John Bolton Hits the Ground Running

John Bolton has wasted no time showing us that the country he represents at the UN really does want to put teeth in the international body's approach to handling global issues of conflict resolution. Preparing for a world summit on poverty and UN reform, Bolton wants to completely revamp the draft agreement for the summit. He wants to:

• "underscore the importance of taking tougher action against terrorism" and "eliminate new pledges of foreign aid to impoverished nations";
• emphasize the "promot[ion] of human rights and democracy" and "eliminate any reference to the International Criminal Court";
• strengthen language about "halting the spread of the world's deadliest weapons" and de-emphasize parts of the text that urge nations to abide by a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons;
• solicit support for a "U.S. initiative to halt the trade in weapons of mass destruction" and discourage support for signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, by which the Bush administration does not wish to be bound.

A tall order? You decide.

And by the way, I hate sentences like these:

An Aug. 25 article incorrectly said the Bush administration opposes language in a draft U.N. agreement that urges the five permanent members of the Security Council not to cast vetoes to halt genocide, war crimes or ethnic cleansing. The administration opposes language that would urge those council members not to use their vetoes to block intervention in states where such crimes are being perpetrated.

I swear, I read those two sentences half a dozen times each, and I still don't have a clue what it is that the U.S. opposes, supports, or urges.