Despite the calamitous post-9/11 consequences of his neoconservative ideology, arrogant unilateralism and America First nationalism, Bolton has never acknowledged error. He continues, for example, to argue for forcible regime change in Iran and North Korea. Stuck in a unipolar quagmire of his own intellectual making, the louder he shouts, the deeper he sinks. The world has changed since 2003, but he hasn’t. As the New York Times declared last week, Bolton is a truly dangerous man. A worse choice as the US president’s senior adviser on global security affairs is hard to imagine. [...]
A probable scenario now is that the US side will make demands it knows Kim cannot accept, such as halting his nuclear weapons programme and unilaterally disarming, and will then blame Pyongyang for the ensuing failure. “You see, we tried,” Bolton will say. “So now there is no alternative to bombing.” [...]
In Iran itself, hardline clerics who denounce Bolton as a “sponsor of terrorism” may privately be content to see the gloves come off with Israel and its US and Saudi allies. So, too, may Palestinians ghettoised in Gaza. Perhaps the Middle East was ever a powder keg. But by picking Bolton, and appointing Mike Pompeo, another pro-Israel hawk, as secretary of state, Trump has lit the blue touchpaper.
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