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Spectator's Journal
Bolton From the Blue
Amb. John Bolton has plenty to say about a Middle East policy in disarray.
MIAMI — The Jewish outreach of the Romney campaign leaves a great deal to be desired, about which more on another day. One good thing this wing of the overall effort has been doing is involving Ambassador John Bolton in presenting to Jewish groups. His powerful pro-Israel record and reputation make his name a good draw in the circles of the more knowledgeable Jewish voters. It does not hurt that he has astonishing breadth of knowledge, pristine clarity of thought, and crystalline clarity of expression.
Sunday night he appeared here in Miami at a synagogue bordering the two communities of Surfside and Bal Harbor. The biggest concentrations of Jews in the Miami area are not near that spot, but its equidistance from Miami Beach and North Miami Beach situate it perfectly for such events.
The room was packed to the rafters, and there were no hecklers or provocateurs. The crowd listened raptly and applauded lustily. It is difficult to extrapolate from this to voting patterns on Election Day, but this much was clear: there is a strong Romney-Ryan contingent among both the religious and secular Jews of Florida. There was a strong vibe in the air of real voters, people who follow news and politics closely.
Rather than summarizing his many trenchant points, I will try to paraphrase several excerpts which are well worth reviewing. (This is my best effort at reporting by heart, trying to be true to his phrasing, but this is something short of verbatim.)
• “The attack on Benghazi Sept. 11 was known to be a terrorist attack within one day. Intelligence officials who briefed members of Congress on Sept. 12 told them so clearly. In last week’s Congressional hearings, State Department officials testified truthfully they were in cell phone contact with the diplomatic staff throughout the entire episode.
“Yet they went around for days blaming the attacks on some silly trailer for a video, and Hillary Clinton has been sticking to that line up until very recently. What Biden said during the debate that the intelligence community had not known the facts right away was blatantly false.
“There can only be two possible explanations. One, that there is a cover-up in play, designed to preserve the narrative that the Arab Spring is benign and we have eliminated the hostile elements. Two, that the ideology forms a screen over the realty and these ideologues simply cannot process anything out of line with their worldview.
“For the sake of the country I almost hope that the former is indeed the case. I would feel safer knowing that they know and understand the truth but choose to cover it up for their political purposes. If they really cannot assimilate reality, then we are in a lot of trouble.”
• “In past years, Israel always wanted to conduct face-to-face negotiations, convinced this was the only path to peace. In the case of Egypt and Jordan, they had the opportunity to negotiate in this manner and sure enough it worked. They were able to sign real treaties that have held up for years.
“When they finally got face-to-face negotiations with the Palestinians, progress was being made in a slow fashion. Little by little, item by item, the sides were inching forward. The United States understood its role as a facilitator but it hung back and did not get into the middle.
“The Obama administration believed it could improve the process by involving us directly. Suddenly the United States began offering proposals of its own and demanding specific concessions from Israel.
“The result was that the process was retarded rather than enhanced. Once we established a particular proposal, that became the baseline for Palestinian demands. No way could they come back to their people to report that they have gotten less than the United States asked for them to get.”
• “The Obama administration policy with regard to Iran is doomed from its inception. We say we will not tolerate their having a bomb. They want to have a bomb and are moving full speed ahead. How do you talk your way out of those differences? What is the middle ground we can reach through talks… they get a small bomb?”
• “I was in the State Department during the previous administration when they talked about announcing the War on Terror. I was against that language from Day One. If we are fighting to stop all terrorism, will we go after the Catholics in Northern Ireland? Are we going to attack the Basques in Spain?
“Obviously we are limiting the focus of our battle to radical Islamicist terrorism. If that is the enemy, we should not be afraid to call it by its name. It is hard to see how you can win a war if you insist on protecting your opponent by not identifying him openly.”
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (44) | Leave a comment
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Nancy in NC| 10.15.12 @ 7:16AM
Political correctness is dangerous and really stupid. An apple is an apple, not an orange. But truth and honesty is lost on this administration. It doesn't fit their overall agenda.
RJ| 10.15.12 @ 9:25AM
I agree, Nancy. "Political correctness" is just a polite term for lying. We can't believe or trust people who are politically correct.
Von Mises Jr| 10.15.12 @ 10:18AM
"Political Correctness" is an effective tool for shutting up cowards.
Le Bon in "The Psychology of Revolution" attempted to explain the French Revolution a century after the debacle. He concluded that people act differently in crowds since in the case of Robespierre, to challenge his demand for "Off with their heads" could cost you your own noggin.
