"[Obama] is the first post-American President. Let's be clear. Not un-American, not anti-American, post-American — beyond all that patriotism stuff," he said.
This "post-American" theme was illustrated by describing Obama's foreign policy in several grandly laid-out points. Even when the President does the right thing, said Bolton, he communicates it badly.
Even where the President takes decisions where I think are sensible, as in increasing our troop levels in Afghanistan, and recognizing we need more Pakistani involvement to defeat the Taliban... he couples it in the same speech with the promise that he's going to begin withdrawing forces at the beginning of the summer of 2011, conveniently at the beginning of the 2000 election cycle.No issue was left untouched by the former U.S. Representative to the United Nations, who has wide range of experience in several Republican administrations. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, and Arms Trade Treaty all got the Bolton treatment — with a caveat.
I'm an old arms controller. I know that arms control terminology makes people's eyes glaze over.... but we cannot give in on any of these points.And he took a line that Sarah Palin used recently to describe the impact of the international community on U.S. sovereignty.
As Americans, we are capable of passing our own laws on these subjects. You do not have to have a substantive position on these treaties or the death penalty to say they are not matters for international negociation.. .they are matters for Democratic government to decide... on our own.