Thursday, September 24, 2009

Battle of the Bush surrogates: Burt trumps Bolton in WSJ

I like this quote selection by the WSJ's Jonathan Weisman, covering the U.N. Security Counsel's unanimous passage of "a nuclear-safeguards resolution drafted by the Obama administration to lay the legal framework for military and diplomatic action against nations that use civilian nuclear technology for military purposes." It captures the whole difference in worldview between the administrations of Bush Sr. and W.

First, John Bolton, Bush Jr.'s never-confirmed "ambassador" to the U.N., fulminates:
It's passing a resolution that doesn't have any impact on the real world that undercuts the credibility of the Security Council.
Next, Richard Burt, arms-control negotiator for Bush Sr., now with arms control group Global Zero. Burt
said similar proposals were put forward by the administration of George W. Bush. But they went nowhere.

"What the administration is trying to do is lay the groundwork for proposals that are formally adopted at the NPT conference next year," he said. "The administration views all this as part of the process of establishing a real international consensus against proliferation."

End of article. Way to frame it, Weisman.

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