and destroy it — and do it on CNN. Bolton fits the bill. He is exactly the type of Republican the White House loves. Carl Ford who testified against the nomination — a group of former American diplomats has said in a joint representation that the man is not fit to hold the UN post — told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Bolton was a “bully” who abused his authority and power, intimidated intelligence analysis and damaged the integrity of the agency he was working for. He questioned his suitability for high office. He said he himself was as good a Republican as Bolton but “the collateral damage and the personal hurt he (Bolton) causes is not worth the price that had to be paid”.

(snip - more at link)

The text highlighting is mine. Mr. Hasan also notes that he will probably cancel his subscription to the Washington Post, which "ended a rambling editorial on the Bolton nomination, 'So far, there is no compelling case for denying Mr Bush his choice.' " So much for it being a "liberal" newspaper.