"The main thing people feared at that time, was Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons stocks," Bolton said in 2009, defending the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In reality, what people feared were the Bush administration's false claims that Saddam had nuclear ambitions and the Iraqi government had ties to terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda.
Source: Hoover Institution
"I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct," Bolton told the Washington Examiner in 2015. "I think decisions made after that decision were wrong, although I think the worst decision made after that was the 2011 decision to withdraw US and coalition forces."
"A strike accompanied by effective public diplomacy could well turn Iran's diverse population against an oppressive regime," Bolton wrote in 2009, advocating for Israel to bomb Iran. "Most of the Arab world's leaders would welcome Israel solving the Iran nuclear problem, although they certainly won't say so publicly and will rhetorically embrace Iran if Israel strikes."
"King Abdullah of Jordan, who is not simply the Muslim king of a Muslim country, unlike our president [Obama]," Bolton said in a 2016 speech to the conservative American Freedom Alliance.
"It is perfectly legitimate for the United States to respond to the current 'necessity' posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons by striking first," Bolton wrote in February.