John Bolton: Obama Weakness on Russia, China ‘Has Made Risk of Hostilities Greater’

During his appearance on Thursday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily with host Stephen K. Bannon, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton warned that Barack Obama’s weakness has inspired adversaries around the globe to push forward – from Islamist terrorists to serious global powers like Russia and China.

“What the President has done, by reducing our military capability, has made the risk of hostilities greater,” Bolton argued. He said it was time to include major potential adversaries such as Russia and China in our missile defense plans, as well as possible attacks from rogue states like North Korea or Iran, and terrorist deployment of weapons of mass destruction.

“I have to say, as we see Russia getting more and more belligerent, and upgrading its forces… China, in particular, dramatically expanding its missile capabilities and its nuclear stockpile… I think we have to think back to the original Reagan design, in the Strategic Defense Initiative, and at least plan for, and think about, a much more comprehensive national missile defense system,” he advised.  “Because it’s the only way we have to protect our innocent civilians. They are the ones most vulnerable today to the likes of North Korea and Iran, and they would be the ones vulnerable down the road.”

Bolton fit China’s militarization of the South China Sea into his near-future threat profile.

“What they’re trying to do is establish sovereignty over the South China Sea,” he said. “This is not just an abstract political issue. Right now, those waters are international waters, where there’s at least a right of innocent passage. Every barrel of oil from the Middle East that comes to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and others goes through the South China Sea. So if they’ve got sovereignty and effective military control over the South China Sea, Beijing has its hands around the throats of those key economies: key allies and trading partners of the United States.”

Bolton added that the Obama Administration’s passive response to China’s provocations is dangerous, jeopardizing the vital American interest of free commerce through the South China Sea.  

“If we had the deterrent strength in our Navy that we had twenty years ago, I think the Chinese would have had second thoughts about even starting this,” he said. “It’s very late in the game, and another year of the Obama presidency will leave the next President in very difficult circumstances.”

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