Bolton served as ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. “Iraq was a waste of blood and treasure”.
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Bolton served as US Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2005-2006 and as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security from 2001-2005. Carter joined the chorus of critics, saying that he was skeptical the USA could convince North Korea to give up its nuclear program with Bolton in a top White House post. He will be an asset to the administration, and more importantly to the security of the United States.
Bolton is considered to be an outspoken supporter of Taiwan, and he has recommended that the US increase arms sales to Taiwan and station troops here. To date, Mr. Trump, who has condemned the decision to invade Iraq as a disaster, hasn’t come across as a war enthusiast. For a president with thoughtful and settled foreign policy views, the selection of John Bolton- for whom military force is often a first option rather than a last resort- would still be highly ill-advised. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction.
To describe John Bolton as a “hawk” or “hard-liner” is to praise him with faint damnation. That makeover is just in time for this pro-war team to take on important diplomatic decisions on the Iran deal and North Korea. As with North Korea, there will clearly be those who believe a grand bargain can be struck. Of course, Trump would need the unlikely approval of Congress for any major intervention, but the intervention does not have to be on a regular armed conflict.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster has agreed to resign, a White House official announced on Thursday. President Trump’s much-hyped sit-down with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un may not happen, and the odds of a military strike are now much higher.
Earlier this year he appeared to oppose such talks happening at all.
“Before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran”, Bolton told the crowd. This will affect U.S. policy on an array of issues; it nearly certainly bodes ill for the Iran nuclear deal as we approach Trump’s May deadline for “fixing” or withdrawing from that agreement.
Recently, and chillingly, Bolton made the legal case for preemptively striking North Korea.
One of the stranger dynamics of the Trump presidency has been the divide between the views and messaging of senior officials and that of POTUS himself, particularly on Twitter.
“I thought I only had maybe two weeks to live”, he recalled, “so I told goodbye to my family and to the Carter Center staff who work with me”. That does not make him popular in some of the more rarefied New York-Washington policy circles, but it does bode well for serving the president, the country and the real needs of national security.
It’s not just the left that has concerns about Bolton being at the helm of Trump’s foreign policy. According this numbskull notion, Washington should attempt to maintain USA primacy in the world affairs through force of arms, picking fights, starting wars, overthrowing governments a playing existentially risky games of chicken with nuclear powers like Russian Federation and China.
Before running for president the NY property developer had no foreign policy experience beyond promoting his worldwide hotels and resorts-and it showed.
“With him as Nat Sec Adv, @POTUS will continue to keep America strong and secure”.
So who is John Bolton, and what does this change mean for the administration?
But critics on both sides of politics have slammed the appointment. “I think his last choice for national security adviser was very ill-advised”. Kagan went so far as to write a column about Trump’s campaign entitled “This is How Fascism Comes to America”. Current and former White House officials have maintained that once the president begins considering replacing one of his aides, the staffer is playing on borrowed time. If you have been reading his articles and listening to his statements, instead of collecting snippets for caricatures, he has been looking for ways not to start wars, but to head off the rising and multiplying threats before they turn into conflagrations – including potentially nuclear conflagrations.
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“There really is a tweet for every occasion”, said a third.
