Brief Thoughts on John Bolton’s Departure

President Donald Trump asked for National Security Advisor John Bolton’s resignation. While Bolton was too interventionist for my tastes, I liked having him in the Trump Administration:

  • Whatever his faults, he actually understood foreign policy challenges like few in D.C.
  • Every administration needs heterodox thinks among its ranks to avoid complacency.
  • Having Bolton as National Security Advisor no doubt scared countries like Iran and Syria to no end, making them easier to negotiate with and keep in line.
  • In many ways, UN Ambassador (the role Bolton held on an interim basis under Bush43) was the perfect role for him, allowing him to call BS on rogue regimes without enabling his interventionist inclinations. But Bolton doesn’t seem to have learned several important lessons from aftermath of the Iraqi war, namely that the Middle East is a horrible place to install democracy, that the aftermaths of regime change tend to take far longer and cost far more (in lives and treasure) than the regime change itself, and there are no U.S. military accomplishments there which cannot be undone by the feckless policies of a Democratic presidency.

    As far as maintaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the issue over which Bolton was reportedly fired, there are no good options, but the default (staying in and losing) is probably the worst of all. Unfortunately, without a willingness to directly confront nuclear-armed Pakistan, whose Inter-Services Intelligence is running and funding the Taliban, there’s no solution that doesn’t involve America eventually leaving in defeat.

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    One Response to “Brief Thoughts on John Bolton’s Departure”

    1. Fergus says:

      I highly doubt Bolton believed democracy could be established in the Middle East. It is probably he believed that friendly, reliable allies could be established and maintained rather than depending on the loyalty of our traditional allies who at the best of times have proven to be as reliable as broken clocks. It is wildly speculative to suggest he promoted military adventurism, compared to our jingoistic regimes like the Clintions and Obamas who couldn’;t wait to bomb and invade neutral nations and overthrow the established order to set up a “new” order, like the Muslim Brotherhood. I worked with Bolton and regret seeing a man of such wisdom leave. State has few capable leaders, it has many boot lickers and self serving toadies. Bolton was anything but one of these trolls.

      Trump has done himself a grave disservice in ending Bolton’s service, whether he agreed with Bolton’s assessments or not. In the long run they may not have been popular but I’d wager they were the correct ones.

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