August 1, 2006 is the one year anniversary of the recess appointment of John Bolton to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (Mike’s America remembers here).
He faced a Senate filibuster which prevented the majority of Senators from voting to confirm him. Yet, every time he speaks he makes us proud that President Bush bucked the party of no-no-no and installed him as Ambassador. 
Take for example his statement, Friday July 14 to the UN Security Council regarding the unprovoked aggression of Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah against Israel:
[I]n recent days and weeks, we have seen an outbreak of violence in the Middle East, sparked by attacks and kidnappings which Hamas and Hizballah carried out against Israel. Events continue to develop even as we speak.
Hizballah’s incursions across the Blue Line on July 12 were a deliberate and premeditated provocation intended to undermine regional stability and are contrary to the interests of both the Lebanese and Israeli people. We unequivocally condemn the kidnapping by Hizballah, a terrorist organization, of two Israeli soldiers and call for their immediate and unconditional release.
Provocations across the Blue Line by terrorist groups highlight the urgent need for full and immediate compliance by Syria and Hizballah with relevant UN Security Council resolutions, including 1559, 1583, 1655, and 1680.
The international community has made clear its desire to see the central authority of the Government of Lebanon extended throughout the country.
In this context, we underscore the importance of the Security Council President’s statement of June 18, 2000 and the Secretary-General’s conclusion that as of June 16, 2000, Israel had withdrawn all its forces from Lebanon in accordance with UNSC resolution 425 and met the requirements defined in the Secretary-General’s May 22, 2000 report.
… President Bush has made clear that Syria and Iran must be held to account for supporting regional terrorism and their role in the current crisis. Syria provides safe haven to the militant wing of Hamas and provides material support to Hizballah, which also maintains an active presence in Syria. Iran’s extensive sponsorship and financial and other support of Hizballah is well known and has been ongoing for decades. No reckoning with Hizballah will be adequate without a reckoning with its principal state sponsors of terror.
We call on Syria and Iran to cease their sponsorship and support of terrorist groups, in particular Hizballah and Hamas. For the third time in two weeks, we again call on Syria to arrest Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, who currently lives in Damascus. There is no excuse for a member state of the United Nations to continue to knowingly harbor a recognized terrorist.
Got all that? Israel obeyed the directives of the Security Council and withdrew from their occupation of Lebanon. The result? Even more vicious attacks by Hezbollah with the full support of Iran and Syria, both of whom ignore U.N. resolutions directed at their aggressive and warlike policies.
Analyze the timeline of the Israeli-Arab conflict. You’ll find Israel making compromises and agreements only to have the peace shattered by Arab aggression.
I doubt there is enough time left in the Bush Administration to take the further difficult steps necessary to solve the problem. Especially since a loud minority in this country sides with the terrorists and killers that keep the history of the Middle East from becoming anything other than a sad story of continuing violence.
But at least we have brave men like President Bush and Ambassador Bolton, and brave women like Secretary of State Rice who understand that the path of moral equivalence (both sides are at fault) has only perpetuated the violence.
Also posted at Mike’s America.
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No I am not glad John Bolton is representing America at the UN, particularly at this point. The man lacks diplomacy skills. Heck, he has problems being civil with his fellow Americans! Bolton was not selected for the position because he possessed the qualities or skills to turn the UN into a useful tool or America. He was selected for the job because of his lack of diplomacy and hatred of the UN. His job is to undermine the organization not learn how to work within the confines of the organizaiton to promote American interests.
Don’t get me started on Israel.
Comment by Carol — 7/15/2006 @ 1:52 pm
Carol: Why am I not surprised at your lack of appreciation for John Bolton?
Could it be that you prefer a United Nations that simply TALKS about problems instead of solving them?
Are we supposed to just accept that the many fine statements of principle surrounding the founding of this organization are nothing but words?
At what point do we hold the U.N. accountable for it’s inability to do much of anything to restrain the evildoers who continue to perpetuate the cycles of violence which plague our world?
I’m sorry Carol, yes I am, very sorry that you would prefer to blind your reason to the so evident failures of this institution to live up to it’s creed. And worse, that you would block efforts to correct the U.N.’s wayward course.
