Bolton: 'Lisbon Treaty will threaten NATO'
The Lisbon Treaty will threaten Nato and undermine democracy, a former senior Bush administration official has claimed.
John Bolton, known for being one of the US president’s most outspoken hawks, also said he would be stunned if any links between the US military and the anti-treaty campaign were proved.
The often controversial ex-US ambassador to the UN, regarded as a key proponent of the Iraq war in the run-up to the invasion, said he couldn’t understand why Irish people would support the EU reform treaty.
“I don’t understand why people voluntarily give up more power to bureaucrats,” he said.
“The only people you elect have a very limited role and I think this treaty will further enhance the power of institutions in Brussels without extending democratic authority to people.”
Bolton, seen as a hardliner among right-wing Republicans, said a Yes vote in Thursday’s referendum on the treaty could impact on the military alliance of European countries with the US.
“I think there is a risk that it would undercut Nato,” he said, before a talk on transatlantic relations at University College Dublin.
“Because if the European Union has its own military capability ... people would say if Europeans can take care of their own defence we don’t need Nato anymore.
“I think that would be a huge mistake.”
The Bush administration’s Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security between 2001 and 2005 said he was surprised at allegations of links between the No campaign and the US military.
“I would be stunned [if it was proven], and if there were anybody in the US military trying to do it and they were found out they would be fired,” he insisted.
Bush controversially rewarded Bolton for his loyalty by appointing him in 2005 as US ambassador to the UN, an organisation he had openly criticised.
He was forced to step down just more than a year later when the Democrats swept to power in the Senate.
Despite his senior Washington role in charge of Arms Control and International Security at the time of the Iraq war, Bolton said he never talked to President Bush about the invasion.
“I don’t think I ever talked to the President about Iraq. No. I don’t think so,” he said.
The diplomat maintains the war was an enormous strategic victory for the US, although he concedes mistakes were made in the aftermath, including not handing over power to Iraqis sooner.
“I don’t think the conflicts that have erupted in Iraq were caused by the US, these reflected divisions within Iraqi society that had festered for decades,” he said.
Bolton is now a fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute.