You can see this if you observe a liberal gathering. If someone is so gosh and has the gonads to broach a subject that is taboo, the liberal cowards automatically pooh-pooh.
If you mention Benghazi, they have been trained like seals to blurt Arf Arf, internet video, and right-wing hate.
If one persists in speaking of the unspeakable taboo subject, you are a "stupid racist." It works every time for cowardly liberal girly men and their Arf Arf women.
Homey don't play that game. And you shouldn't either.
RJ| 10.15.12 @ 12:30PM
Damn right. The political correctness crowd needs to be called out. As you say, groups will probably shout you down, but taken on individually, they are weak. I remember a colleague at work casually stating that he "wasn't an extremist like those in the Tea Party." I asked him what they did that was extremist in his mind. He could not provide any example.
Stormzeye| 10.15.12 @ 12:30PM
"Politically correct" speech is fascism by another name. It denies honest expression and forces people into an approved way of thinking. Like the term "wrong headedness" from China's Cultural Revolution, politically correct thinking is enslavement of the mind. Only Liberal/Progressives embrace these techniques of mind control. Resist!
R Martin| 10.15.12 @ 7:25AM
Ambassador Bolton clearly identifies the glaring foreign policy incompetence of Obama and his secretary of state, an incompetence in both strategy and execution. The Romney campaign should make a huge issue of this.
John Navratil| 10.15.12 @ 8:15AM
Ambassador Bolton for Secretary of State! Just think of the number of exploding heads. We'd be cleaning up for months!
Pecos Pete| 10.15.12 @ 8:52AM
JN: Good point. We would have a smaller government too, at least the State Dept. would be smaller. Exploding heads indeed.
Occam's Tool| 10.15.12 @ 12:16PM
I love this guy. 10 ton Brass Balls---precisely what is needed to torment the Traitors and Arabists at State.
Occam's Tool| 10.15.12 @ 12:17PM
The only drawback is the cost to reinforce the floor of his office, but that is truly minimal in the overall scheme of things (to accomadate the 10 tons).
Occam's Tool| 10.15.12 @ 7:40PM
Sorry, that's accomodate, isn't it? Darn. Thanks for being nice, guys.
KennesawJack| 10.15.12 @ 9:42PM
Occam, I am trying to remember the last time we had a Secretary of State who truly had the kind of clarity of thought and courage to express it as Bolton. None come to mind.
John Navratil| 10.15.12 @ 10:25PM
Kennesaw Jack,
How about Jeane Kirkpatrick? There was I time that I dreamed for a Kemp/Kirkpatrick ticket to the White House.
KennesawJack| 10.16.12 @ 12:01AM
I think she should have been the first female President. She was not, however, ever the Secretary of State which was the point I was making. To my mind, she was the best of all Reagan's cabinet members. I would have loved to have seen a Kirkpatrick/Kemp ticket.
Liberty4x4| 10.15.12 @ 2:21PM
Hopefully, he will clean the hive of queens.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 10.15.12 @ 8:51AM
"There can only be two possible explanations. One, that there is a cover-up in play, designed to preserve the narrative that the Arab Spring is benign and we have eliminated the hostile elements. Two, that the ideology forms a screen over the realty and these ideologues simply cannot process anything out of line with their worldview."
Is there some reason that both could not be true?
Quartermaster| 10.15.12 @ 9:23AM
I see no reason why both could not be true. I think both are true in this adminstration, and that both were true even during the Bush adminstration. Bush's minions could not bring themselves to call a spade a spade, no matter the facts, and this adminstration is no different.
Al Adab| 10.15.12 @ 9:38AM
Gentlemen:
You converse as though Truth was of some interest to this administration. Nothing could be further from reality. Their only concern is the continuance of their own power.
The term "Arab Spring" was a media invention and itself had no basis in the actual events. The extreme elements within Islam are in the ascendency and that is very dangerous to the stability of the entire region. The administration ignores at its peril (and ours) as witnessed in Cairo and Benghazi the potentials for war stemming from the current situation.
pogybait| 10.15.12 @ 9:45AM
Yes, both can be true...however there may be a third to the cover up, as we watch the latest forms of despotism unfolding. Obama has dispatched a team of negotiators masquerading in a self administered aphrodisiac of altruism with the supreme leader(s) of Iran....can we smell October surprise to convince voters to another historical fantasy in never ending belief in a seismic shift of reality...
gene| 10.15.12 @ 9:43AM
President Obama made a speech that Israel should return to its 1967 borders. Naive and incompetent at best. Middle Eastern leaders have repeatedly stated that "Peace" for then means the destruction of Israel and the MSN blatantly ignore and never report this.