Comment by Mike's America — 7/15/2006 @ 2:44 pm
She’s a lost cause, Mike. She along with her leftist shift changing compadres who change their ip addresses and pseudonyms.
Comment by Cao — 7/15/2006 @ 5:55 pm
Excuse me? What action(s) has Mr. Bolton taken to restrain the situation in Lebanon or to stop the perpetuation of the cycle of violence currently playing there? At the insistence of the US (read Bolton) more talks are needed. In other words Bolton is engendering precisely the sort of action/inaction for which you are criticizing the UN. That makes him part of the problem not part of a solution.
Comment by Carol — 7/16/2006 @ 7:28 am
Only if Israel had followed the U.N resolutions asking it to withdraw to pre 1967 borders.Then may be we would need great guys like Bolton at U.N.
Comment by Chengez Kaan — 7/16/2006 @ 7:33 am
Ever been to Mikes website? I’m sure glad Mikes America isn’t the real one. It’s a good thing the Earth isn’t square, Mike is so far to the right he would have long ago fallen off into space.
Carol, what do you mean, don’t get you started on the Israelis? You don’t like them? You think they should lay down and let the Arabs just go ahead and slaughter them? Which side are YOU on?
What we are all facing, and I mean all of Western civilization, of which the Israelis are our allies, is a world religious war. Islamics want to conquer the world and convert every living person to Islam or the grave, whichever comes first.
The last thing we need is right-wing religious extremism on our own side to divide us, nor do we need to leap onto the anti-Israel leftist bandwagon. This time around we are all in the same boat and we better start learning to row in unison and damned soon, too.
Comment by Rastaman — 7/16/2006 @ 9:09 am
Carol: Do you bother to read posts before you comment or just jump on the comment section after you hit some hot button key words in the post title?
You may wish to read my post again, in case you were a bit hasty the first time.
Ambassador Bolton is precisely the kind of person we need at the U.N. And no more so than now when we are dealing with North Korea, Iran and the Israel-Islam conflict.
Speaking of the Israel-Islam conflict: I don’t know how much you have studied the issue, but I would like to share my own background. In 1988,I was one of ten selected for a doctoral seminar in National Security topics at Columbia University in New York taught by former Carter National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzenzinski. The Middle East peace process was a central part of our discussions and played an important part of my own thesis which was a discussion of US capabilities in the Persian Gulf and specifically Iran.
This is why I added a link in my post to the Middle East timeline and made the point about how every compromise by Israel has been met by renewed violence and unyielding demands by Arabs and now Iranian Islamists.
Breaking that cycle is key if we are ever to get something approximating real peace in this region. And Ambassador Bolton’s leadership in the UN Security Council has been an important factor in moving away from the status quo.
While it would be nice if Ambassador Bolton were able to shake things up at the UN more than he has already, it is not the nature of diplomatic efforts to do anything with alacrity.
And I might point out that perhaps Bolton would have an even freer hand in moving things along were it not for the constant, unrelenting, blind, knee-jerk opposition from people like yourself.
You’ve heard the old phrase: “Lead, follow or get out of the way?” It seems no one wishes to be led by your brand of negative defeatism. You are incapable of following. So might I suggest that the world would be a beter place if you just got out of the way?
Comment by Mike's America — 7/16/2006 @ 11:32 am
Sorry Mike I do not share your perspective. I am not refuting your timeline but I just do not attribute the events laid out to quite the same cause and effect. While your question may have been meant as rhetorical, I chose to treat it like a genuine inquiry in search of a response.
Comment by Carol — 7/16/2006 @ 8:58 pm
Leftists Stage Anti-War Protest in Tel Aviv
Now matter how desperate the situation, how blatant the provocation, and how immediate the danger, you can still find enough leftists to stage a protest. I will give them credit. Some of them condemned Hezbollah as well as their own…
Trackback by Conservative Cat — 7/17/2006 @ 1:56 am
So Israel is attacking Lebanese infrastructure in order to persuede public opinion into ousting Hezballah? They’ve also been attacking Palestinian infrastructure for the same reason. Using war tactics on civilians to persuede public opinion against an ideology? Sounds like terrorism to me. But what can you do when the Qassam rockets fly and IDF members get kidnapped? It’s a horrible circle of violence.
