The Adminstration's insistence on appointing belligerent screw-up, intelligence faker and obstructionist John Bolton as UN Ambassador has had at least one positive effect — he can no longer mangle his old job.
For years, a key U.S. program intended to keep Russian nuclear fuel out of terrorist hands has been frozen by an arcane legal dispute. As undersecretary of state, John R. Bolton was charged with fixing the problem, but critics complained he was the roadblock.
Now with Bolton no longer in the job, U.S. negotiators report a breakthrough with the Russians and predict a resolution will be sealed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international summit in Scotland next month, clearing the way to eliminate enough plutonium to fuel 8,000 nuclear bombs.
The prospective revival of the plutonium disposal project underlines a noticeable change since Bolton's departure from his old job as arms control chief.
This isn't really surprising; Bolton's appointment to the UN was, from the beginning, an expression of Bush's contempt for the world body, and a manifestation of his determination to break down its processes. If the man can derail a process which can eliminate 8,000 potential nuclear weapons, just think of what he can do to the UN.
