OPINION:
The left is not a fan of John Bolton’s.
That’s because he says stuff like this, as noted by National Public Radio: “There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that’s the United States, when it suits our interests and when we can get others to go along.”
That was back in 1994, in a speech before the Global Structures Convocation in New York.
And his rhetoric hasn’t, as the hand-wringers would put it, toned down much any in more recent times.
In 2015, Bolton argued in favor of “military action” against Iran, akin to what Israel did in 1981 against Iraq, to take out its nuclear manufacturing capabilities.
In 2018, he argued, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, the pros — the legal case — of preemptive strikes against North Korea.
His whole persona speaks “America First.” And that makes him the perfect pairing with President Donald Trump, whose choice of H.R. McMaster as national security adviser was never, to put it mildly, a comfort to those who see radical Islam in religious-rooted terms. McMaster never did; Bolton — always.
“When you can’t say the reality,” he told Breitbart in mid-2016, of the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” in context of discussing the Orlando terror-based attack, “ultimately, you’re going to impair your ability to deal with it.”
And now Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, come early April, will hold a leading White House role in deciding the fate of the Iran nuclear deal — the future path of U.S.-North Korea relations?
Bolton has been criticized as a hawk, condemned by the left for shrugging in the face of overseas’ threats and countering warlike talk with warlike talk.
But that makes him a perfect fit for Trump’s team.
Bolton’s tough, blunt and unafraid to tackle bullies on the world stage. And that also makes him a terrific voice for America — a terrific “strength through peace,” Team USA type of guy. Israel’s cheering; America’s enemies are not. Really, that says all that needs to be said.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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