Will the real John Kerry please stand up (shades of To Tell the Truth)? Was the antiwar John Kerry of 1971 pictured above the true inner man, or, is the warmongering John Kerry of today the real deal? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…
______________________________
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Syria’s decision to join the Chemical Weapons Convention makes the planned American military strike on Syria redundant. Ahead of talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Genève, he said, “We presume that a solution to this problem makes any strike on Syria redundant. I’m convinced that our American partners, as President Obama said, definitely prefer a peaceful solution to Syria’s chemical weapons issue”. He warned against protracting Syria’s accession to the convention.
Kerry said that Damascus had 10 days to submit all required documents, adding that there was “nothing standard” about a 30-day lead time requested by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the USA accuses of using chemical weapons. Kerry went on to doubt the Syrian government’s readiness to give up its chemical weapons stockpile, saying, “The words of the Syrian régime, in our judgment, are simply not enough, which is why we’ve come here in order to work with the Russians. President Obama made clear that should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary. Expectations are high. … This isn’t a game; it has to be real. It has to be comprehensive. It has to be verifiable. It has to be credible. It has to be timely and implemented in a timely fashion, and, finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn’t take place”. Talks between top Russian and US diplomats have begun in Genève. Lavrov said that the talks should give an additional boost to preparations for an international conference on Syrian reconciliation in Genève. During his Genève visit, Lavrov also plans to meet with UN and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.
12 September 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20130912/183390776/Syrias-Bid-to-Join-UN-Treaty-Makes-US-Strike-Redundant–Lavrov.html
Editor’s Note:
The more that this plays out, the more that I agree with a Russian correspondent who told me, “This is nothing but political kabuki; it’s diplomatic shadowboxing”. Firstly, John Kerry has a credibility deficit as bad as Hilary Clinton’s… it’s why he lost the 2004 election. He’s a man of flexible convictions, as the old Tom Lehrer song had it:
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won’t even frown.
“Ha, Nazi Schmazi,” says Wernher von Braun.
Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
Say rather that he’s apolitical.
“Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department”, says Wernher von Braun.
In the 1970s, John Kerry was an antiwar activist… now, he’s a warmonger. What happened? It’s simple… John Kerry’s the sort who’s moved by crass ambition… his hunger for power overrides his moral compass. John Kerry is playing his role as the “bad cop”… Sergei Lavrov and VVP are the “good cops”. Did Barack Obama ever intend to use force? Maybe not… it could’ve been an Inside the Beltway manoeuvre to see who’s naughty and who’s nice. The rightwing punditry fell for it all… their hatred of Obama blinds them. Just you watch… Syria’s going to sign the Convention… the UN will say that it solves the chemical weapons problem… and the US Congress won’t vote on the matter. Kerry will expostulate, but no one will pay him any mind… after all, he’s a peacenik turned war-lover, and that’s worse than changing political parties… the second might be forgiven, but the forst betrays a major character flaw of major proportions. Expect more Sturm und Drang… it’ll signify nothing.
Break out a cold one… it looks like this one is going to fizzle out. Kerry is the most unconvincing sort out there, isn’t he? Kerry and Romney make good companions… both were so amoral and grasping that they handed the election to their opponents. Didn’t they ever hear of sic transit gloria mundi?
BMD
Voices from Russia 
13 September 2013. NO WAR IN SYRIA!
Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, International relations, Iran, Iraq, Libya, political commentary, politics, poster, Russia, Russian, socialism, Socialist, Socialists, Syria, Syrian Civil War, United States, USA, Vladimir Putin, White House, WMDs
_____________________________
The neocons and Interventionists in the USA are spoilt children… if they’re not given adulation… constantly and in public… they peevishly turn on and attack their interlocutors. I do notice some similarities in American aggression over the last twenty years… Federal Yugoslavia was socialist… Iraq was socialist… Libya was socialist… and Iran and Afghanistan are theocracies. You’ll note that all of them chose systems not based on the Crapitalist “Free Market“. Hmm… Syria is socialist, too! Methinks that I see the REAL reason for the Corporate Media beating the war drums. The Koch brothers and their ilk hate socialism… and wish to destroy it wherever it exists. However, VVP is stopping them… and there’s nothing left in the cupboard to stop him. This angers the One Percent… and their high dudgeon is visible on CNN and Fox News. That’s why Christiane Amanpour and Bill O’Reilly hate him… he stands in the way of their oligarch paymasters and puppeteers. This is GOOD news…
Can we dare hope?
BMD