Bolton Is the Right’s Man for the Job

In defending John Bolton’s nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations (Commentary, April 28), Max Boot argues that nastiness shouldn’t disqualify him. Fair enough. Yet Boot’s true admiration for the Bolton nomination has to do with quite a different agenda. Boot thinks that “[Bolton] seems like a good choice to help drain the U.N. cesspool of corrupt bureaucrats and self-serving tyrants.” If that is the standard to select an ambassador to the U.N., I would think many countries would be choosing ambassadors to help rid the United Nations of manipulating and conniving representatives from the United States government. Boot should be careful what he asks for.

Cameron Miller

Santa Maria

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Boot’s column fails to mention the real reasons that the neocon right is so fond of Bolton: It is his appalling record of being wrong. Bolton has been proved wrong in his prewar statement on Iraq, in his claims about Cuba and in his assertions about Syria. Not only is his record 0 for 3 in these instances, but his involvement with the administration’s diplomatic corps dealing with North Korea was counterproductive to the point of scuttling our diplomatic efforts, which is precisely the result that Dick Cheney and the neocons desired. Unfortunately for their goals of imperial America going it alone, the results of the invasion of Iraq show that a Third World insurgency can stymie the strongest military on Earth.

Michael Johnson

Santa Monica

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The reason for liberal angst is that it’s a matter of diplomatic style and philosophy, perhaps made most clear by Colin Powell’s reported reservations regarding Bolton. The appeasement style of diplomacy desired by Powell and the Democrats represents business as usual. But we can see where that got us. Today, the U.N. has, to put it gently, failed to live up to its lofty goals. Oil for Food. Libya as chair of the Human Rights Commission (and China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, etc. as members). Anti-Semitism at Durban. Inaction in Sudan and elsewhere.

Our U.N. ambassador needs to be someone strong-willed enough to confront the U.N. and help bring the reform it so desperately needs. And that’s exactly why it should be Bolton.

Phillip Jonas

Alta Loma