Belgian Wannabes
Memo to AP. If you want to be in the analysis business, study this guy. Bolton re Britain:
When John Bolton left the United Nations, some of the fun went out of the multi-storey talking shop. No longer was the walrus-moustached rightwinger there to cast barbs at the silver-tongued bureaucrats who took pride in peddling compromises, turned a blind eye to corrupt practices and humoured dictators – the very essence of diplomacy, some might say.
…
“If Gordon Brown knew what he was doing when he appointed Mark Malloch Brown, it was a major signal that he wants a different relationship with the United States,” Bolton says. “If he didn’t know what he was doing, that’s not a good sign either. It symbolises that the British government is moving to the left.”
In Washington, senior officials were rattled by Malloch Brown’s comments last weekend that Britain and America would no longer be “joined at the hip” and foreign policy would become more “impartial”. They were also taken aback that another member of Brown’s new government, Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary and fervent ally of the prime minister, had the nerve to lecture Washington on its home turf about the need for “multilateralism”.
Alexander’s spin doctors were chastised for giving anti-US briefings but Bolton says bluntly: “I guess my question would be, ‘Who’s in charge here?’ ”
…
Far from wanting the Malloch Browns and Alexanders to pipe down, Bolton is delighted they have spoken up. “My theory is, ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom’,” he says, quoting Chairman Mao (although the Chinese leader never permitted the slightest dissent). Bolton wants the private mindset of the Labour left, the Foreign Office and the United Nations – which has bugged him for years – to be out in the open.
Malloch Brown, he points out, was “simply saying the sort of thing he used to say lurking behind closed doors in the United Nations”, where diplomats have perfected the art of “speaking with four or five faces”. It is important, he suggests, for the United States to “know exactly where the Brown government is going instead of skulking around the hallways”.
“If the Brown government wants to be more European than Atlanticist, let’s hear it. If they would rather not have a special relationship, let’s hear it.” And then comes the zinger: “If they want to be a part of Europe in the same way as Belgium and Luxembourg, let’s hear it.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:36 am on Monday, July 23, 2007
7 Responses to “Belgian Wannabes”
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July 23rd, 2007 at 2:59 am
Oh what we lost when he left the U.N.! He is also the only one to “say outloud” that the Bush administration had changed and was acting in ways with which he disagreed (speaking about engaging Iran and Syria, etc.). He is the only bureaucrat I’ve ever heard who spoke his mind in no uncertain terms. How I long to hear that from our politicians.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:43 am
I tried to post this at the TimesOnlineUK–a love letter to Mark Mulloch Brown
I don’t think it made past the screeners.
“Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization” M. Mulloch Brown
Who keeps attacking those UNIFIL forces Mark? The attacks occur in areas controlled by Hezbollah with 99.9% Shi’ite population. What are the odds it’s some phantom al Qaeda squad from Syria, Mark? Are you really that dense?
Lebanese blogs are universally in agreement it is Hezbollah.
Degenerates like Mulloch Brown give Hezbollah legitimacy and keep ordinary Lebanese under Syrian tyranny.
Hezbollah has killed hundreds of Americans in dozens of separate acts of terrorism.
Tell me something Mark…
Do charity organizations blow up airliners?
Do charity organizations repeatedly kidnap and kill people?
Do charity organizations use truck bombs?
Do charity organizations kill university presidents?
Do charity organizations bomb embassies and dormitories?
Do charity organizations bomb peacekeeping forces, in 1983 and again in 2007?
Do charity organization hide behind civilians as they use weapons of war?
I’m confused.
Please use all your skill as a moral and cultural relativist to explain these things to me.
You’ll pardon me if I vomit in your presence.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:51 am
“Lebanese blogs are universally in agreement it is Hezbollah.”
hahaha
Really?
Go figur
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:23 am
Bolton is quoted a lot in UK media. He’s becoming quite a feature over there. Is he actually, physically over there or something?
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:15 am
Yes, Yes, I forgot about opposition bloggers and Syrian pundits. Opposition to the March 14th coalition and pro-Syrian pro-Iranian tyranny that is. They have some keen insights into world events.
Alphie and them speak the same language.
For instance, the Syrian Pundit who suggested the CIA was behind the assassination of Pierre Gemayel. She sees with God’s eye.
“Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban is Minister of Expatriates in Syria.” She writes a weekly column in Asharq Alawsat that is full of conspiracy theories and lies blaming the US for all of the Mideast’s ills. She repeatedly attempts to foment anti-US rage on the “Arab Street” keeping the people stupid and angry. It is usually good for a sad laugh.
Alphie you should visit her column for material.
Fortunately, she is an anomaly. At this publication there are many other writers of note who take Syria, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and sectarianism to task for destroying the Mideast.
“The Diplomacy of Silencers and Creative Chaos”
10/12/2006
“When I learnt that the weapon used in the assassination of the Lebanese Minister of Industry, Pierre Gemayel, was a gun equipped with a silencer, I remembered the important news report appeared in Al-Akhbar Lebanese daily on November 31. The report says: “On February 3rd, 2006, customs authorities at Beirut International Airport intercepted a suspicious parcel sent by Liban Post from England to an employee at the US embassy in Beirut called Mark Savageau containing a military outfit, part of which seemed to be used for special commando operations. The seized parcel, which was sent later to the military court, contained three military rifle covers, three different types of sound suppressors, DEBEN magazine which was concerned with “Pellet Rifles” and high tech mechanical and electronic outfits such as night vision binoculars, communication devices and military disrupted pattern devices”. Although the report contained photos of the intercepted items and serious information about the consignee, it seems that it was not taken seriously enough and the outcome of the investigation, like that of the case of the Mossad connected terrorist network of Mahmoud Rafeh, remained vague and inconclusive…
Continued…
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=7292
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
customs authorities at Beirut International Airport intercepted a suspicious parcel…
Right way you know this is all bullshit. Any country would import this sort of stuff under diplomatic cover rather than using something subject to search.
A silencer isn’t very hard to make either. No need to even bother shipping them. $10 and a trip to the local plumbing supply store is all one needs.
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Good point PA. She is a third rate spy novelist writing under the job title “minister of expatriates”. It should be “minister of propaganda” like Goebbels.
Her regular theme is that Israel and the US benefit from chaos and instability in Lebanon in the greater ME. Opposition bloggers also repeat this meme but are dispatched quickly by supporters of the March 14th coalition. It’s basically the same thing we got here. BDS and 9/11 conspiracy nitwits versus rational thinkers.
Obviously, this meme of the Lebanese and Syrian opposition an absurd assertion. OPEC nations and Russia sure to benefit from ME instability and the high oil prices it generates but the US and Israel do not benefit in the slightest.