archenemy blog

John Bolton slays me! From the Q&A session following his talk at The Federalist Society Student Symposium:

Q: To what extent do you feel the United Nations is impaired by the United States’ actions in Iraq without having gained support?

A: I think there’s no question that there was substantial opposition in the United Nations Security Council with the policies pursuant to our policies in Iraq. [But] that was a reflection of broader attitudes in the world as a whole. But the real point of the actions that we took—and I have no reservations about it now even given the history—is that the efforts over years to get Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions… there was not a sufficient majority in the Security Council to enforce the Security Council’s own resolutions. If the body that passes the resolutions doesn’t have the wherewithal to enforce its own resolutions, what are we going to do? I have no doubt whatever that there was [Bolton does air quotes and intones sarcastic.] Sufficient Legal Authority [End air quotes.] so that we didn’t need to go back on the two security resolutions, let alone 1441. [Laughter.]

Q: The Iranian president recently called for a Muslim seat on the Security Council—

A: I wouldn’t hold my breath. [Laughter and applause.]

Q: Neither would I, but is it likely that there would be any additions or subtractions on the Security Council?

A: The five permanent members that are there today that were put there in 1945 would not necessarily be the five permanent members if we were starting today. The claim is that that more representatives are needed because it is a larger institution. The permanent members weren’t put there to be representative; they were put there because they won WWII. And then France was added. [Laughter and applause.]

We do support changing the Security Council [but] the question is who deserves to be a permanent member. We favor a permanent seat for Japan… because of its importance in the world economy. It is a responsible power and should have a permanent seat. It is a fault of the United Nations system that we can’t figure out a way to get Japan on there.

Q: If you were the supreme leader of the UN…

A: Not likely. [Laughter.]

Q: What changes would you make and at what point did you learn the secrets of the power moustache, and what would you say to someone who aspires to have one?

A: I won’t divulge the last secret. [Laughter.] There are a lot of things you can do to change the United Nations. We’re trying a lot. President Bush is very seriously committed to this and so is Secretary Rice. But many are due to structural problems. The UN pays 22% of the United Nations’ assessed budget and 27% of its peacekeeping budget. That makes it the largest contributor. The next major contributor is Japan with 17%. In the General Assembly, 96 votes constitutes an absolute majority. The countries paying the lowest assessments, adding up to the lowest 96, pay less than 20%. Yet we have on everything the one nation-one vote rule. A happy propensity for countries to spend other peoples’ money. There are a lot of suggestions of how to change that system. We have looked for example at the difference between United Nations agencies that are funded by voluntary contributions versus [agencies with an assessed and automatic budget]… there is a completely different mentality in the World Food Program because they know that if the bilateral donors don’t think that their resources are being used effectively, they’ll take them somewhere else. The best-run UN agencies are all funded by voluntary contributions. Relationship between financing and voting power would be the one thing I go for.

Yah, that’ll happen. After the countries who pay the bills take their money and leave the playground, and form another institution. And the UN’ll still be there, bankrupt and bitching.

UPDATE: From the AP coverage of the same event, another example:

Bolton — who has a reputation for brilliance, obstinacy and speaking his mind — said in 1994 that it wouldn’t make a “bit of difference” if the United Nations lost the top 10 stories from its 39-story headquarters.

More politicians like this, please.