Oct 20 2007
The diplomat
Don’t we all wish that we had gone to the finishing school? Diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner, stated Wikipedia. Hungry hawk John Bolton was the top diplomat who doesn’t project such image at all. An European newspaper bureau chief had lunch with him recently, that confirmed my believe. Bolton ordered club sandwich with glass of iced tea at Mayflower Hotel in DC and periodically drenches his fries in ketchup, while the report trying to show not too European for Bolton’s taste by tackling his salad with aggressive jabs. There were a few ‘awkward moments of silence’. .. After the waiter cleaned the table, asking what else would they like next, Bolton said ‘just a coffee’. ‘I request a double espresso with separate hot milk. Bolton gives me another of his flinty looks. Feeling the need to explain, I say: “Ordinarily I’d order a large macchiato, but sometimes they don’t know what that is.” I realizse at once that I am only digging myself deeper. “I wouldn’t know,” says Bolton after a pause. “I just get coffee.”‘ 
Last issue of Time had chief justice Roberts on the cover, who’s court - “it’s a small space for such robust egos and large minds, but by all accounts, the exchanges are failingly cordial.” They respectfully agree to disagree. … hmmmm..
Anyway, Bolton related a story when they discuss ‘clientilism’: George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, who would point to a large globe and ask newly appointed American ambassadors to find their country. Invariably they would point to where they were going. “No,” said Shultz, spinning it back to America, “that is your country.” Before the meal ended, Bolton predicting that George W. Bush will launch a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities before leaving office. HMMMM…