Bolton Warns of Islamic State in Egypt

After two days of largely ignoring events in the Middle East, the crowd at CPAC received some foreign policy red meat from former UN ambassador John Bolton.

After two days of largely ignoring events in the Middle East, the crowd at CPAC heard from former UN Ambassador John Bolton who argued that the Obama administration is not up to the task and is unready for the challenges arising from the recent protests.

Bolton described the current situation as a "real international crisis."  While the focus of the speech remained centered on Egypt, Bolton also mentioned the riots in Tunisia and Algeria.

It didn't take long for Bolton to give his assessment of the White House's ability to respond to the crisis. "We don't have a leadership in the White House that can deal with it," Bolton said.  He compared the Obama White House to the Carter regime reminding the audience of the changes in governments in Iran and Nicaragua during the Carter years.

Bolton stressed that while "we can wish the best" for the people of Egypt and their desire for democracy, he had clear doubts about Egypt becoming a liberal state, largely because of the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood. Bolton doubted that the Muslim Brotherhood would govern as a secular organization. After all he stated, “it's name is 'Muslim Brotherhood.'"

Developing a theme that democracy does not always bring liberal societies, Bolton cited the historical examples of Germany in the 1930s and Hamas' victory in the Gaza Strip. In order to avoid similar illiberal outcomes as in those cases, Bolton claimed that the Egyptian elections should only allow "real" political parties to run, not ones that use force or are terrorist groups.  He again cited the example of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The entire conference had largely been silent on Obama's handling of Egypt, and within the beltway, there actually has been a fair amount of consensus on the issue. Bolton's speech gave a way for conservatives to dissent from that: "This is a critical time where we need a president who understands the priority of American national security, not someone who is worried about staying on top of the media spin cycle."

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