Israel, the US, and the UN could have taken a stronger hand in helping build Lebanon up from the dirt last year (almost thirty years of Syrian and Israel occupation, after a civil war started with Israel expelled 300k Palestinians a few decades ago.) They didn’t think they’d make it, though, because Hezballah is so powerful, and now they hold it against the democratically elected government that they aren’t powerful enough to take care of Hezballah (which, by the way, is popular in the country for working against the occupation.) Trying to simplify the situation by holding Lebanon entirely responsible for Hezballah is almost ridiculous.
To name a few, Bush, the Weekly Standard, and Bolton are trying their hardest to use this as an excuse to go to war against Iran (government organization privately funding an illegal operation to further their own interest? Aren’t we funding people in Venezuela to do the same thing?) They’re obviously going to get it, which is going to continue to stretch our military and economy to a point where something will give. You think Iraq is making the Republicans unpopular? Wait til you see what heppens when ground troups go into Tehran (never going to happen).
cheers
Comment by Steven H — 7/17/2006 @ 9:49 am
It’s not my timeline Carol. It’s simply a neutral source that records history.
I refuse to believe you have been living in a cave the past few years. Certainly you are aware that Israel removed it’s citizens by force from Gaza last year. That was part of an action to advance the peace process.
And the result was ?????
If from YOUR perspective you prefer to side with Hamas or Hezbollah, that is your choice. You might want to examine their doctrines and cultural norms for the treatment of women as property before you move there.
Comment by Mike's America — 7/17/2006 @ 11:55 am
I am 68 years old, an atheist, and have no ties to any political, religious, or other ideological organization. I have gripes against just about all American administrations dating back at least as far as McKinley, so you can’t pass me off as just some liberal wimp.
I looked at that timeline you linked to. Neutral source, my sweet patootie - that timeline has as much relation to the truth as I do to my elected (but not by me) representatives!
All the politicians, pundits, demagogues, spinmeisters, and just plain pontificating poltroons such as those who infest all the major American news media can slice their ideological baloney as thick or as thin as they like regarding the middle-east situation, but the simple fact still remains that late in the 19th century, some European Jews infected with the disease known as Zionism went to that part of the Ottoman Empire known as Palestine with the stated aim of dispossessing the inhabitants, turning the clock back two thousand years, and creating a Jewish state on the land.
And the people who were already there have so far simply refused to quietly go away and let those Jews have it all without a fight. I would hope that at least some of my fellow Americans would do the same if and when any foreigners come over here to take our homes and hearths away from US - with or without some non-binding UN resolution!
Comment by Veritas — 7/17/2006 @ 6:49 pm
Thanks Veritas. You’ve proven conclusively that with age not always does wisdom follow.
I’m interested that you simply dismiss the catalog of crimes against humanity perpetrated by Islamists against Israel.
Perhaps you also believe that terrorism directed at the United States is our fault too.
Maybe you can explain your views to the surviving members of the Haran family in Israel. Terrorists broke into their apartment and forced the father Danny and his 4 year old daughter Einat to the beach where they shot Danny in front of his daughter before bashing her skull against a rock.
Hezbollah is now demanding the man who committed that crime be released from an Israeli prison in exchange for the kidnapped soldiers. That’s fair isn’t it?
This is the nature of the beast and any way you slice your bologna, you either defeat evil or it kills you.
That’s why a man like Bolton at the U.N. is so important. He’s not afraid to call a spade a spade.
Comment by Mike's America — 7/18/2006 @ 9:58 pm
I was not aware that the specific prisoners desired to be exchanged had been named. While it is a horrible tale, it does not change the truth of Veritas’ comment.
There is quite a catalog of crimes against Jewish people and it does not begin with Muslims. The worst crimes there were not even committed by Muslims. The Muslim/Jewish discord has its roots in the creation of Israel. Unlike Western civilization the Muslims aren’t attacking Jewish people simply because they are Jewish but because they created Israel.
Comment by Carol — 7/19/2006 @ 4:32 am