Former UN Ambassador John Bolton agrees that Assad of Syria is pleased that America intervened and killed a number of his enemies in the newly initiated air strikes, but says the difficulty that he thinks the administration may not fully realize is that we have “multiple enemies sitting right next to each other.”
He says that while the strikes against ISIS and Khorasan were warranted and long overdue, “that doesn’t mean that it’s to our advantage to see the Assad regime encouraged or built up or given any sense that the United States is now prepared to accept its continued existence. And Iran needs to know that even more directly.”
Greta Van Susteren asks Bolton if there has been any backlash by the UN as to article 51, and whether we were justified under it. Bolton bristles at the question, stating, “I don’t think we have to be justified by article 51. I couldn’t care less in a sense; the United States has an inherent right of self-defense whatever the UN charter says.”
UN Article 51 says in part “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
She modifies the question adding that the administration is saying the action was taken in response to a request from Iraq, to which Bolton replies, “Well, of course that’s what they are going to say, because they don’t want to be involved at all. They don’t have their heart in it, the administration wishes they weren’t going through this. But if you have to construct a legal definition, that’s what article 51 says.”
He adds, “But the United States has an inherent right to self-defense independent of the UN Charter. It didn’t arise in 1945.
Greta asks, “Is it not significant that there is a coalition of five Arab nations going along side with us on this, is that not hugely significant?” Bolton responds, “Here’s why it’s newsworthy. Not that the five Arab nations joined us, but that we finally got off of our posterior and joined them.”
He continues, “You know they’ve been allied with the United States, I’m going to leave Qatar aside here for the second, but the other four have been tearing their hair out at the weakness and lack of focus on the threat that ISIS poses to them and to the United States and Europe. So I think they were delighted to fly with us and they only wish they could have done it six weeks ago.
