Is Kerry in Denial?
Does John Kerry understand the world he inherited? Is he in denial?
Consider. At Davos, Switzerland, Kerry called it a “myth” that America is withdrawing, and “the most bewildering version of this disengagement myth is about a supposed U.S. retreat from the Middle East.”
Is he serious? How else does Kerry describe Obama’s pullout of all U.S. troops from Iraq, and from Afghanistan by year’s end?
Syria is “someone else’s civil war,” says President Obama. If we do any strikes there, promised Kerry, they will be “unbelievably small,” and rest assured there will be “no [U.S.] boots on the ground.”
When al-Qaida and its allies seized Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar province, Kerry rushed to the microphones: “We’re not … contemplating returning. We’re not contemplating putting boots on the ground. This is their fight. … this is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis.”
Yes it is. But does this sound like the defiant “This will not stand!” of George H. W. Bush, after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait?
Moreover, a Pew poll last fall found that 52 percent of the nation approves of U.S. disengagement, saying America should “mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.”
Staying out of other countries’ quarrels and other nations’ wars is what Americans want, and Obama is delivering.
Why does John Kerry deny the obvious?
To his credit, the secretary has undertaken three diplomatic initiatives, the success of any one of which could earn him a Nobel.
The Geneva II Conference on Syria, the U.S.-U.N. negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and the Palestinian-Israeli peace initiative.
Yet Kerry’s own undiplomatic conduct may be imperiling two of his initiatives, and naivete and hubris may be blinding him to the coming collapse of the third.
On arrival at Geneva II, Kerry demanded that Iran be disinvited, then launched into a tirade insisting that Assad get out of Damascus:
“There is no way … that the man who led the brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy to govern.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem was right back in his face: “No one, Mr. Kerry, has the right to provide legitimacy … except for the Syrian people.”
Dismissing Kerry’s call for a transitional government without Assad, Moallem implied that not only was Kerry’s position irrelevant – Assad currently holds the whip hand in Syria and is going nowhere – but irrational from the standpoint of U.S. national interests.
“Those doing suicide attacks in New York,” Moallem instructed Kerry, “are the same as those doing it in Syria.”
The Washington Post backed Moallem with a report that Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on all jihadists in Syria to line up in “one rowlike, solid structure in confronting your sectarian, secularist enemy,” the Assad regime, that is backed by “Iran, Russia and China.”
“What makes our hearts bleed,” said Zawahiri, “is the hostile sedition, which has intensified among the ranks of the mujahideen of Islam.”
Can Kerry explain why America’s goal remains the ouster of Assad, when the offensive coordinator for the rebels who would take power is the successor to Osama bin Laden?
Asked what would happen should Iran backslide on the new interim nuclear agreement, Kerry rattled America’s rockets:
“If they do that, then the military option that is available to the United States is ready and prepared to do what it would have to do.”
Who is Kerry to threaten a war Congress has never authorized?
How does it advance diplomacy to threaten publicly to bomb your negotiating partners? Kerry talks as though he were back in the Senate.
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard dismissed Kerry’s threat as “ridiculous,” called his negotiating strategy “bankrupt” and warned that “the revolutionary people” of Iran are anxious for battle with the Americans.
If Kerry’s wants a deal, how does this bellicose bluster help?
Kerry now says that Iran will have to “dismantle” centrifuges. But is not America’s objective here proof positive Iran has no nuclear weapon or weapons program, and that its nuclear program is peaceful?
When did the destruction of Iranian centrifuges become the U.S. demand? Tehran has now planted its feet in concrete that there will be no dismantling of centrifuges, and “Bibi” Netanyahu is crowing that this means the failure of the talks.
As for an Israeli-Palestinian deal in which Kerry has invested 10 trips, Israeli economics minister Naftali Bennett calls it “a joke.”
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon says that Kerry “is acting out of misplaced obsession and messianic fervor,” that his peace plan “is not worth the paper it is written on,” that he wishes Kerry would get his Nobel prize now, and leave Israel alone.
As for Bibi, who resigned from Ariel Sharon’s cabinet rather than accept a withdrawal from Gaza, he now says that not one settler on the West Bank will be uprooted, and not one settlement shut down.
Kerry is heading into a minefield. And so are we.
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Read more by Patrick J. Buchanan
- Will Mobocracy Triumph in Ukraine? – February 3rd, 2014
- What Did Our Wars Win? – January 20th, 2014
- A Blank Check for War on Iran – January 13th, 2014
- Why Neo-Isolationism Is Soaring – December 19th, 2013
- Are the Senkakus Worth a War? – December 12th, 2013
Fran Macadam
January 28th, 2014 at 12:19 am
"Staying out of other countries’ quarrels and other nations’ wars is what Americans want, and Obama is delivering."
I wish I could believe that is what he is doing rather than temporizing in the face of the public rejection of the preferred policy of war that the elites had planned and still agitate public opinion for.
sherban
January 28th, 2014 at 1:34 am
Syria government ,together with Iran,Russia and others proposes the logic solution:elections.If the Syrian people see Mr.Assad responsible for what happens in Syria than he will be rejected in election,but ,more probably,the people know something else.In fact it is Israel which demands Assad to leave in an ilogic, as usual ,demand.Haffez Assad,the father of Bashar,fought along US against Iraq in the war gulf,so Assad are not a such anti Occident or anti American.Before three years Ehud Barak announced that Assad will fall in two weeks.US are for elections but without Assad.This is like the elections in Iran where where eliminated some people in advance and were criticized by the "free world".For sure ,if it is true what the media wrote about Assad the Syrian will not make the mistake made by the American people when they elected Bush for a second term.
