Twenty years on, John Bolton is still defending the US’s Iraq War

“It wasn’t a lack of intelligence” that led to the war, says Bolton, a leading proponent of the US invasion.

John Bolton was a senior adviser to US President George W. Bush on arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament leading up to the US invasion of Iraq 20 years ago.

Bolton, one of the strongest proponents of the war, has repeatedly argued that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein posed a threat not only to the United States but to the rest of the world, making claims of weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaeda.

But were these claims merely pretexts to further the long-standing goal of some in the Bush administration to overthrow Saddam? And how much dissenting evidence was ignored in the run-up to the war?

On FirstMarc Lamont Hill speaks with Bush-era Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Affairs and later US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.