• 30 July 2009
  • Posted By Patrick Disney
  • 8 Comments
  • Events in Iran, Iran Election 2009, MEK, UN, US-Iran War

John Bolton *still wants to bomb Iran

30 July 2009 Posted By Patrick Disney

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night featured former Bush Administration UN Ambassador John Bolton, who is now a senior fellow at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC.  Bolton has been busy lately, penning op-eds on the need for harsh action against Iran, lest Tehran obtain a nuclear weapon and destroy Israel and the United States.

Aside from his bizarrely enthusiastic support for what he calls “Iranian dissidents” (based on his description, it’s clear he means the MEK), Bolton laments the fact that to this day neither Israel nor the United States has “stepped up” to attack Iran militarily.  He tries to depict his recommendation as the product of a rational calculation, and even goes so far as to call his conclusion regrettable; but his eagerness to attack Iran comes across on television as bloodlust, plain and simple.

And as if that weren’t brazen enough (though it did remind us all why we’re not exactly nostalgic for his term at the United Nations), he finished the segment with a flippant comment about how he wishes the United States were the only nuclear-armed country in the world.  Our friend Joe Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund took that one on over at the HuffingtonPost, articulating how Bolton’s joke was as unwise as it was unfunny.

With all the unrest in Iran over the last few weeks, and the disturbing images that have been coming out of the country, at least we can find some comfort in the fact that no one but the most fringe elements in the neoconservative camp take any of these arguments seriously.  Small comfort.

Posted By Patrick Disney

    8 Responses to “John Bolton *still wants to bomb Iran”

  1. Ellie says:
    July 31, 2009 at 7:42 am

    I am not surprised by John Bolton’s statements, after all he epitomizes the very wost US politics can offer. Thankfully there is a diverent attitude now in the Obama administration.

    Reply
  2. bizychic says:
    July 31, 2009 at 11:25 am

    Moron. Citizens spends hours showing their support for these people and this clown has to open his mouth and let that tripe roll out. You’re a real gem of American society Mr. Bolton.

    Reply
  3. Ben says:
    July 31, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    I’m surprised someone with Bolton’s credentials would use South Africa as an example of a nation giving up nuclear weapons as a result of democracy. He probably does not fully grasp the meaning of democracy because the U.S., France, India, Israel, and to a lesser extend the U.K., are all democracies that pursued and currently posses nuclear weapons. Apartheid South Africa was a white democracy. Only when they accepted that they could no longer remain a white democracy did they “voluntarily” give up their nuclear weapons program. In an all inclusive democracy, whites would have been a small minority and this would have put a black run government in charge of nukes.

    Mr. Bolton either does not comprehend how racially charged is the South African example, or he believes his objective justifies fabricating false information, both of which clearly demonstrate why he is not and was never fit to lead ANY government office.

    Reply
  4. Bijan says:
    July 31, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    More evidence that American foreign policy “experts” have no understanding of the history or culture of others in the world, specifically the ones they claim to have a deep understanding of. I am becoming more of a fan of John Stewart and appreciate his counter arguments to Ambassador Bolton’s comments plus he dialogue with Reza Aslan a few weeks back.

    Reply
  5. Mithridates says:
    July 31, 2009 at 11:05 pm

    Having John Bolton on the Daily Show is a nice reminder that these people are no longer in power. It’s odd how people like him manage to intentionally ignore the continuing protests and rush to the conclusion that it’s time for a bombing.

    Plus the idea that Iranians would just shrug their shoulders after being hit by a strike from Israel. Nothing would derail the protests more than something like that.

    By the way, linking directly from thedailyshow.com is better IMO. I can’t see Hulu links where I am (Korea) but the Daily Show works fine.

    Reply
  6. rwp says:
    August 1, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    And in this post and comments we see the pussification of the United States.

    Bend over and beg for it. The girly boys over at the HuffPo would love you for it.

    Reply
  7. regionarrington says:
    August 1, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Excuse me but no one from the prior Bush administration understood “the meaning of democracy,” they wire taped us and spit on the constitution for eight years. They had a desire to spread their brand of democracy around the word but what they failed to understand is that it already exists. Their brand of democracy exists in China, the former USSR and others to name and few. We need to promote peace and democracy but not a gun point or by dropping bombs.

    Reply
  8. abu ameerah says:
    August 2, 2009 at 1:27 am

    pathetic…

    bolton should just sign a deal with Faux News and get a show like Mike Huckabee. the program could be titled “Bolton and Friends” or “Your World [Bombed] with John Bolton”…

    also, he looks like a long lost relative of Mark Twain…
    http://www.antiimperialist.com/webroot/PEOPLEdocuments/Membership/Pictures/twain.jpg

    Reply

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It has come to our attention that Google has begun omitting the title of the Persian Gulf from its Google Maps application. This is a disconcerting development given the undisputed historic and geographic precedent of the name Persian Gulf, and the more recent history of opening up the name to political, ethnic, and territorial disputes. However unintentionally, in adopting this practice, Google is participating in a dangerous effort to foment tensions and ethnic divisions in the Middle East by politicizing the region’s geographic nomenclature. Members of the Iranian-American community are overwhelmingly opposed to such efforts, particularly at a time when regional tensions already have been pushed to the brink and threaten to spill over into conflict. As the largest grassroots organization in the Iranian-American community, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) calls on Google to not allow its products to become propaganda tools and to immediately reinstate the historically accurate, apolitical title of “Persian Gulf” in all of its informational products, including Google Maps.

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In the 1930s, British adviser to Bahrain Sir Charles Belgrave proposed to rename the Persian Gulf, “Arabian Gulf,” a proposal that was rejected by the British Colonial and Foreign offices. Two decades later, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company resurrected the term during its dispute with Mohammad Mossadegh, the Iranian Prime Minister whose battle with British oil interests would end in a U.S.-sponsored coup d'état that continues to haunt U.S.-Iran relations. In the 1960s, the title “Arabian Gulf” became central to propaganda efforts during the Pan-Arabism era aimed at exploiting ethnic divisions in the region to unite Arabs against non-Arabs, namely Iranians and Israelis. The term was later employed by Saddam Hussein to justify his aims at territorial expansion. Osama Bin Laden even adopted the phrase in an attempt to rally Arab populations by emphasizing ethnic rivalries in the Middle East.

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