When month after month John Bolton
made a contribution to the Pittsburgh Tribune, he seemed to have an
inexhaustible bag of ideas that would last him for an eternity. But guess what;
he ran out of ideas. So here he is, doing what comes naturally to those that
have gone bankrupt before they could even tell what hit them.
What Bolton
does now is shoot the hot air about politicians who shoot hot air instead of
adopting the foreign policy positions he used to advocate but were discarded
when they proved to be unusable. He is practicing his new vocation in the
article he wrote under the title: “Keeping America secure: 5 questions for the
candidates,” published on October 10, 2015 in the same old Pittsburgh Tribune.
Unlike before, he says very little
about what America must do
to remain on top of the heap like a ruthless cop that's cracking a long range
whip at the barbarians below who, at times, slacken in their duty to serve Israel 's
welfare. To be fair to Bolton, however, it must be acknowledged that when
circumstances permitted, he was generous enough and gracious enough to throw a
few crummy glances in America 's
direction too.
Instead of coming right out and
telling each candidate running to be President of the Republic that what he or
she is doing is worse than meaningless hot air, he put what he deems meaningful
in the form of five questions to be asked of the candidates. To validate his
point of view, he writes at the end of the article that “voters should not give
candidates a second look if they cannot answer questions like these.” To be
sure, he formulated the questions in a manner that will put the candidates in a
defensive position as they try to prove they are worthy to occupy the highest
office in the land – before they even start answering any question.
The first one goes like this:
“What is America 's
proper place in the world?” In case the candidates didn't know how to answer
this question, he gives them a hint: “Do they see a U.S. international presence
contributing to peace? Or do they see American power as causing international
tension and conflict?” It is important for the candidates to know the proper
answer, in his view, because “most Americans [already] understand that Iran 's mullahs
despise us due to their radical Islamicist ideology.” How can any candidate
fail to answer that question properly after this tutorial? But if someone
fails, he or she must be booted out of the race.
The second question goes like
this: “How does U.S.
foreign policy affect domestic policy?” This being the first time he does what
he is about to do, he begins by explaining why he will sound differently now:
“Not long ago, this question was unnecessary.” So then, what's different now?
The answer is that it's the economy, stupid. Yes, John Bolton has finally come
around to seeing that you cannot starve the nation and build a military that
will make the world respect you. But instead of admitting he has been half a
pundit all along, he makes the accusation: “a candidate who focuses on domestic
policy is only half a candidate.” You can't win with this guy.
The third question goes like this:
“What are the primary threats and opportunities America faces abroad?” Angry at
himself that he has not yet come up with something that's earth shattering, he
vents his frustration at the candidates he is trying to win to his side of the
argument. Here is what he does: “Candidates need to do more than read
staff-written speeches or answer questions with talking points. They must
demonstrate the intellect to detect, analyze, and respond to threats and
opportunities.” It's like the guy who gets so frustrated at work he goes home
and kicks the cat.
The fourth question goes like
this: “How should America
respond to those threats and opportunities?” Unfortunately, the man is still in
the kick-the-cat mode and so, instead of hinting at the correct answer to help
the candidates, he kicks them some more. Here is how he does that: “Describing
our problems and critiquing Obama's failures are not enough … Vague
generalities are not enough.” That's a double-whammy. Poor cat!
The fifth question goes like this:
“What resources are required for our national defense?” And this is where John Bolton
blows his thesis sky high. Conditioned to feel that a strong economy is
necessary to have a strong military, he still fails to live up to his own advice
when he said: “they must demonstrate the intellect to detect, analyze, and
respond...” Thus, he now says: “even as a new president cuts domestic spending
to acceptable levels, military spending must rise significantly. Rhetoric is
costless, but budget allocations are scored in hard dollars.” He just
demonstrated that to be conditioned is not to be schooled properly. What a
waste!