Bolton To The Woodshed

by pessimist

Bu$hen$tein'$ Mon$ter, John Bolton, started out in his job as Oafish-al UN Disrupter 'rockin' and rollin', but it looks like he's dropped shuckin' and jivin' and taken up waltzing and the minuet.

First, a little trip down Memory Lane:

Bolton dives right in to effort to change U.N.

Stephen Schlesinger, who directs the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research in New York, said Bolton has done nothing since coming to the U.N. last month to refute critics who said he was not suited for the job. "He's absolutely the wrong person to be representing the greatest power on Earth," Schlesinger said.

Bolton started his new job by suggesting that the 40-page draft of the document be replaced with a two-page statement. Then he proposed 750 changes to provisions that had been worked on for months.

With U$, or Against U$

Jeers [Scroll down]

United Nations Ambassador John Bolton has proposed to dramatically alter a U.N. summit document, deleting all references to the Millennium Development Goals, according to media reports Tuesday. In April, all 191 U.N. member states agreed to try to achieve the goals, which include the promotion of gender equality and improving maternal health, by the year 2015.

The news came as a shock to other officials including China's U.N. delegate Zhang Yishan, who said of Bolton's plan, "There are too many recommendations. At the same time it's very simple because they (the Americans) are deleting everything."

In eliminating those references, Bolton came under fire for what critics said was an attempt by the U.S. to withdraw from its previous commitments. Among the hundreds of amendments proposed by Bolton is one to remove reaffirmation of the objectives of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, which advocated cutting world poverty in half, reducing infectious diseases such as HIV-AIDS and working for women's equality. The U.S. has also called for the elimination of the U.N.'s human rights commission.

Needless to say, Bu$hen$tein'$ Mon$ter roused the UN peasantry to revolt.

New U.S. envoy ruffling feathers at the UN

The UN diplomatic community viewed Bolton with suspicion well before his arrival in New York. Bolton, a conservative whose appointment by President Bush set off a blistering partisan battle on Capitol Hill over his confirmation, once said if the UN headquarters building in New York "lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

Thus, in the halls of the United Nations, his appointment was regarded a bit like sending an atheist as an envoy to the Vatican.

"He has been the bull in the china shop," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, a New York based research and advocacy group. "He has simply flexed his muscle and started swinging away."

Roth said Bolton's approach is setting the stage for a backlash.

First, the peasantry politely approached King George, and asked him in a nice way to curb in his junkyard dawg:

Bolton's moves at U.N. sure to backfire

Almost the first act taken by Washington's new energetic, sometimes pugnacious, United States U.N. envoy John R. Bolton, was the submission of a list of 750 amendments he seeks in the draft of the summit's declaration. That text, which deals with issues as important as nuclear disarmament, human rights, global warming, and counterterrorism, had been painstakingly negotiated by world diplomats over preceding months.

There is still time to reach a friendly accommodation on the contested portions of the text. But many nations - most notably the European states that are the strongest supporters of the present draft - now fear that U.S. intransigence on the proposed revisions may be a serious blow to the heart of the U.N.

But of course, we all know just how far friendly persuasion gets with a self-proclaimed world leader, so a more effective means of changing George's mind had to be used:

World summit on UN's future heads for chaos

The Guardian has learned that Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, has made a personal plea to his American counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, for the US to withdraw opposition to plans for wholesale reform of the UN. He has asked Ms Rice to rein in John Bolton, the US ambassador to the world body.

The foreign secretary is planning to make calls to fellow ministers around the world over the weekend.

Nothing like calling the Work Wife! With the world now on his side, the Lap Poodle bared his teeth against his Massah:

Blair and Bush head for clash on UN reform

The Prime Minister will arrive in America for the UN summit amid growing concerns about Britain's dispute with the Bush administration over proposals to overhaul the way the controversial institution is governed. Scotland on Sunday understands that relations have taken a further turn for the worse with the White House complaining about Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's vocal support for Annan, who is under fire over the critical report on the administration of the Iraq oil-for-food programme.

Straw is already engaged in a hectic round of telephone diplomacy aimed at neutralising US opposition to the ongoing UN reform process. Senior diplomats have now joined UN secretary general Kofi Annan in warning that the reform negotiations could collapse before the summit - billed as the largest-ever gathering of world leaders - begins on Wednesday.

Relations will be further soured after Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott yesterday launched an attack on Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto treaty on climate change, accusing the president of being "wrong" about the environment.

"Despite what people like to think about our relations with the Americans, we are not always in agreement," a Foreign Office source said last night. "The UN is a classic example of where we diverge. In terms of the reform agenda, no one should be surprised that we don't see eye to eye."

So far, mere tea time chit-chat.

The Gloves Come Off

Straw has also warned counterparts in the US that the amendments could threaten further advances in the international aid agreements reached at the G8 summit held at Gleneagles.

This could have serious implications both for Halliburton's no-bid profits and 'Unka' Dick Cheney's 'deferred compensation'. But did this have the desired effect?

Bolton, a long-term opponent of the UN, has refused to budge his position.

That was then, this is now. Condi wants to see you out in the woodshed, John.

At UN, Bolton softens his tone

It's the education of John Bolton, according to some analysts, who say the diplomat and longtime critic of the UN has been a quick study when it comes to the realities of getting something done at the institution. As world leaders gather in New York this week for a UN summit, he is sounding more conciliatory on key summit issues like world development goals, and saying less while spending many long hours behind closed doors in negotiating sessions.

"There's some quick learning going on," says Michael Doyle, a former UN official overseeing US-UN relations now at Columbia University in New York. "Somebody realized that just simply ranting is not constructive, the UN is a place where you build from common ground."

Adds a UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity "We don't know if [Bolton's] initial approach was just a negotiating tactic or if he's on a fast learning curve, but in any case we've noticed a change, at least in approach."

The Bush administration was surely unfazed when certain countries were critical of Bolton's approach - as when Syria's ambassador told reporters, "We started negotiations six months ago and we were thinking that we were reaching a good conclusion, and suddenly someone comes and says, 'This is rubbish.' "

But when close US partners, including the British, expressed dismay over the scope and direction of the Bolton amendments and his approach, it was a different matter. One South African official even equated the US approach to "filibustering."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to have instructed Bolton to temper the polemics and focus more on common ground, according to Washington sources. At the same time, Bolton appears to have realized that just objections, both petty and substantial, were not enough - "if something is going to be achieved by this summit," Doyle says.

I love it when reality proves to be stronger than Bu$hCo dogma! I guess 'With U$ or Against U$' doesn't work too well when one stands alone, does it?

Now - if only we could quickly do something about that other Troublesome John ...

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