May 13, 2005 - As early as July 2002 the British cabinet was told that the President of the United States had decided on using military force to achieve regime change in Iraq. The ministers were told that intelligence was being “fixed” to prepare the public for war. In January 2003 the Secretary of State of the United States went before the United Nations Security Council with that “fixed” intelligence to make the case for war against Iraq. He freely cited supposed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as the justification for military action. The warnings to the world were false; the world now knows them to have been false; and it was America’s credibility and her reputation that has suffered.

Now, as the war in Iraq stumbles on and on the President has chosen John Bolton to be our man in the United Nations. His record is as clear as his bias. When the intelligence community would not twist its findings to support his policy directions he demanded that the recalcitrant analysts be transferred or fired – not once but several times. Even the Senators who support the nomination acknowledge that Bolton has a style that is rough around the edges. The Secretary of State seeks to allay some Senators’ concern as she too acknowledges Bolton’s faults and says that she will closely supervise him. That is small comfort coming from one who defended the fixed intelligence to the bitter end.

Bolton’s fault does not lie in his being an overbearing bully. It is not a matter of style. It is the substance and purpose of his bullying that should give the Senators pause as they approach a vote on the Senate floor. The President says that Bolton is the right man for the job – the job of “reforming” the United Nations. If the job is to “reform” the United Nations out of existence then he may have a point. If the job is to let the nations of the world know that the United States will employ its power in pursuit of its policy without any concern for justification and regardless of the consequences then Bolton may well be his man.

The United States is just part of the international body, albeit the most powerful of its members. It is hubris indeed when America seeks to dominate the body and either reform it into a rubber stamp or destroy it. But then it should come as no surprise that this Administration seeks that result. After all it is this Administration that seeks to transmogrify the Senates duty to advise and consent to the appointment of officers into a duty to rubber stamp them.