June 3, 2010

Israel needs someone to support them and surprise, surprise... their neocon chickenhawk defender John Bolton crawls back out of the woodwork and into the studios of Fox News.

AlterNet published an article on John Bolton back in 2005 which takes an extensive look at Bolton's career if anyone needs a reminder of how sleazy this guy's background is.

The Armageddon Man:

A comprehensive look at John Bolton's career reveals a man who champions extremism in the service of expediency.

When Irving Kristol regarded by many as the "godfather of neoconservatism" described a neoconservative as a "liberal who has been mugged by reality," he was not describing John Bolton. Unlike many of his supporters in the Bush administration, the U.N. ambassador-designate did not start out his political career on the center-left either as a liberal, social democrat, or socialist.

In the 1950s through the 1970s, the political forerunners who established neoconservatism as the defining trend within American conservatism went through a left-right transformation. In that political morphing, the neoconservatives have redefined U.S. politics from the Reagan administration through the current Bush administration.

Bolton shares much with the closely knit neoconservative political camp: their red-meat anticommunism, their obsession with China, their support of right-wing Zionism in Israel, and their glorification of U.S. power as the main force for good and against evil in our world. Bolton has also forged close links with neoconservatives while a scholar at the Manhattan Institute and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Although sharing most of the neoconservative ideology, Bolton is not himself a true-blue neocon.

It's not only his political origins that separates him from other middle-aged neoconservatives. Bolton also stands apart from the neoconservative camp because of his longtime association with moderate conservative James Baker and the close ties he had with Dixiecrat Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC). Unlike most neocons, who stay removed from electoral politics, Bolton has repeatedly immersed himself in the mundane and often dirty politics of ensuring Republican Party electoral victories.

One political label that certainly fits Bolton is that of "hawk" or militarist. Like most other Bush administration officials, Bolton is a militarist who has never gone to war which according to some detractors makes him a "chickenhawk." In his work in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations, Bolton has become known as the right's most effective and strident opponent of the United Nations and all forms of global governance and international law not controlled by the U.S. government. Read on...

Transcript below the fold via Lexis Nexis.

VAN SUSTEREN: Israel's fighting back tonight, releasing new and more video of its deadly raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza. Now, the video shows passengers on the ship throwing a box of plates and a stun grenade at Israeli soldiers. The Israeli operation killed nine people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is digging his heels in, rejecting criticism of the deadly raid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We have a right to inspect cargo heading into Gaza. And here's our policy. It's very simple. Humanitarian and other goods can go in, and weapons and war material cannot. And we do let civilian goods get into Gaza. We make several offers time and again, offers to deliver the goods on board the flotilla to Gaza after a security inspection. Egypt made similar offers. And these offers were rejected time and again.

The first soldier -- they were met with a vicious mob. They were stabbed. They were clubbed. They were fired upon. They were members of an extremist group that has (ph) supported international terrorist organization and today support the terror organization called Hamas. This wasn't a love boat, this was a hate boat!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Joining us live is former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton. Ambassador, good evening. This event, this tragedy, this violence, catastrophe, however you want to characterize it -- an isolated event that we're going to sort of move carefully through, in a few days, it'll be over, or is this sparking a bigger problem?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: There's a lot more coming here. This is part of an overall effort to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip. I think we have to understand not just an Israeli blockade. It is an Egyptian blockade too. The Egyptians don't like Hamas any more than the Israelis do.

But In the Arab and Muslim world there's a lot of determination to break that blockade, so other ships are on the way. I'm sure more is coming.

VAN SUSTEREN: There were nine people from Turkey, Turkey is ally of Israel and quiet friendly with Israel and now that is a strained relationship. What does that mean for the whole region?

BOLTON: I think what's going on with Turkey is less the loss of Israel's sole Muslim ally than it is Turkey slipping away from the west. Even since the end of World War I and the Ottoman empire, the idea of Turkey has been a secular democratic state.

I think with the government we have in place now and have had for the last six, seven years is going in the wrong direction and I think that could be one of the most significant outcomes of this whole crisis.

VAN SUSTEREN: Now we have nine dead and international condemnation of Israel. Is this now an invitation to many of the haters of Israel to give more violence towards member, to fight them more?

BOLTON: Absolutely. But they don't need that much of an excuse. This happens in the West Bank all the time, these kinds of clashes, different circumstances. But every time I happens it is an excuse to you go and beat up Israel in the U.N. Security Council and beat them up in the U.N. Human Rights Council. I'm sure Israel's opponents will take full advantage of it.

But consider the alternative that people are calling for, including some of America's closest allies, which is to end the blockade. If you did that you would have Hamas getting weapons of the kind Hezbollah already has in Lebanon. The threat to innocent Israeli civilians would rise dramatically.

VAN SUSTEREN: How do you characterize the U.S. response?

BOLTON: Weak. The United States could have said clearly on Memorial Day we are not going to accept a statement by the Security Council critical of Israel as the one that turned out. It was watered down to be sure.

If I had been there and had my discretion, I would have said I'm not going to negotiate this. It is fundamentally unacceptable. You don't condemn something and then call for an investigation. If you want to have an investigation, that's one thing, but too many people had already made their minds up.

VAN SUSTEREN: It is clear this is a provocation, at least to me. They intended to provoke. They knew they were going to meet resistance. The Israelis weren't going to say fine, come on in. Another ship is on the way. It doesn't look like this is a good situation.

BOLTON: I don't think Israel will make the same mistake. I think they didn't put sufficient people on the ship immediately. It allowed their people to be isolated. I think the people on those six ships had different motivations. I think some were innocent, naive --

VAN SUSTEREN: How could they? You know there's a blockade. You know there's a situation. It's not like everyone heard about this yesterday. Everyone knew this was going on.

BOLTON: Some people hug trees some people get on boats like this. But there was another layer of people there, very cynical, very tough who did want to provoke the confrontation. They got what they wanted. I don't think they reckoned the cost, but others will follow them.

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't care what your thinking is getting on that ship. No matter how much you want peace, how much you want to help people, it was clear there was going to be a problem.

BOLTON: I don't think it was clear to the Israelis.

VAN SUSTEREN: There's always a risk.

BOLTON: I think in the implementation of the operation there was failure. But there was no failure on Israel's part in carrying out its strategic objective.

VAN SUSTEREN: Ambassador, thank you, sir.

BOLTON: Thank you.

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