Bye bye Bolton

I was happy to see that Bush has now given up trying to permanently appoint John Bolton as the US ambassador to the UN. Bolton has been doing that job for over a year, but only on an interim basis as his appointment hadn't been formally approved by the US Senate. The Bush administration has shown total contempt for the UN and Bolton's presence on its behalf was a symptom of that. Bolton was a critic of the UN and he was sent to "shake it up" which really means to bully other members into approving things that were in the best interests of the US. Given his public criticism of the UN, even before he was appointed temporarily, he was the very last person Bush should have been thinking of, but that shows the mentality of the Bush administration. The UN does have its faults, but to seek to undermine it further is in nobody's interest. International law does matter, as the clear breach of it in invading Iraq has shown. When countries start disregarding it, as the US and UK did in 2003, who are they to turn round and object when other countries do? So yeah, laters Bolton.