Friday, May 30, 2008

Heard John Bolton in a radio interview this morning because he's in the UK for the Hay Festival (never heard of it) and someone attempted a citizen's arrest on him for "war crimes." 

I guess I'm late to the game on this, but this guy is awful.  Though he acknowledged that it was mostly comic, he couldn't resist pointing out that "that is the point you move towards lawlessness and fascism" in reference to the arrest attempt.

Other than that he essentially said two things in the interview: Iraqis are better off now than pre-invasion, and the only options for a non-nuclear Iran are regime change or military force. Regime change supposedly as a result of a citizens' uprising. He refused, no matter what angle the interviewer presented, to admit to failures in Iraq or to allow that Iraqi life post-Saddam is more difficult for most. 

A BBC interview with Bolton from last Spring: 
And an Andrew Sullivan quote on the above: “What staggers me about this clip is Bolton’s point-blank view that the US had no responsibility to impose order after the invasion, and no responsibility for security within the country. Bolton actually says that the only error Bush really made was not giving the Iraqis ‘a copy of the Federalist papers and saying, “Good luck.”‘ Yes, he says he’s exaggerating for effect, but he is conveying the gist of the policy. The casual recklessness and arrogance of these people never cease to amaze. The world is theirs to play with — and the victims of predictable and predicted violence are left to help themselves.”

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