John Bolton, a Bush-era war hawk who backs the bombing of Iran and North Korea, will soon be in charge of America’s national security policy.
In one of the most controversial cabinet appointments to date – even by Donald Trump’s standards – Bolton will replace General H.R. McMaster as the President’s national security advisor next month.
“The risks of a war with Iran or North Korea are now significantly greater than they were this morning,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said after yesterday’s announcement.
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Bolton, who served under President George W. Bush, was one of the chief architects of the US invasion of Iraq.
As undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security in 2002, he pushed the discredited claim that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
There is little evidence that his views have changed since then. “I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct,” Bolton said more than a decade later.
“Hell, even George Bush wasn’t crazy enough to let Bolton serve as his national security advisor. But Trump is,” Kevin Drum writes for Mother Jones. “He wants someone who agrees that we should threaten every bad guy on earth with war, and Bolton’s that guy.”
Richard W. Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under Bush, has described Bolton as “by far the most dangerous man” in that administration.
“Hiring him as the president’s top national security advisor is an invitation to war, perhaps nuclear war,” Painter tweeted earlier this month. “This must be stopped at all costs.”
Bolton’s appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, comes at a crucial – and highly sensitive - time for US foreign policy.
There are growing concerns he could scupper planned talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and help undo the Iran nuclear deal.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Bolton argued that “it is perfectly legitimate” for the US to defend itself “by striking [North Korea] first”.
Bolton was previously rejected as a negotiating partner by Pyongyang, after Kim Jong Il’s government described him as “human scum” and a “bloodsucker,” according to Reuters.
He has also been outspoken in his disdain for the deal struck with Iran over its nuclear weapons programme and has called for the US to withdraw from it, a move that is likely to have far-reaching consequences.
“If Trump does not sign the next sanctions waiver on Iran in mid-May, the US will be in violation of the 2015 agreement, quite possibly triggering a new crisis in the Gulf, and opening a rift in relations with European allies,” says The Guardian.
Foreign policy aside, The Atlantic argues that Bolton’s appointment is a “betrayal” of Trump’s base.
“The problem isn’t just that Bolton is singularly ill-suited for the role - he also represents a set of views diametrically opposed to the policies that helped the president secure his job,” it says.
“Trump won the GOP primaries and the White House in part by taking the position that the Iraq War was a dumb waste of American lives and resources.”
