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John Kerry Superstar
“John Kerry has the skill, toughness, and ego to be a great secretary of state,” says Aaron David Miller on ForeignPolicy.com. So that’s that.
But don’t stop there. Miller goes on to say:
This sense of self-confidence is the hallmark of the Kerry style of diplomacy. No problem is too big that it can’t be made better. Trying and failing isn’t ideal; but it’s better than not trying at all. And if given enough time and focus — will and skill, too — there’s always a way forward. Only someone with this kind of can-do attitude would venture into Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy against such extremely long odds; keep pushing for a Geneva conference to end Syria’s civil war with the faintest of hopes of success; and (not or) be bullish on a deal with Iran that has alienated key U.S. allies and much of Congress, too.
But wait, there’s more. In fact, Miller pulls out the debate trick everyone in Washington with an apparent failure to explain away uses:
I’m less interested in an interim report card on his record. It is way too soon for that. What intrigues me more are the trend lines, and specifically what will be required at the end of the day for him to be judged a truly consequential secretary of state, let alone one of America’s best. Perhaps this isn’t his goal. But watching John Kerry — the Energizer Bunny of U.S. diplomacy — I’d be stunned if it wasn’t.
First, a big “LOL” for the Energizer Bunny reference. But the real rabbit out of the hat is the idea that no matter messed up Kerry seems to be at present, we just have to wait, for what, like 20 or 40 years and then we’ll see he was right all along. I remember the Bush apologists saying the same garbage about the Iraq War, give it time, history will judge. Right.
The article goes on and on, tumbling to earth somewhere between the Plain of Lack of Insight and the Sea of Hagiography. And why not? Here’s what the author’s Wikipedia page has to tell us about his objectivity on the subject of America’s international relations, especially in the MidEast:
Miller worked within the United States Department of State for twenty four years (1978–2003). Between 1988 and 2003, Miller served six secretaries of state as an advisor on Arab-Israeli negotiations, where he participated in American efforts to broker agreements between Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestinians. He left the Department of State in January 2003 to serve as president of Seeds of Peace, an international youth organization, founded in 1993. In January 2006, he became a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.
Now you’d think a guy who was dining out on participating in 15 years of stalemate in the Middle East might be a tad… humble, or introspective, instead of the dull cheerleading that passes for journalism over at FP.com. Hah hah.
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pitchfork said...
1BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..HOHOHOHO..HEEEEEEEEE..HAHAHA!
Confidence Man.
fucking priceless..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_Man
see: Confidence tricks
Con Man
HOHOHOHO..HEEEEEEEEE..HAHAHA!
FP ..yer killen me.
11/27/13 1:06 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2Miller’s lip service on Kerry makes Lara Logan’s 60 minute blowjob on Morgan Jones seem rather reserved. Good to see Logan got the “Rather” treatment by See-BS.
11/27/13 1:37 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3Speaking of BJ watchers:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/nsa-porn-muslims_n_4346128.html
11/27/13 1:53 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
4Rich Bauer said…
Speaking of BJ watchers:
Indeed. You can bet they got their eyes on some BJ’s in Congress/DoS too. NSA makes J. Edgar look like a small time blackmailer. Which, if Russ Tice’s revelations are any measure, we should see some Snowdens files in the future backing him up. If and when we do..I wouldn’t want to be in WDC..heads will be exploding exponentially.
11/27/13 3:40 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5Speaking of BJs, the NSA’s lame excuse the 202 area code it monitores was a mistake for Cairo ranks up there with “I won’t come in your mouth.”
11/27/13 3:51 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
6Rich Bauer said…
Speaking of BJs, the NSA’s lame excuse the 202 area code it monitores was a mistake for Cairo ranks up there with “I won’t come in your mouth.”
Hahahahahahahahaha! Says Mike Rogers to Feinstein while NSA watches. 🙂
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2514095/NSA-terror-Edward-Snowdens-doomsday-cache-secrets.html
11/27/13 3:55 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7“According to an NSA audit from May 2012 leaked by Edward Snowden, there were 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. In one case, the NSA intercepted a “large number” of calls placed from Washington when a PROGRAMMING ERROR confused the U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt. The audit only counted violations committed at the NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters and other facilities in the Washington area.”
11/27/13 3:56 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
8goddamnit..Peter..we need an “edit” button.
Meant to insert this..
This is exactly why every last politician in WDC is worried. National Security my ass. Their worried about THEIR ass..being exposed.
11/27/13 3:59 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
9Rich Bauer said…
In one case, the NSA intercepted a “large number” of calls placed from Washington when a PROGRAMMING ERROR confused the U.S. area code 202 for 20,
Programming error. riiiiiiiiiight. WDC. unhunh. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
What was that you were saying about…”won’t come in your mouth?”
11/27/13 4:04 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
10Well SOOPRISE SOOPRISE SOOPRISE!!!
quote:”As part of that investigation, a senior F.B.I. agent recently came forward with what the inspector general’s office described as accusations of “significant misconduct” in the surveillance program, people with knowledge of the investigation said. Those accusations are said to involve whether the N.S.A. made Americans targets in eavesdropping operations based on insufficient evidence tying them to terrorism.
And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said.”unquote
NSA tried to wiretap a Congresscritter without a warrant. whudda thunk. This shit is getting better by the day. Won’t be long now.
http://www.emptywheel.net/
11/27/13 9:08 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
11The Lara Logan spread in Playboy. ” She had a wide on for empire and became a harlot for empire….”
I nominate Kerry for the Inadvertent Nobel Peace Prize. An offhand sardonic remark is noticed by Putin who then saves Assad’s rear/ It is a comical as it gets.
11/27/13 11:21 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
12Happy Thanksgiving day everyone.
It’s kinda odd though. Seems like an oxymoron or something. I mean..think the opposite. How can you be thankful if you were sad? Like..SAD THANKSGIVING everyone! Not that I’m really happy about anything at the moment. I am thankful for many things..but not happy. Hey..what is HAPPY?
Happy. What a weird word.
Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy. Sounds weird.
Like in the grocery store the yesterday. I look around at all the people doing their last minute shopping..no one actually looked..happy. In fact, most looked really pissed off. Maybe Thanksgiving is actually a day to pretend you are happy. Who knows. All I know is I get to sit on my ass while the women in my family go about fixing a whole lot of good stuff to give me a heart attack. Hmmm, I’m sure that’ll make at least one person I know on this planet..ahem..happy. God. It’s only 7am and I’m already ranting. Probably from looking at tweets from Greenwald to Gostolla to ACLU. I must be crazy. Well..anyway.
Happy Thanksgiving.
bahhumbug. and yes..I’m a curmudgeon.
🙂
11/28/13 12:25 PM | Comment Link
Helen Marshall said...
13Well said, Peter.
11/28/13 4:32 PM | Comment Link