Ambassador Aggrandize
Someone at the United Nations stood up for the United Nations without clearing it through John Bolton’s office. Deputy Secretary-General Malloch had the nerve to point out growing popular sentiment in the U.S. that we don’t need the United Nations.
And today, on a very wide number of areas, from Lebanon and Afghanistan to Syria, Iran and the Palestinian issue, the U.S. is constructively engaged with the UN. But that is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. That is what I mean by “stealth” diplomacy: the UN’s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world.[T]he prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable. You will lose the UN one way or another … Too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years—manifest in a fear by politicians to be seen to be supporting better premises for what they unjustly regard as overpaid, corrupt UN bureaucrats—makes even refurbishing a building a political hot potato.
Mild-mannered John Bolton went on the offensive:
Well, on that speech, this is a very, very grave mistake by the Deputy Secretary General… Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations. And even worse was the condescending and patronizing tone about the American people.
If anyone knows condescending and patronizing, it’s John Bolton.
He should get used to it. Rumsfeld was recently checked by a “Third World nobody” in front of reporters.
