American Jackass: John Bolton and the OPWC

Bernard at Moon of Alabama has a most timely and interesting post on the fate of Jose Bustani, the Brazilian diplomat who ran the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons , recently awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

Bernard relates how Bustani was subjected to the unwelcome attentions of John Bolton, the abusive ass in charge of bending international institutions to the will of the neocons in the runup to the Iraq war, when Iraq and Libya sought to remove a US casus belli pretext by acceding to the chemical weapons regime.

The Bush administration was determined to block any efforts by Iraq to reduce its peril by engaging with the international community on the issue of weapons of mass destruction and forced Bustani from his post in 2002.  The injustice of this action was confirmed by an ILO judgment that awarded Bustani wages for the uncompleted years of his term.

I did not know that.  I was aware of Bolton’s unsuccessful efforts to purge ElBaradei from the IAEA, but not the issue of Bustani and the OPCW.  Thanks again to Bernard for shining a light on this dismal episode in American unilateralism.

By coincidence, today the Guardian gave Bolton space on its Comment is Free page to tout his alternative to multilateral engagement through international institutions for dealing with Iran: a military attack.  I would like to think we’ve learned enough to ignore John Bolton, but apparently that’s not the case.