John Bolton: The squawking of a chickenhawk

[n2doc]

April 27, 2011 | 7:30 am
--Paul Whitefield
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: There he goes again.

In Wednesday's Opinion pages, former U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton weighs in on the war in Afghanistanand President Obama's pledge to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July.

Not surprisingly, Bolton is critical.

For the nation, the president's best course would be to protect and capitalize on the progress we have made by maintaining troop levels and offensive operations in Afghanistan until the job is done, whenever that is.

There should be no mistake that a politically driven withdrawal of substantial U.S. forces will squander the victories won in Afghanistan since the 2009 surge. It will signal to the Taliban and Al Qaeda that their long travail is nearing an end. And it will signal to radicals in Pakistan and elsewhere that they too can act against the U.S. ultimately with impunity. All of these results will endanger not just the United States but peace and security worldwide.

I have four words for Bolton: "Vietnam War" and "shut up."

more
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/04/to-paraphrase-ronald-reagan-there-he-goes-again-in-tuesdays-opinion-pages-former-un-ambassador-john-r-bolton-weighs-in.html

[mdmc]

1. we have to wait until 2016 to cut and run

in 2016 we will no longer be the worlds largest economy - China will be..
In 2016 we should abandon empire and rebuild our middle class.

There will not be a victory in Afghanistan..

[av8rdave]

2. Bolton is a coward and a hypocrite

[gratuitous]

3. Gee Mr. Bolton, we've only won victories since 2009?

Why were you and your White House pals dicking around for seven years before that, then? Why didn't you "win" Afghanistan when you had the chance? Isn't it nice of the LA Times to provide this nitwit with a forum, and clean up his red crayon scribblings so as to gull the inattentive?

I'm so old, I remember when the LA Times was a real newspaper, and this kind of codswallop was left to be published in broadsides handed out on street corners by gabbling hawkers that you sensed weren't quite all there.

[n2doc]

4. Actually the article is critical of Bolton

I didn't add anything to what was there. Read the whole thing and see.

[gratuitous]

5. This article is commenting on Bolton's piece

And the Times published it in this morning's edition. Paul Whitefield does a deft job of explaining why Bolton's full of it, but the basic question of running Bolton's nonsense in the first place remains.