John Bolton Named National Security Advisor
President Donald Trump has chosen the controversial John Bolton to be his National Security Advisor.
Former President Jimmy Carter has called the pick one of Trump’s “worst mistakes.” It must be added that Bolton as National Security Advisor is not only a huge mistake, his views represent a reversal off all that our country has stood for in the era following World War II.
Bolton served as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and Ambassador of the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He didn’t seem to be a fit for either position, as Bolton opposes arms control and has said that if the UN building lost 10 stories it would make no difference. He has also said “there is no United Nations.” Bolton was an advocate of the 2003 war against Iraq and was accused of intimidating intelligence officials in the run up to the war. In addition, he was also accused of harassing those who crossed him.
Bolton is also tight with anti-Muslim far-right activists like Frank Gaffney and Pamela Geller. In fact, Bolton has served as chair of the anti-Muslim Gatestone Institute. This also fits in with some of Trump’s rhetoric. During the negation of President Barack Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal, Bolton penned a story advocating the bombing of Iran. Needless to say, Bolton’s views don’t chime with the idea of a world working together through international institutions (UN) to establish law for a less conflict-prone world.
The new National Security Advisor has voiced the opinion that America is so powerful that it doesn’t have to work within international bodies. Bolton seems to be exactly like the President and many of his appointments when it comes to understanding the world in which we live – he is the type of ignores obvious facts. There is a huge cost to unilateral military actions. Our country experienced this in the Iraq War. The lesson learned through unilateral invasions is that they cost a lot more than working diplomatically through organizations like the UN. How powerful is the country economically? We are a huge economic power, no doubt. However, one has to look at economic history to really understand the whole issue. At the end of World War II, the United States’ economic output made up 50 percent of world gross domestic project and today it makes up 20 percent of gross domestic product. Our country is hardly economically powerful anymore to ignore the rest of the world.
What did our country do at the end of World War II? It created the UN in an attempt to establish international norms (or international law) to make sure something as horrendous as the war didn’t happen again. We were more powerful relative to the rest of the world at that time both economically and militarily, and we didn’t seek to dominate the world in a unilateral fashion. While the UN has its’ problems and wars have waged around the world, there hasn’t been anything as destructive as World War II since that time. John Bolton as National Security Advisor is the latest attack on the internal order that emerged after World War II. The President might represent a party that calls itself conservative, but the administration is working overtime not to conserve order but to upend it!
