OxfordPress.com

Controversy and confrontation have been the mark of former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton as well as Conservative Week at Miami University.

However, Bolton's lecture on American foreign relations given Tuesday at Hall Auditorium went smoothly and without verbal headbutting.

Bolton, the big-name speaker College Republicans inked as the center of Conservative Week, entered the stage to a near standing ovation and left with a pleased crowd.

He spoke on the international community, focusing on the imposing menace that Iran and North Korea bring as two-thirds of the Axis of Evil.

"Iraq is critically important in order to stop terrorism, but foreign policy is more than Iraq. History will look at this decade at Iran and North Korea as the great threats of the United States," he said.

Bolton said he opposed the idea of negotiating with either Iran or North Korea, believing nothing can be done diplomatically to stop either country from acquiring nuclear power.

"Time is not on our side," Bolton said of the hope of negotiating with North Korea.

Instead, he proposed pressuring North Korea through China and insisted reuniting North and South Korea as the ideal way to disarm Kim Jong-Il. But while he saw China ill at the prospect of North Korea with nuclear weapons, he said the Chinese also would be wary a reunited Korea would destabilize Northeast Asia.

"There is no way Kim Jong-Il will give up nuclear weapons," Bolton said. "It is his trump card."

Bolton also chastised the economic and social decline brought on during Jong-Il's tenure. He noted the average height and weight of a normal North Korean has significantly decreased in the time of Jong-Il has served leader of the country.

"North is a 17-million person prison camp," he said.

On Iran, Bolton saw an equally imminent threat due to its growing development in nuclear power. He spoke of having a hard time taking anything Iranian diplomats say at face value.

"It is fanciful to think that what they are doing in the nuclear field is a peaceful use as they say, 'Well, our oil and natural gas are running out.' We had the Department of Energy do a survey a couple years and estimate when Iran would run out of oil and natural gas.," Bolton said. "At current rate of production, Iran would run out in 350 to 400 years"

He said he thinks Iranian youth desire a different kind of life than the generation before.

Bolton was introduced on stage by Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones.

The event was sponsored by the College Republicans of Miami University as part of its annual Conservative Week in Miami University. The group caught criticism last year with its animated activities that included an anti-PETA pig roast and sign-ups to be an intern for former President Bill Clinton.

"Our goal is to inform," College Republican President Rob Mecklenborg said. "We're able to touch thousands of students each day with Conservative Week, and we have fun doing it."

Also sponsoring the lecture were Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Model United Nations, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the clay target team and Miami Students for Israel.

Matthew Hedebrand, vice-president of the nonpartisan Intercollegiate Studies Institute, saw Bolton as a public servant able to bring debate and intellectualism in a mostly apolitical campus community.

Hedebrand was impressed and surprised with how non-confrontational Bolton was in his lecture.

"The media has (portrayed) him as abrasive and (someone who) doesn't leave room for others' opinions, but he came across as much more analytical and passive," he said.

Bolton, in a press conference before the lecture, said he has grown accustomed to receiving harsh criticism.

"People with my views need to be on campuses," he said.