Death From Above

Wow. What a week. What year. First it was Condoleezza Rice, perhaps the least diplomatic person in government nominated to the role of Most Important Diplomat. Then came Alberto Gonzales, Mr. "What-Rule-Of-Law?" Attorney General. And it looked bad, until Paul Wolfowitz was put up to head the World Bank. Now we're facing the probable confirmation of John Bolton for UN Secretary, and John Negroponte for Intelligence Czar. Stunning.

John Bolton, the man who once forcefully claimed that the UN didn't exist, but was rather a name for a puppet jury that the US could manipulate at will. Carl Ford Jr., a former chief at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, denounced Bolton as a bully and a "serial abuser" of lower-level officials, who sought to bend assessments of the weapons potential of Cuba and other nations to fit positions he was trying to sell. Bolton was on hand to assist James Baker in counting hanging chad in the disputed 2000 election in Palm Beach. Several such helpers went on to obtain positions of responsibility within the Bush administration.

Jesse Helms endorsed Bolton in January 2001, saying of the man tasked to control nuclear proliferation, "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world." What does that mean, exactly? "OH -- Choose ME! This guy's dirty,"? And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had this to say: "John Bolton has been a very effective manager and diplomat. It would be very useful if we could get this nomination done." Rice added that while she believed strongly in the "role of debate, the role of the open and free exchange of ideas," when decisions are taken, she qualified, "I fully expect that people will support those decisions because there is only one president of the United States and that's President Bush."

And John Negroponte. Negroponte with oversight of American intelligence is akin to James Brown as counselor for battered women (no offense, James -- love your work). Unfair comparison? How about Adolf Eichmann?

John Negroponte causes people to be killed. Everything that we know about this guy is bad, each episode of his career an epic horror. Everything on record that he has touched has become an indelible stain on the history of this country, and yet we now promote him. He was on hand in Saigon, 'Political Officer' during the worst of the escalation of violence in Vietnam. He was US Ambassador to- and defacto governor of Honduras from 1981 to 1985 (the bad years). Under his orders, thousands of people were killed and hundreds were disappeared (now a verb). Nuns were raped, priests were tortured and killed, and countless civilians were tossed out of airplanes over jungles, all in the name of intelligence. Such are the qualifications, it seems, for 'getting things done'.

Most recently he has served as Ambassador to Iraq, arriving just at the peak of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Imagine that. During his tenure America learned that our countrymen, on occasion, beat people to death. And he doesn't seem to mind.

Look, folks -- the guy hucks dissidents out of airplanes at 15,000 feet to make them talk. Isn't there ANYBODY ELSE we could get for the job who isn't ass deep in blood?