The news that Donald Trump has appointed right-wing warmonger John Bolton as his national security adviser is an ominous signal that the world could become an even more dangerous place. Bolton replaces General H.R. McMaster, a career officer seen as “too moderate” among the most rabid supporters of the President.
Until now, Bolton was most infamous as George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2005-2006, and for his previous role as the State Department official in charge of arms control, during the period when lies about Iraq’s non-existent weapons programs were invented to justify the US-British invasion of 2003.
The Bolton appointment poses an immediate threat to preparations for direct talks between the US and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Until now, there were cautious hopes that a historic face-to-face meeting between Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong-un might bring progress towards a formal peace agreement to end the US war of aggression against Korea, withdraw US troops, provide all-sided security guarantees, and ultimately to reunify the peninsula. But Bolton claimed in the Wall Street Journal last month that an unprovoked nuclear attack by the US on North Korea would be completely legal. Calling this “worrisome news”, South Korean defence committee chair Kim Hack Yong added, “North Korea and the US need to have dialogue but this only fuels worries over whether the talks will ever happen.”
But wait, there’s more. As a bitter critic of the US-Iran nuclear agreement, Bolton has repeatedly urged war against Iran, which could spark catastrophic global consequences. He supported imperialism’s 2011 assault on Libya and regime-change efforts in Syria, both of which have created widespread chaos and death in the North Africa-Middle East region. With John Bolton back in the White House, the planet is a big step closer to nuclear disaster.
