According to an
article in the WaPo this morning, John Bolton's absence has already been felt since departing the State Department while waiting for his nomination to be our chief diplomat.
In what way has it been felt? We have been able to move forward on several international cooperationa agreements which were stymied while Bolton was at State. It seems that obstructing international agreement is his specialty. (Details below the fold)
We're making progress on controlling nukes
Now with Bolton no longer in the job, U.S. negotiators report a breakthrough with the Russians and predict a resolution will be sealed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international summit in Scotland next month, clearing the way to eliminate enough plutonium to fuel 8,000 nuclear bombs
He was a busy guy. Not only was he preventing progress with the Russians, but since he left we've also made progess with the IAEA, Iran, North Korea, and India.
the Bush administration not only has moved to reconcile with Russia over nuclear threat reduction but also has dropped its campaign to oust the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and made common cause with European allies in offering incentives to Iran to persuade it to drop any ambitions for nuclear weapons...Bolton had also resisted using the so-called New York channel for communications with North Korea, a one-on-one meeting used sporadically through Bush's presidency and most recently revived in May. And fellow U.S. officials said Bolton had opposed a new strategic opening to India offering the prospect of sharing civilian nuclear technology, a move made in March.
Those following the details of the career of our soon-to-be-recess-appointed ambassador may also remember that the disarmament agreement with Libya, one of this administrations trumpeted diplomatic achievements, didn't happen until the diplomats managed to get Bolton off the negotiating team.
This is our best choice for the face the US presents the world?