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Bush Dispatches Right-Wing Radicals to UN, World Bank:
The Lowdown on John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz

March 18, 2005

This month, George Bush nominated two right-wing extremists for positions that will have an enormous impact on women and families worldwide, especially those in the poorest countries. Bush picked John Bolton to represent the US at the United Nations and Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. Both men are part of the small but powerful group of "neo-conservatives" that have pushed US foreign policy to its current right-wing extreme (the most drastic in the country’s history) by championing militarism, unilateralism, and undisguised contempt for international cooperation and the rule of law.

In a secret process that makes a mockery of US demands for "good governance" from poor countries seeking to borrow from the World Bank, Wolfowitz was hand-picked by Bush with no international or even congressional input. Bolton, on the other hand, will need to be confirmed by the Senate, with hearings likely to be scheduled in April. Stay tuned for a MADRE mobilization against Bolton’s confirmation. Until then, here is some telling information about both men.

Nobody sums up our opposition to John Bolton like John Bolton himself:

Bolton on the UN, where he would serve as the US representative:

• "There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States—when it suits our interests and we can get others to go along." 1
• "If I were redoing the Security Council today, I’d have one permanent member [the US] because that’s the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world."2
• "If the [UN building] lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference." 3

Bolton on international law:

• "It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so, because over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States."4

Bolton on the International Criminal Court:

• "a product of fuzzy-minded romanticism [that] is not only naïve, but dangerous." 5
• "the happiest moment of my government service" (referring to Bush’s pull-out from the treaty codifying US participation in the ICC). 6

Bolton on endless war:

• "It will be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran, and North Korea after [the US invades Iraq]." 7

Bolton on supporters of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:

• "misguided individuals following a timid and neo-pacifist line of thought." 8

Bolton on totally unsubstantiated accusations against Cuba:

• "[Cuba is] a terrorist and [biological weapons] threat to the United States." 9

Bolton on North Korea:

• "A sounder US policy would start by making it clear to the North that we are indifferent to whether we ever have ‘normal’ diplomatic relations with it."10

Bolton on the Florida recount of the 2000 US presidential election:

• "I’m with the Bush-Cheney team and I’m here to stop the count." 11

Paul Wolfowitz is no better:

• As US Ambassador to Indonesia in the 1980s, Wolfowitz supported dictator Suharto’s murder of nearly 300,000 people.
• Wolfowitz has been pushing for the US to invade Iraq since the 1990s. He distorted intelligence about Iraq’s weapons capability and promised that US troops would be welcomed as liberators.
• As World Bank President, Wolfowitz would have tremendous power over issues of global development. Yet, he has never shown concern for eliminating poverty, protecting human rights, or safeguarding the environment.
• In fact, Wolfowitz is the author of many of the economic "reforms" being imposed on Iraq, including vast privatization of public services and the elimination of subsidies on which millions of Iraqi women and families depend.
• His track record indicates that Wolfowitz will use the Bank to push for more coercive privatization and trade liberalization—policies that have increased poverty and inequality throughout the global South.
• Wolfowitz is a primary architect of Bush’s radically retrograde foreign policy. He has urged the Administration to develop "a globally preeminent military capacity both today and in the future" through huge increases in military spending and the use of force to ensure US dominance around the world.12
• Wolfowitz’s appointment signals that the US will be even more flagrant in using the World Bank to impose its will on poor countries worldwide.