logo Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
2024-03-29 12:03:05 CoV Wiki
Learn more about the Church of Virus
Home Help Search Login Register
News: Do you want to know where you stand?

  Church of Virus BBS
  General
  Serious Business

  Bonkers Bolton's Barrage of Belligerent Bloviation
« previous next »
Pages: [1] Reply Notify of replies Send the topic Print 
   Author  Topic: Bonkers Bolton's Barrage of Belligerent Bloviation  (Read 483 times)
Hermit
Archon
*****

Posts: 4290
Reputation: 8.92
Rate Hermit



Prime example of a practically perfect person

View Profile WWW
Bonkers Bolton's Barrage of Belligerent Bloviation
« on: 2009-10-15 19:40:28 »
Reply with quote

Bolton suggests nuclear attack on Iran

[ Hermit : One of Bolton and Bush's lasting legacies to making the world a much more dangerous place, and drastically weakening the NPT, was their renouncement of the "No first strike" doctrine, which was, in turn renounced by Russia. In terms of the NPT, this was of course illegal under both International and US law, and should have been addressed by the US government, or failing that, the UN Security Council as a matter of some urgency. Unfortunately, given the belligerence in fact by the US, irrespective of pretty speeches, coupled with the permanent member's vetos, that hasn't happened and is unlikely to happen. Though it would be interesting to see Iran put forward a motion on it. Of course, given that the use of nuclear weapons has already been determined by the International Court to be not just a war crime, but a crime against humanity, Bolton is already a scoflaw though perhaps less so than Israel should it follow his "advice". ]

Source: LobeLog IPS
Authors: Daniel Luban
Dated: 2009-10-14

This Friday, the American Enterprise Institute will host an event addressing the question “Should Israel attack Iran?” The event includes, among others, Iran uberhawk Michael Rubin and infamous “torture lawyer” John Yoo, but the real star is likely to be John Bolton, the former U.N. ambassador whose right-of-Attila views left him an outcast even within the second Bush administration. (Bolton was eventually forced out when it became clear that he would be unable to win Senate confirmation for the U.N. post.)

If Bolton’s recent rhetoric is any indication, his AEI appearance may accomplish the formidable feat of making Michael Rubin sound like a dove. Discussing Iran during a Tuesday speech at the University of Chicago, Bolton appeared to call for nothing less than an Israeli nuclear first strike against the Islamic Republic. (The speech, sponsored by the University Young Republicans and Chicago Friends of Israel, was titled, apparently without a trace of irony, “Ensuring Peace.”)

“Negotiations have failed, and so too have sanctions,” Bolton said, echoing his previously-stated belief that sanctions will prove ineffectual in changing Tehran’s behavior. “So we’re at a very unhappy point — a very unhappy point — where unless Israel is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s program, Iran will have nuclear weapons in the very near future.”

Bolton made clear that the latter option is unacceptable. “There are some people in the administration who think that it’s not really a problem, we can contain and deter Iran, as we did the Soviet Union during the Cold War. I think this is a great, great mistake and a dangerously weak approach…Whatever else you want to say about them, at least the Soviets believed that they only went around once in this world, and they weren’t real eager to give that up — as compared to a theological regime in Tehran which yearns for life in the hereafter more than life on earth…I don’t think [deterrence] works that way with a country like Iran.”

While Bolton coyly refused to spell out his conclusion, the implications of his argument were clear. If neither negotiations, nor sanctions, nor deterrence are options, then by his logic the only remaining option is for “Israel…to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s program.”

Of course, it is nothing new for Bolton and his neoconservative allies to threaten an Israeli strike against Iran. But Bolton’s use of the “n-word” is, I believe, new for him, and marks a significant rhetorical escalation from the hawks. An Israeli strike, nuclear or otherwise, without U.S. permission remains unlikely. But as it often the case, I suspect that Bolton’s intention is less to give an accurate description of reality than it is to stake out positions extreme enough to shift the boundaries of debate as a whole to the right.
Report to moderator   Logged

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Pages: [1] Reply Notify of replies Send the topic Print 
Jump to:


Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Church of Virus BBS | Powered by YaBB SE
© 2001-2002, YaBB SE Dev Team. All Rights Reserved.

Please support the CoV.
Valid HTML 4.01! Valid CSS! RSS feed