The Face Of The Ugly American

Republican Senator George V. Voinovich acted as a great statesman and patroit today, in giving a blistering and passioned oratory about the need for America to represent the very best face possible to the world, and to reject John Bolton for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. The easiest position for any senator is to automaticly side with any popular position that represents their party. But for the good of America, Senator Voinovich was concerned about image that the rude and abrasive Bolton would send to so many nations in the world. There are 193 nations in the world, of which 191 are members of the U.N. Only the Vatican City which has chosen not to be a U.N. member state, and Taiwan which was voted out in 1971 and mainland China replaced it as the member state from China. And some of these nations of the world do not share in the affluence of the U.S. or the wealthy nations. For example in the African state of Mozambique, there are great river beds that dried up, as it stopped raining forty years ago in most of the nation. Drought has broken sucessful and independent farmers, into poverty and famine. First the cattle dies, then the humans die. Senator Voinovich is concerned about how America is represented to member states like this whose concern is with solving hunger and economic justice towards this developing and Third World.

A popular newspaper distributed in the American Asian community, is THE ASIAN REPORTER. Up until recently this newspaper reported a very negative sentiment in much of Asia and especially nations in Indochina with significant Muslim populations, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Mynamar. Only the huge flow of American support during the recent terrible tsunami disaster, helped to turn the opinions of many in these nations from critical of the U.S. , to far more positive. And unlike President Clinton, who has tremendous wordwide popularity, President Bush has brought world support and good feelings to an all time low, and made both America and her strong British ally, virtually isolated in the world. John Bolton represents an "ugly Americanism" of arrogance, and failure to work well with others. A sort of "we're better than you" because of America's affluence compared to much of the world. And some nations such as Russia still dream of being an effective countersystem to the U.S. , although their economy is hardly any larger than just one American city, LA, for the entire sum and substance of the nation. And European states who are members of the European Community, also dream of being a new U.S. in Europe, and dislike giving much credit to the U.S. in any regard. And dislike our foreign policy as being "world bullylike", yet are hardly much more effective in their toothless approach to situations like Iran seeking nuclear enrichment or even arms.

Voinovich recognizes enough of these American respect around the world shortcomings, and feels in his heart that Bolton is simply the wrong face of America in the U.N. And that's an honest assessment. Bolton is a 30 year friend of Karl Rove, a former young worker for Barry Goldwater, a member in good standing of the defense contractor funded Project For The New American Century, which totally miscalculated the Iraq War. Instead of relying on true intelligence such as during the serious 1962 Cubian missile crisis, instead Bolton and others tried to appeal to President Clinton and then suported Bush to restart the old 1990-1991 Gulf War which was poorly concluded without the usual complete surrender of the government of Iraq as is usual in war. Bolton relied on nonsense fictional accounts of Iraq supposedly having an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction from Ahmed Chalabi, who was convicted in Jordan of the worst banking scandal in the nations history, and like other members of this defense contractor funded organization, used such thin material to craft an argument for war to find the WMDs which of course did not exist. Some in the conservative community crafted fictional tales claiming that WMD weapons were taken by the Russians or by Syrians to Syria. But serious investigations by journalists failed to find any substantial fact in these claimed stories of the missing WMDs. Instead only the evidence of two old shells have been found in Iraq. One an old mustard gas shell, probably from the 1980's Iran -Iraq War. And another nerve agent shell, which was already exploded for some reason. Most likely with fear of U.N. inspections for WMDs turning up evidence that could land Saddam in the World Court, led to him ordering the destruction of any incriminating evidence of WMD crimes against his own people or the Iranian attacking forces during the Iran-Iraq War. Saddam could have been convicted of a number of war or other crimes, and destroying any evidence was seen as his best way to protect himself from arrest and trial.

Regardless, of the outcome of the failure to find WMDs, Bolton is simply a negative figure with bad judgement, who some Republican partisans seem to want to reward for many years of service to his party, or because of his 30 year friendship with close Bush advisor, Karl Rove. This isn't the best basis to select a U.N. Ambassador because of. Some coworkers complained of extreme arrogance and failure to work well with others. How would this arrogant personality work with a very poor nation like Mozambique who has just one vote in the U.N., the same as America has.

Too often Americans disgrace their nation. They don't behave all that well. In Iraq there was the prison abuse scandal. And there have been reports of frustrated young American soldiers throwing empty coke bottles at Iraqi citizens from their Humvees out of frustration of not being able to leave Iraq. In the Moslem world such horrible acts of American arrogance tear away good feelings about America. And Bolton represents more of that arrogance. Not the best face for America in the U.N. at all. And General Colin Powell, who has worked the most with Bolton is no fan at all. Why Colin Powell who has a far better reputation for character and the ability to work with others, is not nominated instead of Bolton is indeed a good question.

Senator Voinovich is looking out for the welfare of this nation in his strong statements about Bolton today. Will other Republican moderates and mavericks such as Snowe, Spector, Chafee, Collins or Hagel or McCain join his plea to put the good of their country above party loyalty be heeded or not in a full Senate vote on Bolton is a very good question. But it's up to every American to represent their country well to others from the other 192 nations of the world. And the role of U.N Ambassador is an important position as main representative of our nation. Our face to the world.