A perfect storm is brewing over the White House. A mercurial, ego-driven president is hooking up with a war monger infamous for offering abysmal advice. The combination of President Donald Trump and his newly named national security adviser, John Bolton, doesn't bode well for world peace.
Given Trump's proclivity for rash, emotion-based decision making, nothing is more important than for cool-headed, clear-thinking, smart people to surround him. Outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster was among those essential voices of moderation, along with ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Replacing Tillerson is the hawkish CIA director, Mike Pompeo, who shares Trump's and Bolton's fervent desire to scrap the Iran nuclear deal. While Tillerson insisted throughout his tenure that all diplomatic avenues be exhausted with North Korea, Pompeo has spoken of decapitating that country's leadership and offering the president "a range of options" if he decides to choose a more forceful approach.
Neither North Korea nor Iran show any sign of yielding, even under threat of war. Despite having publicly mocked Tillerson's diplomacy on North Korea, Trump is planning a face-to-face meeting with dictator Kim Jong Un, possibly in May.
Enter Bolton. He has said that sanctions don't work, and the time for talking to North Korea is over. If so, what other options would he offer the president? When President George W. Bush was contemplating war to rid Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein of his nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, Bolton was among the loudest cheerleaders for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Other Bush advisers have since acknowledged they were wrong and accepted that they were too hasty in assessing that war was the president's best option. Not Bolton. To this day, he defends the decision, even though it is now incontrovertible that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction and didn't provide safe harbor for members of al-Qaida.
Trump is among those who were harshly critical of Bush's military adventurism, correctly noting the rampant regional destabilization that resulted.
He also parts ways with Bolton on Russia. Bolton believes Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election constituted an "act of war," whereas Trump has repeatedly downplayed it or denied that meddling occurred.
Trump has a shocking tendency to ignore advice he doesn't want to hear. He was handed a note card last week saying, "DO NOT CONGRATULATE HIM," just before his phone call to newly re-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump congratulated Putin anyway.
Another big weakness is Trump's tendency to adopt the last analysis he hears, whether that's a Fox News commentator or the last adviser to speak in the Oval Office. Bolton soon will be the last voice in the room. With few moderating influences left to tamp down the president's worst instincts, we shudder at the possibilities.
REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH
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