Hawk who never saw a country that he didn’t want to bomb
THE firing of John Bolton as US National Security Adviser will come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about either President Trump or Mr Bolton himself.
Indeed, many still find it astonishing that Mr Bolton was appointed to the post in the first place, as he is an angry hawk who has never seen a country he did not want to bomb.
Many of those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 did so because they were weary of the toll that foreign wars took on American blood and resources.
This was especially the case with regards to the Middle East, including the 18-year-long conflict in Afghanistan.
And the fact is that Trump is also a lifelong deal maker, who sees his mission as ending wars which his predecessors either inherited or started.
Mr Bolton on the other hand, is a warmonger – as well as a difficult man to like. He is abrasive, cantankerous, cocksure and rude.
No problem cannot be solved without threats of force. This is despite the fact that as a young Yale graduate Mr Bolton himself avoided service in Vietnam. Mr Bolton switched to public service after a legal career. After 9/11 he became a fervent believer in the ‘Axis of Evil’ (Iran, Iraq and North Korea) – adding Cuba, Libya and Syria to his target list of rogue states seeking to get weapons of mass destruction for terroristic purposes.
During his time at the State Department under George W Bush, US intelligence agencies came under pressure to tailor analysis to support his wild claims.
Yet Cuba never tried to develop biological weapons or to share the technology. Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction and he had no connection to Al Qaeda, or Iran, or North Korea.
Bush made Mr Bolton UN Ambassador in 2005. It was a peculiar appointment as Mr Bolton is hostile to any international organisations which might constrain American power. Needless to say, before long he had resigned.
Mr Bolton came to Mr Trump’s attention because of his ubiquitous presence as a talking head on the Right-wing TV channel Fox News. Mr Bolton’s tough talk seemed to suit Mr Trump, provided it helped pressure America’s enemies and rivals to the negotiating table.
For Mr Trump thinks he can cut or revise deals either never attempted, or poorly negotiated, by his predecessors – in particular with Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran. By contrast, Mr Bolton has called for the bombing of both North Korea and Iran.
The final straw was Mr Trump’s willingness to hold direct talks with the Afghan Taliban at Camp David – though the Taliban ruined chances of them taking place by detonating two large bombs in Kabul in order to gain last -minute leverage.
Mr Trump wants to end a war which he knows the US cannot win. If that means talking with the Taliban, then so be it. Mr Bolton disagreed.