Posted by
Nerdus Maximus on Friday, July 28, 2006 1:36:25 PM
This
morning I heard a clip of a Senator questioning John Bolton as to why he has
not done more to build “consensus” in the U.N.
He seemed to think that Ambassador Bolton had not been doing a good job
of representing the interest of the United States at the United Nations
because he has frequently been in opposition to many of the other nations
represented. The Senator seemed to think
that the most important grade on a report card is next to “Works and play well
with others.” I suspect it is the
Senator who is doing a bad job of representing the interests of the United States.
Mathematics
has a term that is a direct equivalent for “consensus” – Lowest Common
Denominator. The only way to get all of
the countries in the U.N. to agree with what you propose is to eliminate everything
important from your proposal – to appeal to the lowest common denominator. This is not in the best interests of the United States. Our Ambassador needs to persuade, not “build
consensus”. It is more important to make
right than to make nice. John Bolton
understands this. Apparently some
Senators do not.