John Bolton and the Failed Neocon Experiement
Steve Clemons of The Washington Note has had more to do than about anyone with hastening the retirement of John Bolton from public service. Clemons has written a useful post-mortem on the short diplomatic career of John Bolton, which can be summed up in one sentence:
The effort to tear down and rebuild the U.N. was related to that other neocon project in Iraq.
If those U.N. bueaucrats, inept weapons inspectors and wishy-washy diplomats would just get out of the way, we could get on with the task of remaking Iraq and its neighbors as peaceful, pro-western democracies.
The litany of excuses now being offered for the Iraq debacle extends to the media, the Democrats, and the failure of nerve among the American people, to name a few. The one possible cause for the mess in Iraq that goes unmentioned by those looking to salvage the neocon experiment is the uncomfortable fact that the world refused to behave according to plan. The history of the last century is littered with ideologies that failed to apprehend the great big untidy world in which we live. Let us hope that the neocons' failed experiment is laid to rest as we struggle with cleaning up the mess they made.
John Bolton, in my view, saw a significant portion of his job as not to achieve success at the United Nations but rather to set the UN up for failure.The neocon crowd's view has been is that the U.N. represented an obstacle to remaking the world in their image. According to this point of view, the failure of the U.N. needed to be exposed for all the world to see; once this happened we could remake the insitution to our liking.
The effort to tear down and rebuild the U.N. was related to that other neocon project in Iraq.
If those U.N. bueaucrats, inept weapons inspectors and wishy-washy diplomats would just get out of the way, we could get on with the task of remaking Iraq and its neighbors as peaceful, pro-western democracies.
The litany of excuses now being offered for the Iraq debacle extends to the media, the Democrats, and the failure of nerve among the American people, to name a few. The one possible cause for the mess in Iraq that goes unmentioned by those looking to salvage the neocon experiment is the uncomfortable fact that the world refused to behave according to plan. The history of the last century is littered with ideologies that failed to apprehend the great big untidy world in which we live. Let us hope that the neocons' failed experiment is laid to rest as we struggle with cleaning up the mess they made.
posted by Tom Noyes at 1:42 PM
1 Comments:
I always feel bad responding to Tommy's page for his writing style is so masterful like a Matisse, compared to my flailing style of vibrant Van Gogh.
The question that begs to be answered here is who do we send in Boltons place?
Earlier this afternoon I caught C Span for several minutes while callers were calling in their choices.
The most popular, by far, was Bill Clinton, citing his work with tsunami relief and raising monies for African hunger relief. Colin Powel came in second, but both stand little chance of making it past Cheney and Rove.
My choice is probably just as ridiculous, but could get past the inner circle. My choice came from the old adage that no person prays for peace more than an old general.
So former general Tommy Franks came to mind.
He has drunk tea with more leaders in the Mid East than any other man.
He has their respect and trust.
We need a strong leader who is likeable, and able to work well with all nations. Tommy Franks has done this well as head of Centcom.
What is strange is that the more I consider it, the more it makes sense.
I would be interseted in other's well thought ideas on who to appoint.
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