{"id":490069,"date":"2010-03-30T15:33:15","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T19:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=80937"},"modified":"2010-03-30T15:33:15","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T19:33:15","slug":"bolton-suggests-nuclear-treaty-threatens-american-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/490069","title":{"rendered":"Bolton Suggests Nuclear Treaty Threatens American Sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_80940\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/bolton2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-80940\" title=\"Bolton\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/bolton2-480x322.jpg\" alt=\"John Bolton\" width=\"480\" height=\"322\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (Ron Lewis\/San Mateo County Times\/ZUMA Press)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a potential preview of conservative arguments for rejecting the Obama  administration&#8217;s new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia in the  Senate, John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations  under George W. Bush, said the treaty reflected &#8220;stunning naivete&#8221; and  placed it in the context of threats to American sovereignty during a  wide-ranging speech to the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2848\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2848\" title=\"nationalsecurity\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/nationalsecurity.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Bolton,  an influential conservative foreign policy official for decades,  accused the Obama administration of harboring &#8220;a very different view of  American sovereignty than a long line of presidents, certainly since  Franklin Roosevelt.&#8221; Relying on portions of quotes by senior officials  and an undefined category of people he characterized as the  &#8220;international left&#8221; and the &#8220;academic left,&#8221; Bolton said the  administration attaches a &#8220;near theological significance&#8221; to the power  of international institutions whose actions threaten the supremacy of  the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Tying ratification of the treaty, which  cuts American and Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles by 30 percent, to  the broader question of the survival of American sovereignty raises the  stakes for a key Obama administration priority. In his announcement of  the treaty on Friday, President Obama linked it to his vision of a world  ultimately free of nuclear weapons, a priority conservatives have  derided. Ratification, already an uncertain prospect in a fiercely  partisan Senate, will require the votes of at least eight Republican  senators, a task made more difficult by the influential Bolton&#8217;s  portrayal of the treaty as commensurate with a broader assault by Obama  on constitutional values.<\/p>\n<p>Advances in arms control would have &#8220;a  cumulative impact on our sovereignty,&#8221; Bolton argued. While he declined  to address the merits of the treaty &#8212; whose text has not yet been  released &#8212; Bolton said it reflected Obama&#8217;s &#8220;almost religious view in  the obligations and implications of treaties.&#8221; He scoffed at the  president&#8217;s statement that the U.S.-Russian reduction in their  countries&#8217; nuclear stockpiles, which represent over 90 percent of the  world&#8217;s nuclear weapons, <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/80608\/now-to-get-new-start-through-the-senate\">would  strengthen global arms control efforts<\/a>, and suggested that it would  spur rogue-state nuclear proliferation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the people in  places like Teheran and Pyongyang say, &#8216;Fantastic &#8212; the United States  is coming down, let&#8217;s ramp up our production efforts to get to the  [nuclear] capability even more quickly,&#8217;&#8221; Bolton said. &#8220;The rhetoric of  the arms control advocates often is very divorced from important and  legitimate American security concerns.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the so-called New  START treaty itself, Bolton tied Obama&#8217;s foreign policy to what he  called a &#8220;globalist&#8221; effort at replacing ultimate fidelity to the  Constitution with fealty to international accords and institutions, a  longtime conservative bogeyman, and contrasted it with his own  &#8220;Americanist&#8221; perspective.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think if you ask most  international law scholars, they&#8217;d say, &#8216;Of course international law  trumps the Constitution,&#8217;&#8221; Bolton said, yoking Obama to that position  and suggesting that the administration will never abandon it. &#8220;This is a  decisive question that we ought to be asking politicians: In the  priority, in the hierarchy of legal systems, where does the Constitution  fit?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At least one administration official, State Department  legal counsel Harold Koh, came under attack last year for allegedly  privileging international law above the Constitution, although <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/80622\/that-harold-koh-such-a-transnationalist-that-he-defends-the-legality-of-drone-strikes\">Koh  last week defended the administration&#8217;s legal right to launch drone  strikes on al-Qaeda targets<\/a> far from the battlefields of  Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Bolton&#8217;s framing comes amid the growing influence  of Tea Party activists who frequently question Obama&#8217;s devotion to the  Constitution, and who are seething over the administration&#8217;s recent  victory in passing health care reform. It also comes as Republicans in  the Senate consider whether they ought to sign the New START treaty or  to deal the administration&#8217;s agenda an embarrassing international  setback.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Republicans have yet to coalesce around a position on  New START, especially as Congress enjoys a two-week recess. But the  early signs from Senate GOP leaders have not been positive. Senate  Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Whip Jon Kyl  (R-Ariz.) <a href=\"http:\/\/thecable.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2010\/03\/26\/will_senate_republicans_support_the_new_us_russia_nuke_treaty\">wrote  a letter to Obama<\/a> the day the treaty was announced, warning that  even preambular language remotely linking European missile defense to  the treaty is unacceptable, despite <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/80865\/so-hows-obama-going-to-find-the-senate-gop-votes-for-the-russia-nuke-treaty\">public  declarations from senior Obama officials flatly stating that the treaty  will not hinder missile defense<\/a>. The early strategy from multiple  administration officials to pass the treaty is to remind Republicans, <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/80608\/now-to-get-new-start-through-the-senate\">as  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did Friday<\/a>, that nuclear  weapons treaties with the Russians historically sail through the Senate  with over 90 votes.<\/p>\n<p>Jamie Fly, the executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foreignpolicyi.org\/\">Foreign Policy Initiative<\/a>, a  conservative foreign policy messaging and advocacy organization, said  that while skepticism of the treaty&#8217;s verification mechanisms and  relationship to missile defense is pronounced, he was unsure &#8220;anyone on  the right is really ready to say [the treaty] shouldn&#8217;t be ratified.&#8221;  Fly said his organization would await the actual text of New START  before taking a position, though he added that FPI was &#8220;not huge fans of  the Russia Reset,&#8221; the Obama administration&#8217;s effort to revitalize  bilateral relations with Russia. &#8220;Everyone I&#8217;ve talked to on Capitol  Hill and around town is in a wait-and-see mode,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bolton,  a fixture on Fox News, widened the aperture for criticism of New START,  urging conservatives to press politicians on sovereignty issues. &#8220;We  have to insist on getting clear answers from candidates for Congress,  from incumbent members of Congress, from the presidential candidates as  we get into the presidential season in the not-too-distant future,&#8221;  Bolton said, &#8220;to make it clear that we view sovereignty and the  preservation of American sovereignty as a high priority.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (Ron Lewis\/San Mateo County Times\/ZUMA Press) In a potential preview of conservative arguments for rejecting the Obama administration&#8217;s new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia in the Senate, John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush, said the treaty reflected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}