Fireworks in September: Bolton and the UN

Preemption, hardliners, neoconservatives, realists and the occasional liberal interventionalist will all flock to the UN in three weeks. The Security Council and General Assembly will be decked out in full smiles and hands shakes. Custodians will be shining brass name plates with obscure names such as: Eritrea, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Seychelles, and Tuvalu. However, the real show will be between our self appointed UN ambassador and a consensus document which was in place before he cursed out his first subordinate in the State Department.

In fact, “The amendments begin ominously on page one of the 40-page document where, among a list of core values such as freedom, equality and the rule of law, the US - in a none-too-subtle snipe at the Kyoto protocols - wants to delete "respect for nature". The amendments continue in a similar vein over the remaining pages, weakening references to the millennium development goals (agreed by 191 members of the UN five years ago as a strategy to combat poverty), deleting a statement that force should be a "last resort" when dealing with security threats, and so on.”

The bout has been set. Bolton vs. 191 countries. Can he bitch slap all of them into submission? It will take some time and effort, two things Bolton has shown to be lacking. Moreover, the roar from Neoconservatives will be fierce, in fact, Bolton is bound to fail and in doing so the NEOCON can place the onus of diplomatic failure on the cumbersome and outdated UN. Consequently, this is a domestic political move which will echo off the walls in Congress and reverberate throughout the country. New billboards of “Get US out of the UN” will crop up and people will ask themselves, “What in the hell is a UN?”

It is important to note that the UN was spearheaded by the US, in all actuality it was our brainchild. It is also important to note that the UN is a massive bureaucracy and a slow moving mechanism. That is one of its objectives: diplomacy and rational debate. The importance of the UN was to become a body of deliberation and consultation. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a covert operation with clandestine actions. For when it tries to become one it is uncovered and people either are prosecuted or resign, just ask Benon Sevan. That is the beauty of the organization, with so many countries and competing interests it is almost impossible to get away with lies, out-right fabrication, misleading information, doctored documents and the outright manipulation of intelligence. Well, I did say ALMOST impossible. However, with Bolton at the helm the US has decided to end the diplomatic dance which is so necessary in this world, and go with preemption; which as we have seen throughout the Middle East, has a proven track record.