Waiting for John Bolton

Michael Moran Senior correspondent

UNITED NATIONS — The 190 ambassadors and legions of lesser diplomats and staff members of the United Nations are watching warily as Senate Democrats try to forestall the confirmation of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the world body. Yet far from being elated by the sleeplessness this may cause Bolton, who has a long record of questioning the U.N.'s relevance, diplomats and officials here say the last thing they want is to stir up a hornet's nest of American opposition to the organization.

True to their reputation as diplomats, public discussion is discreet. But in less formal settings, like the coffee bar where U.N. delegates have a smoke between sessions, the Bolton topic stirs a mix of emotions at an institution that many people feel has been alternatively vilified and ignored by the present U.S. administration.

On the one hand, says a senior Asian diplomat, sipping an espresso between meetings on HIV/AIDS funding, there was a sense that many at the U.N. were hoping the Democrats who oppose Bolton’s nomination would prevail, forcing President Bush to nominate a compromise candidate, perhaps a career diplomat cut from more familiar cloth to those who roam the halls of the U.N.’s headquarters.

“After all,” the ambassador says, “the Iraq war should have taught the president by now that even the most powerful member of the United Nations can’t get its way without compromise.”

The message not the man
But this ambassador and other officials stress that the man who represents the United States is far less important than moving the discussion of the U.N. in America beyond what one diplomat called “the vilification of the attack dogs of the right.”

“There is no question of isolating the American ambassador because someone may not like him; the Americans are just too important,” the diplomat says. “What I would like to see is an honest portrayal of the U.N. to the public, that we are trying to make things work better.”

Over the years, Bolton has become known for stinging statements on everything from alleged Cuban weapons of mass destruction to the viability of the U.N. itself — he once famously suggested that "removing the top 10 floors from the United Nations building would have no effect whatsoever." He also has been highly skeptical of European efforts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, and he led the Bush administration’s unsuccessful effort to replace the head of the U.N. nuclear agency, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, among those who warned of the flimsiness of prewar evidence about Iraq’s WMD programs.

Bolton also served as deputy secretary of state of international organizations under Bush’s father in the early 1990s. Many remember his successful push to get the United Nations General Assembly to repeal its highly controversial “Zionism equals racism” resolution, passed in the emotionally charged wake of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. He has described the vote to repeal that resolution as a highlight of his career.

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