John Bolton Won't Shut Up About Bombing Iran

By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
Posted on July 2, 2009, Printed on May 26, 2012
http://www.alternet.org/story/141079/john_bolton_won%27t_shut_up_about_bombing_iran

A PATTERN EMERGES.... Time's Joe Klein notices that a certain former U.N. ambassador has a preoccupation with bombing a certain Middle Eastern country, and manages to keep finding major newspapers to publish his thoughts on the subject.

In the Washington Post today, screw-loose wingnut extraordinaire John Bolton has a column in which he advocates an Israeli strike against Iran. This would be shocking, except that...

On June 26, Bolton had an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times in which he advocated bombing Iran. And, well, er...

On June 12, he had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he advocated bombing Iran.

And that's just three op-eds in three weeks. We could go back a little further and find Bolton -- in op-eds, on Fox News -- advocating military attacks on Iran for years.

Indeed, as Adam Serwer noted, given Bolton's incessant rhetoric on the subject, "it's hard to take seriously his proposal that now is actually the opportune moment to bomb Iran."

I'd just add that it's interesting to consider the competing conservative messages on Iran. For the better part of June, the line was that the United States needed to do more to support Iranians. What we really needed to do, neocons said, was speak up and let the Iranian people know we're on their side. And yet, here's Bolton, arguing again that the one thing that's really needed is a bombing campaign on Iran.

Steve Benen is "blogger in chief" of the popular Washington Monthly online blog, Political Animal. His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio's "Sam Seder Show," and XM Radio's "POTUS '08."

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