www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_08_21.php#006347
The Independent: But judging from his few weeks in New York, Mr Bolton is not at the UN t o negotiate. Since Madeleine Albright, President Clinton's UN represent ative, the US delegate has arrived with a rocket in his or her pocket. In the council, if the other delegates do not like what the Americans w ant, the US no longer hesitates to act without UN blessing Now Mr Bolton is at the UN with a mission. At the end of the Cold War, F rancis Fukuyama famously decreed the end of history. I hear the air just squealing out of the bubble of American pretensions. America in the past has generally demonstrated capacity to be a great lea der of others -- a planning nation, a strategic nation, a complex system s integrator in war and peace -- but now the obsession with doing things alone is a rejection of leadership and guarantees future weakness.
The UN Millennium Summit was an opportunity for America to make "real" what George Bush stated during his first trip to Europe after his last e lection: that America was ready for a "fresh start" with Advertisement our allies, particularly in Europe. But John Bolton is wrecking this Su mmit and squandering another opportunity for the US to get its diploma cy pointed in a more constructive direction. Many progressive readers get frustrated when I suggest that Condi Rice, B ob Zoellick, Stephen Krasner, Nick Burns, Paula Dobriansky and others at the helm at State are in a completely different zone than John Bolton. Yesterday, it was clear as day that Nick Burns, in a meeting with NGO rep resentatives, would neither confirm nor deny that the US was dropping support for the Millennium Development Goals. In other words, Burns woul d not support John Bolton's rejection of them in the leaked document sho wing Bolton's edits to the Millennium Summit draft. Nick Burns' silence is a sign that Bolton bolted ahead of Madame Secretary. Someone in the press corps -- or one of the young college students she seems to frequently meet with (given her recent appearances on C-Span at liberal arts schools) -- need s to ask her whether the MDGs are out. Has she decided that they ought t o be tossed in the trash can? If so, has she consulted with any of our a llies about this?
I am planning to attend -- either as a blogger o n site or as a regular attendee (via the support of friends -- as the pr ice tag is a whopping $15,000 to get in the door, and I don't think that even gets one into the VIP circle). And finally, for those of you interested, on September 6-7, I am helping to organize a major conference on America's "next phase" response to ter rorism. It coincides with the 4th anniversary of 9/11 and is designed to bring an ideologically diverse crowd (a genuinely diverse crowd) togeth er to think beyond the police and military responses to terrorism. It's open to the public -- and there will be live, high-quality webcastin g of the entire program.
The list of speakers and agenda are being released shortly -- and it's a fascinating roster and may be a genuine opportunity to get American poli cy makers and leading players in Beltway civil society to begin thinking beyond bullets regarding terrorism More soon.
print) The Bolton Civil Wars in the State Department may have just re-started. For those who followed the Bolton battle from early March through August, one of the real issues with John Bolton is that he was constantly attem pting to undermine Colin Powell, Advertisement Richard Armitage and others but did so with Dick Cheney's blessing. There is evidence bubbling to the surface -- not altogether clear -- but pointing to the possibility that Bolton has already stepped out of his h olding pen and is undermining Condi Rice and Bob Zoellick -- again with Dick Cheney's blessing. A short while ago, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nick Bu rns met with NGO representatives regarding the upcoming UN Millennium Summit and US objectives.
The Washington Note and TPM pressed some key questions Bu rns' way -- particularly why any reference to Millennium Development Goa ls was completely cut out of the recently leaked Bolton-edited Millenniu m Summit draft document. Remember, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not firm targets an d in the past, the US has for the most part robustly supported these g oals. The MDGs were agreed to by 190 nations in 2000 and reaffirmed in t he Monterrey Consensus and referred to in the Gleneagles Declaration thi s summer. When pressed -- several times -- on why these are apparently being knocke d out by the United States in the Millennium Summit document, Nick Burns and subsequently Philo Dibble ducked the question and stated that they opposed the target of 07% of gross national income for official develop ment assistance as an example of an old paradigm. They stated that that those kinds of numeric targets yielded poor results and stale discussion . The bottom line though is that the 07% for development campaign is not a n explicit part of the MDGs. In other areas of inquiry about the leaked Bolton document and US inten tions, Burns and Dibble were quick to defend the "perceived" US positi on. But when it came to the MDGs, it seems as if Burns and Dibble were coache d to respond to any MDG issue by referring to the US objection to the 07% target. Reading between the lines -- Burns and Dibble refused to stand up for Bol ton or say more in support of this stance. One hypothesis is that Bolton went riding off alone again -- and doesn't want to support the Millennium Development Goals but has failed to consu lt with anyone. Dropping the MDGs without consultations with the NGO community, other nat ions, or other stakeholders in the Bush administration (there is shock t hrough parts of the administration about this) is huge news. Burns and Dibble were apparently not prepared to support Bolton's line on this. Maybe they'll give him a pass th is first time -- and try and teach him a lesson about coordination and c ommunication. But my guess is that Bolton is drawing his energy and posi tion from Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and only flirts part time with Bob Z oellick and Condi Rice. This picture I've painted could be wrong, but something is ami ss between Turtle Bay and Foggy Bottom.
print) Recess-appointed US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton is doing exactly what his critics expected of him. I received this morning a leaked copy of US comments on the draft docum ent for the Millennium Summit in September. I have been informed that th ese are John Bolton's personal draft modification suggestions that appea r on the document.
Here is the document, adobe format, but it is a very large file. In short, the document does the following: knocks out entirely the Millennium Development Goals continues to undermine collective efforts against climate change knocks out targets and timetables for all goals and objectives guts any efforts toward further disarmament objectives and focuses exc lusively on non-proliferation, while both had always been important obj ectives in the past strikes the section that states that countries will use force only as last resort and oddly, strikes out the need to establish a legal definition of ter rorism, which the Bush administration has previously stated is a requir ement before proceeding towards a UN Convention on Terorrism. Condi -- When does the "supervision" promised to Senators Voinovich, Hage l, and Chafee begin?
Michael Crowley has burned a brilliant path these last few days at the he lm of Josh's operation. I'm going to have to talk with him about the "wh ite smoke" stuff though as I've just returned from a trip to Rome and Advertisement was caught off guard by the embalmed popes on display at St. It seems that Michael and I both used to hang out with Josh in the earlie st, uncertain days of Talking Points' beginning at the Connecticut & R S tarbucks. Josh's daily diet primarily consisted of S'bucks black & white cookies and a venti ice latte. In New York, a more stressful town, he's now moved to straight-up venti ice coffee. Josh Marshall changed my life -- or at least seriously reduced the number of hours I sleep.
The Washington Note, because he though...
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