The "peace process"in Israel has no chance,even in the commentaries of Israeli journalists.Kerry works for a scheme which could not be accepted by Palestinians and then to accuse them for the failure.They say that Bennett is so stupid that he didn't understand the old trick of Bibi (and the others Israeli governments) and threat to leave.
With Iran US make all what she can to cause a failure.Wendy Sherman said about the high attention necessary in treating with Iranians "because we know that they have in their genes deception".Imagine that one would speak about the genes of Israeli or Jews,or Americans.Threats of force and more sanctions run permanently.
Empire Slayer
January 28th, 2014 at 2:20 am
us interest in Syria is weakening it before attacking Iran. No mystery. Us is not a neutral arbiter on Israel. us has been blocking the internationally agreed on settlement for decades, because the US wants to keep its outlaw nuclear military aggression base: http://empireslayer.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-solu…
sherban
January 28th, 2014 at 2:22 am
Syria government ,together with Iran,Russia and others proposes the logic solution:elections.If the Syrian people see Mr.Assad responsible for what happens in Syria than he will be rejected in election,but ,more probably,the people know something else.In fact it is Israel which demands Assad to leave in an ilogic, as usual ,demand.Haffez Assad,the father of Bashar,fought along US against Iraq in the war gulf,so Assad are not a such anti Occident or anti American.Before three years Ehud Barak announced that Assad will fall in two weeks.US are for elections but without Assad.This is like the elections in Iran where where eliminated some people in advance and were criticized by the "free world".For sure ,if it is true what the media wrote about Assad the Syrian will not make the mistake made by the American people when they elected Bush for a second term.
Danton
January 28th, 2014 at 3:16 am
Do world leaders take Kerry seriously any more? The man is obviously a drama queen and emotes all over the world with his sixties hug me rhetoric while at the same tie he hides his laser stick. Shut up Kerry. Most of us Americans are too busy at home and have no time to kill strange people overseas.
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outsider
January 28th, 2014 at 6:32 am
Great article, as usual Mr. Buchanan. Your logic is impeccable. As Buchanan says, the State Dept. is supposed to be about diplomacy. How can you enter diplomacy with demands that are intended to blow it up? Unfortunately, I don't think that Kerry, who should have remained in the Senate, has gone rogue. If he had, he would have been fired, wouldn't he? Kerry must be taking his marching orders from President Obama, who has had an inconsistent, schizophrenic foreign policy since he took office. Why, for example, would he have kept a completely undiplomatic war hawk like Hillary Clinton on as SOS for his entire first term if he truly is a man of peace? Whatever happened to putting professional diplomats into these positions rather than well-known politicians who are used to running off at the mouth?
no jojo
January 28th, 2014 at 6:46 am
Patty please stop with the bull "Staying out of other countries’ quarrels and other nations’ wars is what Americans want, and Obama is delivering." Another political scam to kick off 2016 election. Take a good peek at USA's lately involvements in Ukraine or China or Russia USA ?
How many of you know that John Kerry is actually 100% Kosher? Check out his blood line and how did his last name become Kerry from Koshe and who is he married to 2nd.
Thomas
January 28th, 2014 at 8:04 am
Perhaps it's the same retro-gene as afflicts Albright in Kerry, that makes him seek the (another) 1/2 million dead by word and deed …………. He needs to consult with his conscience, or does retro-activation mute it, Isn't Kerry currently a Catholic? Unless he's a cripto-Catholic, you would think he would want to consult with the Pope… What IS Kerry's guiding compass…. How did he go from anti false-flag war in Vietnam, to pro false-flag war in Iraq.. and now on to threats of likely false-flag war in Syria and Iran… and for whom..??? The "We Will Rule the World" mindset is turning America into an authoritarian debt slave.
Leaves us an only hope: Collapse of the dollar which fuels the conquest madness…. RIP Pete….
carroll price
January 28th, 2014 at 8:55 am
Kerry's ill-tempered remarks toward all perceived opponents of US domination of the region, results from the accumulated rage and frustration he feels toward Russia, who's blocking Washington's long- planned wars of conquest of Syria, followed by Yemen and Iran.
RICinOR
January 28th, 2014 at 11:01 am
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon wants the US to leave Israel alone. The US should take his advice. Stop sending billions of dollars in aid to Israel, withdraw the huge stocks of weaponry that Israel draws from freely to be replenished at US expense, stop supplying missiles for Israel's "Iron Dome" at US expense, stop supporting Israel with a US veto at the UN, and end the ridiculously lopsided "special relationship" that sees the US bearing all the costs while any and all benefits go to Israel. Yaalon wants the US to leave Israel alone. The US should do exactly that.
Orville H. Larson
January 28th, 2014 at 12:30 pm
The U.S. should remove the Zionist entity from American life support. Let some other chump be victimized by them. . . .
Orville H. Larson
January 28th, 2014 at 12:36 pm
John Kerry–like his predecessor The Pantsuited One–is a disgrace as a diplomat.
wars r u.s.
January 28th, 2014 at 2:20 pm
Sadly, he had no worry of anyone taking him up on his request. And of course he knew that otherwise he doesn't say s**t.
dan
January 28th, 2014 at 3:43 pm
I'd be happy to leave the parasite called Israel alone. Lets keep the 3 billion we give them every year.
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