Harry the Horrible| 10.15.12 @ 10:48AM
Bolton for Secretary of State!
It is about time we had a State Department that was on the side of the USA!
Who Knows?| 10.15.12 @ 11:25AM
Bolton is THE man when it comes to foreign affairs.
If Romney wins, how can he NOT use Bolton, to the max?
OregonBuzz| 10.15.12 @ 11:33AM
The enemy is Islam, pure and simple. You may attempt to draw lines of demarcation by referring to "Radical Islam" or "Moderate Muslims" ad nauseum, ad infinitum. All you accomplish by that is to deny that Islam is the enemy. Denial of that sort is fatal.
Anthony| 10.15.12 @ 12:17PM
Well Jay, say what you want about Romney's Jewish outreach, but with all due respect, I have seen nothing over the years to disabuse me of the quip that "Jews earn like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans."
If the fact that we have had a Muslim Marxist in the White House for 4 years, yet most Jews are still ready to support him, even the great John Bolton can't help.
John II| 10.15.12 @ 2:08PM
Actually, Episcopalians vote like Puerto Ricans too, so the disjunction in that quip has always puzzled me.
How about: "Jews produce goods and services like building contractors, but vote like union bosses"?
That gives me an idea for another contest. Where's Timmy?
Anthony| 10.15.12 @ 2:34PM
John, Your point is spot on. However, we know why Episcopalians vote like Puerto Ricans, but what's the excuse for the Jews, especially with a Muslim Marxist in the White House?
John II| 10.15.12 @ 8:52PM
Well, as I recall, the quip was coined by the late Jewish sociologist Milton Himmelfarb (brother of the historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, by the way), who puzzled over a voting pattern more deeply entrenched than, say, the continuing Democratic voting habits of American Catholics.
About half of the latter still vaguely identify the Democrats with economic opportunity for the underclass, which is simply mistaken. American Jews, on the other hand, still disproportionately support the Left for reasons much less connected to pocketbook issues and much more deeply tied to cultural matters.
In a recent book on this topic ("Why Are Jews Liberals?"), the conservative Jewish essayist Norman Podhoretz traces his answer to the question all the way back to the second Diaspora following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans--and the consequent 2,000 years of dispersal. [More coming . . .]
John II| 10.15.12 @ 8:53PM
In those two millennia of dispersal and well-nigh relentless persecution, the Jews acquired a "universalist" mode of thinking which gave them a kind of succor against the hostility of their enemies but which also, by the eighteenth century, planted them more or less permanently on the left side of the political spectrum. Podhoretz ends on rather a pessimistic note to the effect that, for secularized American Jews at least (i.e., the Jews he's personally most acquainted with), liberalism has replaced the Torah as a kind of ersatz religion.
You'll find a discussion of this thesis in the September 2009 issue of the conservative Jewish monthly COMMENTARY. A symposium with lots of interesting and informative counterpoint (English Jews, for example, are, like the Israelis, much more evenly divided politically along conservative and liberal lines than are American Jews)--but in the end, Anthony, one comes away with the impression that the "Jewish mystique," as Ernest van den Haag called it, is--well--mysterious.
John II| 10.15.12 @ 8:55PM
I mean, I'm a Catholic who perhaps thinks about this sort of thing more than most, and I really believe that the Jews are a people called to a unique role in human events--and I wouldn't want to be stuck with that role any more than many Jews of my acquaintance do: the role of a permanent outsider.
Occam's Tool| 10.16.12 @ 1:01AM
FDR was a magnificent bullshit artist, as was JFK, and LBJ. That's why the Jews voted for Democrats, and still do. But the teeth kicking is starting to penetrate.
Occam's Tool| 10.15.12 @ 7:34PM
Well, this Jew votes like an Alabaman Baptist, and there will be more to come in the future as the Orthodox take over.
I forgot to mention---soundproofing of The One's office (Bolton, not the imposter) will also be required to minimize the vibration of the clanking of the brass.
John II| 10.15.12 @ 9:04PM
Any thoughts about my comments above to Anthony, Occie?
And now back to "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971), in which Chaim Topol gives us a definitive Tevye, the very archetype of the universalist in all of us.
Occam's Tool| 10.16.12 @ 12:52AM
John---nicely reasoned. Me, I try to keep figuring out the reasons for the endless vituperation and envy, etc.
