Trump Taps Uber-Hawk Bolton as National Security Advisor


March 23, 2018
Arthur Goodman
From “Bomb, Bomb Iran” to a preemptive strike on North Korea, the former Bush official promises a much more belligerent foreign policy.

John Bolton speaking in support of moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

Colum Lynch and Elias Groll, in Foreign Policy, write “President Donald Trump’s choice of John Bolton as his national security advisor places a hard-line unilateralist and keen advocate of military power at the center of the White House.

Bolton has explicitly called for a preemptive strike on North Korea, advocates bombing to force regime change in Iran, and wants an open-ended military presence in Afghanistan. He has also called for a much more confrontational stance against China, including stationing U.S. troops in Taiwan.”

But in contrast to Republican neoconservatives, whom he joined in urging President George W. Bush to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003, Bolton has little interest in exporting American values such as democracy and human rights. He served in the State Department and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush administration. “

Bolton shares with the president a disregard for international agreements, a disdain for multilateral organizations such as the U.N. and the European Union, and a flair for hurling cutting insults at his many political enemies. In his memoir, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations, Bolton repeatedly referred to EU bureaucrats as “EUroids.”

“His appointment, rumored for weeks, deeply rattled foreign-policy experts from Washington to Berlin who worry that McMaster’s ouster and Bolton’s arrival could set the United States on a path toward multiple conflicts. John Bolton strongly supported every war the US has fought, believes there should be no limits how [the] US fights [its] wars, and strongly supports starting new regime change wars with Iran and nuclear-armed N[orth] Korea,”.Bolton can be expected to offer uncritical support for Israel; McMaster took fire from some conservatives for allegedly not being supportive enough. Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, once described Bolton as “Israel’s secret weapon.” (read more)

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