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November 04, 2007

Qs and As with John Bolton

I'm way behind on my serious reading. In fact, my end table next to my bed is stacked high with books I've started reading or should have started reading.

But it's tempting to add John Bolton's memoir "Surrender is Not an Option," to the stack, because pretty much everything he says is a breath of fresh air. (Previous posts on Bolton here and here.)

Bolton is interviewed in today's New York Times Magazine by Deborah Solomon, and we'll assume it's a fair rendition of the interview, for whatever that's worth.

My favorite question, which I'm absolutely not making up:

Why do you think Iran shouldn’t have nuclear weapons?
Here's Bolton's answer:
When you have a regime that would be happier in the afterlife than in this life, this is not a regime that is subject to classic theories of deterrence. Retaliation for them, which would obliterate their society, doesn't have the same negative connotations for their leadership.
Short and to the point.

And my second-favorite response from Bolton -- about the Nobel Peace Prize that Al Gore won: "At least they didn't give Gore the prize for economics."