From Consortium News
Nothing Donald Trump has done since his inauguration 14 months ago is more dangerous -- to the United States, and indeed, to the world -- than his selection of John Bolton for National Security Adviser. It is not surprising the president would feel most comfortable receiving advice from a fellow bully.
Trump bullies people on a nearly daily basis, directing his ire at immigrants, Muslims, women, LBGTQ people, the poor and the environment. He hurls Twitter attacks at those who disagree with him.
The president has encouraged police brutality, suggesting in a Long Island speech that law enforcement officers bang suspects' heads against police car doors. "Please don't be too nice" when arresting people, Trump advised. "Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put your hand over" their head, "I said, 'You can take the hand away, OK?'"
After being told someone might throw tomatoes at him at a campaign rally, Trump urged his supporters to "knock the crap out of them ... I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees." He stated on Fox News that a Black Lives Matter activist who was attacked at a Trump rally "should have been roughed up."
Trump's fellow bully Bolton also engages in abusive behavior. Melody Townsel, working on a USAID project in Kyrgyzstan, became the object of Bolton's wrath in 1994. Townsel had complained about incompetence, poor contract performance and inadequate funding of the project by a contractor Bolton represented.
In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Townsel wrote that Bolton "proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door, and generally behaving like a madman." Townsel claimed Bolton threatened employees and contractors who refused to cooperate with him. She maintained Bolton's behavior "wasn't just unforgivable, it was pathological."
Carl W. Ford, former Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research, and a conservative Republican, called Bolton a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" who "abuses his authority with little people," characterizing him as a "serial abuser." Bolton chairs the Gatestone Institute, which publishes hateful, racist anti-Muslim rhetoric, calling refugees rapists and hosts of infectious diseases.
Bolton was such a lightning rod that in 2005, even the GOP-controlled Senate refused to confirm him as US ambassador to the United Nations. To avoid the need for Senate confirmation, George W. Bush named Bolton to the post in a recess appointment.
But Bolton doesn't just bully individuals. He pushed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, advocates military attacks on North Korea and Iran, favors Israel's annexation of the Palestinian West Bank, and falsely claimed that Cuba had biological weapons.
As undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security in the Bush administration, Bolton was instrumental in withdrawing the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which heightened the risk of nuclear war with Russia.
Anthony J. Blinken, deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, wrote in The New York Times, "Mr. Bolton had a habit of twisting intelligence to back his bellicosity and sought to remove anyone who objected."
Colin Kahl and Jon Wolf, writing in Foreign Policy, described Bolton's "pattern of warping and misusing intelligence to build the case for war with rogue states; a disdain for allies and multilateral institutions; a blind faith in US military power and the benefits of regime change; and a tendency to see the ends as justifying the means, however horrific."
When he left his position at USAID in the late 1980s, Bolton's colleagues presented him with a bronzed hand grenade.
Bolton Eschews Diplomacy and Slams the UN
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