No longer caring about democracy, Bolton disparages protesters and defends Mubarak

[Enrique]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/29/no-caring-democracy-bolton/#

Throughout his tenure as a high-level administration official, Bolton repeatedly insisted that one of his top priorities was helping spread freedom, respect for human rights, and democracy throughout he world. He was instrumental in the Bush administration’s refusal to join the U.N. Human Rights Council, supposedly out of his objection to the poor human rights records of several of the council’s members.

Yet during an interview with right-wing radio host Mark Levine today, Bolton used his time on the show to attack and undermine the pro-democracy protest movement currently underway in Egypt. The former U.N. ambassador claimed that the “real alternative” to the Mubarak government is not “Jeffersonian democracy” but rather the opposition Muslim Brotherhood. After Levine postulated that “every Jihadi nutjob is probably pouring into Egypt right now,” Bolton followed up by saying this is the “big opportunity” for jihadists and mocked the calls of the international community to restore internet services, saying that the “Muslim Brotherhood knows how to use Twitter just like naive college students do”:

LEVINE: So what do you make with what’s going on in Egypt right now?

BOLTON: Well, I think it’s a real crisis for the regime. I think the outpourings in the street that have now been joined by the Muslim Brotherhood really do put the issue squarely on the table <...> My take is that they are digging in for a fight, they intend to resist, and that the real alternative is not Jefferson democracy versus the Mubarak regime, but that it’s the Muslim Brotherhood versus the Mubarak regime, and that has enormous implications for the U.S., for Israel, and our other friends in the region.

LEVINE: See, that’s my take on it too. I’m not aware of these spontaneous Jeffersonian democracy drives in the Arab world. Maybe I could be missing something. Mike Ledeen makes the point, I think he’s right, that every Jihadi nutjob is probably pouring into Egypt right now.

BOLTON: Oh, this is the big opportunity. That’s why so much of the Obama administration opposition to it has been feckless. <...> And the Muslim Brotherhood knows how to use Twitter just like naive college students do. So I don’t disagree. There are a lot of people in the streets who have legitimate grievances, they want more open government, so even if Mubarak were to fall, those idealistic people aren’t going to create the new government, the Brotherhood is.

(...)

[Fumesucker]

1. No one could have predicted..

That John Bolton would be against self determination for Muslims brown people..

[old mark]

2. K&R-Think of the President he would have been!!!!!...nt

[theoldman]

3. I did not know that Michael Bolton was interested in Egypt. :)

[eleny]

4. Mike Ledeen? Ay-yi-yi.

[LeftishBrit]

5. 'No longer'? I wasn't aware that he had ever cared about democracy,

[Solly Mack]

7. I was thinking the same thing.

[Jester Messiah]

12. Obviously he never did.

What he cares about is the good of the interests served by the geopolitical calculus that has made such a mess of that region. He sees "our SOB" going down and isn't pleased at the ramifications for his boardroom buddies.

[Gman]

6. This from a GOP "ambassador" who couldn't get confirmed by a GOP Senate

so he was recess appointed. He's that nuts.

[barbtries]

8. if the truth be told

i don't think bolton ever really cared about democracy. he's a fascist if ever there was one.

[randr]

9. Bolton is no American! He is a servant of the plutocracy that created him.

[WhiteTara]

10. "crisis for the regime"

at least he knows the truth while he's being feckless.

[JBoy]

11. I'd swear he was talking about the Tea Party:

"those idealistic people aren’t going to create the new government, the Brotherhood is."