This interview shows exactly why I wanted to see John Bolton run for president, which coincidentally, took place just before he announced he wasn’t running. As this Brit took jabs at American foreign policy moves from the Bush administration and on, Bolton hit right back, unapologetically defending America’s need to move unilaterally in Iraq and Afghanistan and standing up for the use of enhanced interrogation techniques.
Here’s an example of one answer that I loved:
Host: Obama does talk a lot about values. You haven’t. You’ve talked much more about national interest. But, if for a moment, one assumes that values are important, do you believe – yet again, lesson learned from post 9/11 America – that it was a mistake, some of the techniques used, some of the enhanced interrogations, the renditions, the black sites, what many in the international community call torture techniques. Were those a mistake if America is trying to win the war on values?
Bolton: Well of course many in the international community are flatly wrong and I’m not going to have our policies dictated by the misinformation and misimpressions of other people.
BAM! This is exactly the type of strength and leadership we have been missing for a long time, that we so desperately need in a president.
The whole interview is great and runs about 24 minutes:
—