Interview with John Bolton at RWN

John Hawkins of Right Wing News interviewed former UN ambassador John Bolton. Here's a taste:

Hawkins:

Some... would like to see the United States pull out of the UN altogether. Do you think that would be a good idea? Why or why not?

Bolton:

I understand why people favor withdrawing, because it's so frustrating; it's ineffective, and it runs contrary to American interests and policies in many respects. But, I think being realistic, I think there are occasions when it can be useful as an instrument of American foreign policy and many of our friends and allies do rely on it and that's kind of a fact of life as well.

So, I think we need to have massive change in the way the UN operates and I would move the US away from mandatory or assessed financial contributions toward a system of voluntary contributions, but I think we shouldn't have any illusions about what the UN can accomplish. And, I certainly don't think we should limit or constrain American policy to only what we can get the UN to support.

Hawkins:

The United Nations comes across as a fundamentally anti-American and anti-Semitic organization. Do you think that's true and can you tell us a little bit about why that's the case?

Bolton:

Well, I think there is a lot of anti-American and anti-Israeli feeling in New York, but the UN is never going to be better than the geo-political reality in the world as a whole. But frequently, it's worse than that, because of the culture that develops in the various UN cities and especially in New York. People think that they can create facts on the ground by causing a fuss at the UN and as long as we react as if they really can succeed, they'll try and do it. So, I think you have to have a realistic and very skeptical view of the tempest in the teapot that boils up from time to time in New York and ... recognize that much of it is simply theater, and that's all.

Read the whole thing.