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8 | SEPTEMBER 19 • 2019 

1942 - 2019

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week
jn

P

erhaps it was as much 
about personalities as 
policy. The notoriously 
brusque and hard-driving John 
Bolton was always an awkward 
fit as national security adviser for 
a president like Donald T
rump, 
who prefers subordinates to be 
sycophants. The relationship 
between two men 
with, to put it 
mildly, very strong 
personalities was 
probably always 
fated to be of rel-
atively short dura-
tion. But there’
s 
no avoiding the 
conclusion that the events that 
precipitated T
rump’
s demand for 
Bolton’
s resignation were driven 
by their profound disagreements 
about how the United States 
should deal with rogue nations 
like Iran, North Korea and 
Venezuela, as well as the question 
of whether to sit down for talks 
with the Taliban.
So while those predicting a 
sudden shift in American foreign 
policy are probably wrong, there’
s 

also no question that without 
the stubborn Bolton acting as a 
break on the president’
s neo-iso-
lationist “America First” instincts, 
the chances that Trump will con-
tinue to push for dramatic dip-
lomatic breakthroughs on those 
fronts that are probably illusory 
will certainly increase.
The last straw for T
rump was 
almost certainly the result of the 
fallout from the announcement 
that his proposed Camp David 
summit the second week in 
September with leaders of the 
Taliban was cancelled. T
rump, 
with the reported support of 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 
was eager for some kind of an 
agreement about winding down 
U.S. participation in the war in 
Afghanistan. Bolton opposed 
the proposed deal with the 
Taliban and was rightly against 
the idea of hosting terrorists 
with American blood on their 
hands at Camp David to seal the 
agreement, especially just days 
after 9/11. Having the Taliban at 
the presidential retreat was a ter-
rible idea, though the dramatic 

nature of the gesture apparently 
appealed to T
rump.
The effort collapsed when 
T
rump was finally persuaded 
that the Taliban wouldn’
t cease 
involvement in terrorism and 
couldn’
t be trusted to keep the 
peace in the wake of a U.S. with-
drawal. The president deserved 
credit for having the guts to walk 
away from a bad deal, despite 
badly wanting to conclude a pact 
that would have allowed him to 
keep his promise to withdraw 
American troops from the coun-
try’
s longest war.
Yet reportedly, T
rump couldn’
t 
stand Bolton taking credit for a 
decision that came with no gains 
and so finally got rid of him. 
So, the question now must be 
whether Bolton’
s departure leads 
to a significant shift in U.S. for-
eign policy, particularly toward 
Iran.
The reason why it has been so 
hard to predict T
rump’
s inten-
tions on this issue is that he has 
always been torn between his 
disdain for Obama’
s dangerous 
nuclear pact and his instinctive 

abhorrence for American involve-
ment in overseas conflicts. The 
basic contradiction between these 
two impulses only seemed to be 
resolved in the last 18 months, 
once he put a foreign-policy 
team in place — in the form of 
Bolton and Pompeo, who agreed 
on getting tough with Iran and 

commentary
With Bolton Gone, Will Trump 
Make a Deal with Iran?

Jonathan 
Tobin

continued on page 10

So, the question 
now must be 
whether Bolton’s 
departure leads 
to a signifi
 cant 
shift
 in U.S. 
foreign policy, 
particularly 
toward Iran.

— JONATHAN TOBIN