It does seem that Jews tend to create an outsized number of people who seem to be influential in places that have large events happening. This is not a "jews run the blank" comment; it is, instead, a comment on the fact that ideas tend to end up running things, and Jews have a religious penchant for words, ideas, and argumentation. (Torah study IS argumentation)
I mean, I'm a relatively unimpressive Jewish guy in accomplishment, but even an unknown putz like me has been a major figure in a major international newsstory---I was the psychiatrist for the Alabama Chain Gang in the 1990s. I have had a very varied career doing things that I would not have thought I'd be doing when I started my medical career, and I missed being at the Fort Hood shooting by a fluke of fate--- I had taken the job (not knowing about Dr. Soldier of Allah) when my current one was offered, and I took my current job because of the better health insurance.
So, yes, I agree with you. And it is uncomfortable being the Fiddler on the Roof.
Occam's Tool| 10.16.12 @ 12:52AM
By the way, you are a peach, John.
John II| 10.16.12 @ 2:11AM
Whoa--thanks, Occie. Except . . . we ARE kindred spirits, you know, so that when you compliment me so generously, you're really just . . . skip it.
You're my favorite shrink.
And the correct spelling (see way above) is A-C-C-O-M-M-O-D-A-T-E: accommodate.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.15.12 @ 12:59PM
MY FELLOW AMERICAN ARSEHOLES!
moslems willing to tote a rifle( world-wide), outnumber us five to one.........................(Duh.....kill the majority of
them out of rifle range.) Is that so difficult to calculate?
Also,those same moslems will hide behind their LIVESTOCK!
See, their females, (wives, daughters, and mothers,) are nothing more to them than livestock.
In a war to the death, we need to at least need to shoot off theier feet?
Buck Ofama| 10.15.12 @ 3:02PM
Ken, there is no need for violence. Don't you know that MUDSLIMES will acquiesce when they see Ovomit doing his apoligize, bow, and suck act?
cicero| 10.15.12 @ 1:35PM
Bolton is a pretty smart guy, and appears to be a true patriot. However, I get the impression that he is in favor of further entanglements in the middle east. As far as I can see, based on the history of Islam, the middle east is in the process of trying to consolidate, and pick its next leader. That will entail blood and violence. We have no business stepping into that inpending mess.
The Shia and Sunni have never been able to bridge their chasm, and I see no reason to think they will this time. They will fight with the weapons at hand, and it is my estimation that the area from Iran to Morrocco will be divided into two parts, erasing borders, or merely using them as feifdoms. After that, nothing will change. Whomever lands on top will still have to hire western firms to exploit thier oil. Sharia will be imposed on the people. They will remain in the 11th century.
It will be a bloody war. We must stay out of it.
Occam's Tool| 10.15.12 @ 7:38PM
No, Cicero, we must make sure that no one takes us for the weak camel. This does not entail nation building, but it does entail destroying a few cities from the air to encourage the others. I do not believe in wasting our money attempting to civilize vermin, for that is impossible, but even an attack dog can learn that there are things he MUST not attack under pain of death.
I care not if they do sharia unto their own, although I despise them for it. But the attempt at Jirzya collection must be met with lethal force and inflicted agony. If we care not for their casualties it will be simple to do.
KennesawJack| 10.15.12 @ 9:46PM
The problem, my friend, is found in your last sentence.
Occam's Tool| 10.16.12 @ 12:59AM
Yup, KJ, you have a point. My point is that those who seek moral delicacy will lose in the end; the only difference in the end that our current moral delicacy will grant us is that we will take more casualties than we need to (and dish out more than we need to, for thus is the logic of war), to do what we will eventually become angered enough to do. In short, one or two cities destroyed now would save our enemies dozens of cities destroyed later, and doing it now before they have the bomb would save a few of our cities as well.
I'm a gloomy Gus, I know; but I was writing about the economic downfall of Europe in 2008. I don't see a way out of doing this asskicking; I wish I did see one that did not involve our surrender. The Islamists know their own history very well, but they need to study the Civil War and World War II.
We have a lot of potential Curtis LeMays in our Air Force. Thank goodness for that.
Freedomfighter_99| 10.17.12 @ 5:05AM
I'd settle for ONE "Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson"!!!
Claudia Monteverdi| 10.15.12 @ 9:41PM
Dear Jay,
I am shocked tht you did not IMMEDIATELY understand the machinations of the Obama (Heaven Help Me) mind.
J......H..yes? so of course his deity A...H and his adherants the I,,,,,,,,C T,,,,,,,,,,S.
If you have any further theoilogical questions to pose, kindly do not hesitate to ask..OK J..Y?
with much love,
Claudia
Freedomfighter_99| 10.17.12 @ 5:16AM
The only times, in my adult life when I was happy to be in the UN was when Kirkpatrick was representing us and when Bolton was. But it really IS time to, as they used to say, get the US out of the UN & the UN out of the US...