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John Bolton on American Sovereignty Under a Post-American Presidency
The Heritage Foundation ^ | May 18, 2010 | Julia Bertelsmann

Posted on 05/23/2010 10:28:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

CHICAGO – Protect America Month 2010, the Heritage Foundation’s annual series of events and publications aimed at highlighting key national security issues and promoting sensible defense and homeland security policies, hit the road today with a special address in Chicago by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.

Ambassador Bolton began his remarks by explaining why he refers to President Obama as a “post-American” president.

The first problem, he argued, is that President Obama doesn’t care about national security. It is not where his attention is focused. The second problem is that he doesn’t see threats to the U.S. overseas. He argued during his presidential campaign, for example, that Iran was a “tiny” country. The third problem is that President Obama appears to believe that American decline is not only inevitable, but also a good thing.

He looks at the world through a multilateralist prism and doesn’t really believe in American exceptionalism–something first spoken about by a Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville. President Obama, by contrast, when asked whether he believes in America exceptionalism answers yes, only in the way that “Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Put those features together with a foreign policy based on radical moral equivalences–such as the Administration’s outrageous equation of Arizona’s new immigration law and China’s routinely discriminatory and brutal treatment of foreigners and minorities–and you get what Ambassador Bolton calls the “Post-American” president.

Bolton argues that the Obama Administration’s approach has failed on Iran, on North Korea, in the Middle East, and on numerous other security issues because it is based on the view that all of the problems in the world are the consequence of our failure to negotiate.

He cautions that the Administration’s emphasis on negotiation could have serious costs. Negotiation–especially when waged ineptly and without moral clarity–often favors the proliferator. Ambassador worries that the Administration may have decided to accept a nuclear Iran, despite the fact that it would pose serious threats to the U.S.

Unless American’s demand a changed approach, and unless we keep national security at the top of the agenda–as Heritage’s Protect America month is doing–America could decline in ways that will be very difficult–if not impossible–to reverse.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bho44; iran; israel; johnbolton; korea; northkorea; obama; wot
Palin/Bolton 2012
1 posted on 05/23/2010 10:28:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Grim.


2 posted on 05/23/2010 10:38:33 PM PDT by unkus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Palin-Bolton! The Dream Team!
3 posted on 05/23/2010 10:41:13 PM PDT by jonrick46 (We're being water boarded with the sewage of Fabian Socialism.)
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To: unkus

We are in uncertain times. A figure like Bolton or Beck is going to have an “accident”.


4 posted on 05/23/2010 10:46:07 PM PDT by JSteff ((It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.))
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To: JSteff

bflr


5 posted on 05/23/2010 10:57:28 PM PDT by Captain Beyond (The Hammer of the gods! (Just a cool line from a Led Zep song))
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To: jonrick46

Actually, I’d like to see Bolton as Head of the State Dept, with the ability to clean house.

That will be very important - it must happen in all departments if we are to regain control over our government again.

Right now there are way too many liberals in all the govt offices and they need to be sent packing.


6 posted on 05/23/2010 11:12:22 PM PDT by CyberAnt (Is Obama the Manchurian President ..??)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

England had one in 1939, ...does the US have two in 2010?


7 posted on 05/23/2010 11:26:19 PM PDT by givemELL (Does Taiwan eet the Criteria to Qualify as an "Overseas Territory of the United States"? by Richar)
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To: CyberAnt

Maybe Bolton, as Vice President, could name a good State Dept. head. At least we wouldn’t have a Vice President throwing F-bombs on microphone.


8 posted on 05/23/2010 11:28:31 PM PDT by jonrick46 (We're being water boarded with the sewage of Fabian Socialism.)
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To: CyberAnt
 
That's precisely it - elected officials may come and go (some more than others perhaps), but bureaucrats are forever. One of the harder things I have to do is enlightening people to the fact that most battles are with the hired help, not necessarily the politicians, though if you can get the politicians to reign in or even decrease their numbers it would help in the long run. An across the board flushing of those termites has got to occur some way, some how or there'll be no progress.
 
 

9 posted on 05/24/2010 12:37:08 AM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: JSteff

“We are in uncertain times. A figure like Bolton or Beck is going to have an “accident”.”

or suicide.....


10 posted on 05/24/2010 2:47:39 AM PDT by vanilla swirl (Where is the Black Regiment?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Whoever’s on the repub. ticket in 2012 has to know he/she will be eviscerated by the MSM 24/7. That they can’t ‘nuance’, they’ll make up out of whole cloth. Criminal attacks won’t be investigated properly, if at all. The feds/this regime will clamp down on any and all leads that go back to the WH. That’s if Zero doesn’t declare martial law and ‘postpone’ elections...a distinct possibility since he’s ruling by fiat and nobody seems able to stop him.


11 posted on 05/24/2010 3:15:47 AM PDT by hershey
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To: hershey

I wonder if there won’t be a civil unrest that will “necessitate” a call for martial law which will in turn mean calling off the fall elections.

They have no intention of giving up power and they aren’t in the least concerned about our Constitution and least of all about the American people.


12 posted on 05/24/2010 3:31:19 AM PDT by bronxville
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

bttt


13 posted on 05/24/2010 5:48:22 AM PDT by Guenevere (....)
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To: jonrick46

See me tagline I’ve been promoting for quite some time....


14 posted on 05/24/2010 5:50:46 AM PDT by newfreep (Palin/DeMint 2012 - Bolton: Secy of State)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The second problem is that he doesn’t see threats to the U.S. overseas.

Or, he sees them just fine, and sees them as an opportunity, a possibility of a crisis that can't go to waste.

15 posted on 05/24/2010 10:33:30 AM PDT by FlyVet
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To: jonrick46

Yeah, that might work .. I’m reading Bolton’s books, and he’s one smart cookie.

And .. he would be extremely helpful to Palin in foreign affairs.

I heard a rumor that he was working with her during the 2008 election - to bring her up to speed in the foreign affairs dept.


16 posted on 05/25/2010 8:55:44 PM PDT by CyberAnt (Is Obama the Manchurian President ..??)
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