Fears of Committment

Washington isn't taking "the common bargain" of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as seriously as it once did, and that's dimming global support for the U.S. campaign to shut down the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector said.

Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, by questioning the value of treaties and international law, has also damaged the U.S. position, Hans Blix said.

"There is a feeling the common edifice of the international community is being dismantled," the Swedish arms expert said.

But why should we believe Hans Blix? After all, he is that ousted, discredited Iraqi arms inspector who the US ran out of Iraq in the build up because he said that there was more time needed to determine whether Iraq had built up a weapons program... So hey. He doesn't really count anyway.