Withstanding the Furrowed Brow

It seems as if opponents of John Bolton's appointment to be our representative to the UN are concerned that his withering glares, furrowed brow, finger wagging, and--and at this point please take your children away from your computer screen--hands on hips will frighten the North Korean and Iranian representatives to the UN. God knows what fright he will inspire in the Belgian representative.

Via Instapundit, let this be a little soothing message to those concerned over the mental health of Mr. Bolton's fellow UN representatives:

My firm belief is that anyone who thinks that John Bolton is going to single-handedly go in and bully the United Nations into submission is smoking crack and has no concept of the powerful force known as institutional inertia.

Anyone who thinks Bolton can go in there and 'shake things up' and actually change anything is fooling themselves and fails to understand that the very nature of the UN is one that the assembly is made up of people who have their own national interests at stakes. They aren't going to roll over because some foul-mouthed (presumably) bully goes in and scolds them.

The author points out that in the past, other tough representatives have ridden out to do battle and we still have a UN that wastes money, provides multiple forums for thug regimes, steals money, and rapes little kids. This should be comforting to those who claim to fear Bolton's impact.

The UN has people able to stand up to finger wagging better than our intelligence analysts, so the my-UN-right-or-wrong crowd has little to worry about with Bolton's appointment. The thugs and monsters who populate the international community's club will still be there after Bolton is gone and writing his memoirs.

Of course, I disagree with the author that we should implement Kofi Annan's reform plan. Still, I share his view that massive changes are unlikely even with Bolton there. I have hope that he can make some improvements. I have more hope that he will highlight all the reasons the UN needs changing and therefore why we shouldn't treat this body as some higher authority of moral standing. At best it has some technical bodies that are truly useful. At worst, well, we've seen those reports already so no need to repeat them here. The UN is a tool to be used--or not--as circumstances dictate.

And maybe we should send our intelligence analysts to survival courses to withstand the dreaded "withering glare." God help us if our spies are wimpier than Belgian diplomats.