Fifty-nine former diplomats, Republicans and Democrats alike have written a letter to Senator Lugar, saying that "he [Bolton] is the wrong man for this position," according to an AP
article in the NY times.
Bolton was nominated by Bush for the job as UN Ambassador, as was considered to be yet another "Fuck You" to our supposed friends and allies abroad. He was already expected to get a tough confirmation hearing in the Seante (abc) as he is on the record with anti-UN views. He along with the appointment of loyalists like Wolfowitz and Rice to positions of international prominence has shown the lie of Bush's claims to reach out to the international community.
Most of the article points out that the opposition is bipartisan and that the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee hearing will be on April 7th (you have about a week to write).
Their criticism dwelt primarily on Mr. Bolton's stand on issues as the State Department's senior arms control official. They said he had an "exceptional record" of opposing American efforts to improve national security through arms control.
But the letter also chides Mr. Bolton for his "insistence that the U.N. is valuable only when it directly serves the United States."
That view, the letter says, would not help him negotiate with other diplomats at the United Nations
This article seems like a good launching point for a discussion on what we think the Democratic positions on foreign policy and national security should be.
For starters, I have already shifted the frame, by starting with a foreign policy issue, rather than security. This is where we are weakest and where the Bush administration has left us most vulnerable. We have continued our "muscular" foreihn policy of alienating all of our allies. Although many governments still see some advantage to remaining our nominal allies their citizens are increasingly turning against us.
The problem as I see it on a national political front is how to state unilateralism as a weakness and co-operation as a strength? By 2006, most of the coalition of the willing will have abandoned us in Iraq, showing the lie of Bush's alliance.
We need to push friendship and consideration over hard-nosed, arrogant stubbornness. If we can convince the average American that "playing well with others" and winning the trust of people around the world will keep them safer than making more enemies then we will have won.