[Peace-discuss] FW: Bolton's appointment: Another warning of new US wars

[David Johnson]

From: David Sladky [mailto:tanstl at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2018 8:17 AM
Subject: Bolton's appointment: Another warning of new US wars

 


Bolton's appointment: Another warning of new US wars


 

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/24/bolt-m24.html 


 <http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/24/bolt-m24.html> Image removed by
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 <http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/24/bolt-m24.html> Bolton's
appointment: Another warning of new US wars

www.wsws.org

Bolton is notorious for his advocacy of illegal wars of aggression, his
contempt for the UN and international law, and his belligerent stance
towards US rivals such as China and Russia.

 

 


By Peter Symonds 
24 March 2018


The appointment of the notorious warmonger John Bolton as Trump's national
security adviser on Thursday is a clear sign that the White House is being
put on a war footing. Bolton is well known for his advocacy of illegal wars
of aggression, in particular against North Korea and Iran, his contempt for
the UN and international law, and his belligerent stance towards US rivals
such as China and Russia.

North Korea is immediately within Trump's crosshairs. The president
indicated earlier this month that he would meet with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-un in May. However, the installation of Bolton in place of H.R.
McMaster and the hawkish Mike Pompeo as US secretary of state in place of
Rex Tillerson two weeks ago demonstrates that the purpose of any meeting
will not be to negotiate, but to deliver a US ultimatum or stage a
provocation.

Bolton is an open advocate of pre-emptive military attacks on North Korea on
the pretext of ending the so-called military threat posed by its nuclear
arsenal. Just last month, he seized on Pompeo's remark that North Korea was
"a handful of months" from having a nuclear missile capable of reaching the
US, to set out a sham legal case in the Wall Street Journal for attacking
North Korea. "We should not wait until the last minute," he emphasised.

In another Wall Street Journal comment last August, Bolton scathingly
dismissed any prospect of a deal with North Korea and declared that "some
sort of strike is likely unavoidable unless China agrees to regime change in
Pyongyang." While well aware of the huge casualties that such a war would
bring to South Korea and Japan, he nevertheless insisted that the US had no
option but to carry out pre-emptive strikes on North Korea and set out
several strategies up to and including a full-scale air war and invasion.

Bolton is a bitter critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran done under the
Obama administration that placed severe limitations on that country's
nuclear programs, and is thus in tune with Trump's threat to withdraw from
the agreement in May if it is not drastically changed. In a bellicose
comment in 2015 in the New York Times entitled "To stop Iran's bomb, bomb
Iran," he advocated US military strikes combined with a concerted effort for
regime change in Tehran.

Likewise Bolton is a strident advocate of a confrontational approach to
China, pushing for far stronger action to challenge Chinese maritime claims
in the South China and East China Seas. His views on Taiwan are in line with
the Trump administration's questioning of the "One China policy" and steps
towards forging closer ties with Taiwan-moves that would gravely undermine
relations between the US and China and greatly heighten the danger of
conflict.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal in 2016, Bolton called on the US to play
the "Taiwan card" by upgrading official ties with the island that China
regards as an integral part of its territory. "For a new US president
willing to act boldly, there are opportunities to halt and then reverse
China's seemingly inexorable march toward hegemony in East Asia," he wrote.

The appointment of Bolton has provoked alarm in sections of the American
political establishment and media. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez declared
that while Trump might view Bolton as a sympathetic sycophant, "I would
remind him that Mr Bolton has a reckless approach to advancing the safety
and security of Americans-far outside any political party."

Richard Painter, a former White House lawyer under President George Bush,
described Bolton as "by far the most dangerous man" of that administration.
"Hiring him as the president's top national security adviser is an
invitation to war, perhaps nuclear war. This must be stopped at all costs,"
he told the Guardian.

In its editorial yesterday "Yes, John Bolton really is that dangerous," the
New York Times warned: "There are few people more likely than Mr Bolton is
to lead the country into war . Coupled with his nomination of the hard-line
CIA director, Mike Pompeo, as secretary of state, Mr Trump is indulging his
worst nationalist instincts. Mr Bolton, in particular, believes the United
States can do what it wants without regard to international law, treaties or
the political commitments of previous administrations."

While it is certainly true that Bolton is an infamous advocate of criminal
wars, such criticisms and warnings ring completely hollow. There is no
anti-war faction of the American ruling class as the past quarter century of
US invasions and interventions demonstrates. Rather the bitter political
infighting and crisis in Washington revolves around how best to use US
military might to shore up its position in the geopolitical order and which
rival or rivals to attack first.

Significantly, the New York Times editorial cites Bolton's attitude to
Russia as his one saving grace. "Mr Bolton's position on Russia," it
declares, "that NATO must have a strong response to the Kremlin-linked
poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain is somewhat better than Mr
Trump's." This remark reflects the right-wing campaign waged by the
newspaper in league with the Democrats and sections of the
military-intelligence apparatus to remove Trump over his alleged collusion
with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election campaign. This
is nothing less than a push for confrontation and war with Russia.

Bolton, in fact, has a militarist response to any challenge posed to US
imperialist interests-China and Russia alike. In a series of tweets over the
past month, he has called for the US to strengthen its allies in Central and
Eastern Europe against alleged Russian cyber war; a strategic response to
new Russian nuclear missiles to show "we will not let Russia push the US and
its allies around;" and "a long term strategy to deal with countries like
Russia and China with longstanding rulers."

Bolton's appointment as Trump's national security adviser does not require
congressional confirmation. The only way to block his installation would be
through a broad campaign which the Democrats and other critics are not about
to initiate as it would mean alerting the public about the danger of war and
risk triggering an anti-war movement that would rapidly go beyond their
control.

Bolton was one of the gang of war criminals in the Bush administration that
invented and promoted the lies about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass
destruction that were used as the pretext for the brutal US-led invasion and
occupation. Neither Bolton nor anyone else was prosecuted under the Obama
administration, which intensified the drive to war against Russia and China.
As a result, Trump is able to install Bolton as his administration prepares
for even more disastrous wars.

 

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