John Bolton: America's Next Secretary of State?

“Radical Islam is a severe threat against America that is growing and the White House doesn’t seem to recognize or understand it because it doesn’t fit with their narrative of the Arab Spring. It is for either ideological reasons or for political reasons but either way the White House doesn’t appear to understand the dangers”, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton told me recently. 

Bolton is also a foreign policy adviser to the Romney campaign.

“I’m real concerned because Muslims worldwide understand the dangers of radicalism more than the White House does”, Bolton said. “Al Qaeda remains a very dangerous threat. You have a Muslim Brotherhood president in Egypt with Mohammed Morsi. Remember in 1981 Anwar Sadat was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood. You have a 14 year old girl who was just shot and nearly killed by the Taliban…Radical Islamists and world leaders from Russia to China, North Korea and Iran have sized up President Obama as a weak and ineffective President.”

On the matter of Iran Bolton is convinced that despite tough public warnings and rhetoric the Obama administration–if reelected–will never support a military attack to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.  

“Obama will never use military force on Iran. The Israelis know that and the Iranians know it too…The Israelis can destroy key aspects on their own (Iranian nuclear facilities) of what we know is there right now. Though it stretches the outer limits of Israel’s abilities, again, based only upon what it is that we know is there now.”

When asked about the significance of “outing” the now imprisoned Pakistani dentist who helped locate bin Laden–a devastating story all but forgotten by the mainstream media–Bolton said:

“It sends a signal to our allies that you pay a high price if you come to the aid of the United States. But it also is part of a troubling trend of national security leaks by this administration. They seem more concerned about spiking the ball than they do about keeping from putting our national security at risk.”

Since I routinely receive email from readers and listeners advocating John Bolton for Secretary of State, I asked him about his interest in that position should Mitt Romney get elected. He never ruled out the possibility:

“Look I’m flattered by such suggestions but first and foremost we need to get a Republican elected to the White House before we can ever consider engaging in such conversation.As my former boss James Baker used to say, ‘keep your eye on the prize.’ Right now everything is predicated on getting Mitt Romney elected.”