Former Bush UN ambassador: Democracy is ‘not always the answer’

[unhappycamper]

Former Bush UN ambassador: Democracy is ‘not always the answer’
By John Byrne
Monday, October 11th, 2010 -- 8:39 am

In a little noticed remark on Fox News last week, President George W. Bush's former ambassador to the UN remarked that the US should have kept Pakistan's dictator in power and derided those who "think democracy is always the answer."

John Bolton, whose nomination was so controversial Bush tapped him during a Senate recess and then declined to resubmit him after his recess appointment expired, made the comments on Fox News Thursday. The discussion was highlighted Saturday by ThinkProgress, a liberal blog.

"(D)emocracy and civilian governments in Pakistan have been so discredited because of incompetence and corruption," Bolton said. "I thought the Musharraf government, military, authoritarian rule that it was, was the most likely kind of government to be able to make the changes we made. (...) I would have kept Musharraf in power. I think the Bush administration made a mistake in pushing him out. In Pakistan they call the military the “steel skeleton” because it really is the only thing that holds the country together. That offends some people who think democracy is always the answer. Personally, I would put American interests above that. I wouldn’t have gotten rid of Musharraf."

Noted ThinkProgress' Ben Armbuster: "So it seems that Bolton has officially taken himself out of the democracy promotion crowd. But his prescription for stability in Pakistan appears to be at odds with what he himself said in 2007, that the military regime that governed the country at the time was untrustworthy and “filled with fundamentalists.'"

“If the military comes unstuck, if it divides, then the technical fixes won’t protect those weapons,” Bolton was quoted as saying. “Even the military is filled with Islamic fundamentalists that he’s tried to keep in lower positions.”

[liberal N proud]

1. Excuse me?

I am in favor to the firing squad when it comes to this asshole. No trial, just take him out and shoot him.

[Xipe Totec]

2. It works for him; he's never been elected squat nt

[Octafish]

3. Kissinger said same thing about Chile.

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."

Kissinger's owners have made that the bottom line in the United States, as well.

[Javaman]

8. Took the words out of my mouth. nt

[Scuba]

4. I'm sure he favors a corporatocracy.

[Lint Head]

5. Democracy is always the answer YOU IDIOT!

That is the goal. It's pricks like you that have destroyed the rights we had in our own country.

[CoffeeCat]

6. That prick has helped shred America's democracy...

...one of the primary neocon hacks--and a PNAC signatory.

Should we be so surprised?

This is the same cast of characters that has turned out democracy into some perverted
form of corrupt-politicians-acting-at-the-behest-of-greedy-corporations government.

We only have an outer layer of democracy left. And it's really for appearances, to
keep the masses slumbering.

What's going on inside our government is corrupt, sinister and it sure as hell isn't
democracy.

It's too bad the bullies and idiots have so much power in this country.

[sharesunited]

7. Did I hear that Bolton is running for president in 2012?

Or did I dream that after eating spoiled leftovers?