Tag Archives: John Kerry

An Iran Deal Fit For A King

Posted on by

Iranians celebrated a deal that lifted sanctions against their nation. The deal is less popular in the U.S. Congress, but that hardly matters. [Credit: The Guardian]

Ira­ni­ans cel­e­brat­ed a deal to lift sanc­tions against their nation. The agree­ment is less pop­u­lar in the U.S. Con­gress, but that hard­ly mat­ters. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Three thou­sand years have passed since a shep­herd-turned-war hero-turned-ter­ror­ist-turned-king cap­tured an obscure city sit­u­at­ed on a hill 34 miles inland from the Mediterranean.

David, Israel’s sec­ond king, would estab­lish his cap­i­tal in that city whose name is every bit as inapt as Philadel­phia (city of broth­er­ly love) or Los Ange­les (city of angels). Jerusalem, David’s cho­sen cap­i­tal, means “city of peace.”

It has more often been a city of con­tention, war and strife.  The rever­ber­a­tions from that ongo­ing dis­cord reached the Supreme Court last month in a case that car­ries impli­ca­tions for whether the U.S. will con­tin­ue to be gov­erned as a Repub­lic or ruled by a king. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why We Won’t Destroy The Islamic State

Posted on by

Our Shiite allies in the war against the terrorist Islamic State [IS] also have a taste for terror, which is one reason why we probably won't destroy the IS. [Credit: Getty Images]

Our Shi­ite allies in the war against the ter­ror­ist Islam­ic State [IS] also have a taste for ter­ror, which is one rea­son why we prob­a­bly won’t destroy the IS. [Cred­it: Get­ty Images]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma seems to have found his inner neocon.

This past week, he called on the world to unite behind a “com­mon effort to extract this can­cer,” as he char­ac­ter­ized the Islam­ic State [IS].  Our ever-bel­li­cose chief diplo­mat shunned metaphors and spoke more direct­ly.  The IS, Ker­ry said, “and the wicked­ness it rep­re­sents must be destroyed.”

Thus did our lat­est incur­sion into Iraq, which began as a mis­sion to res­cue Yazidis trapped on a moun­tain, become some­thing more.  But words are cheap.  War is cost­ly.  The Pres­i­dent lacks the resolve to make good on his threat to extract the can­cer that is the Islam­ic State.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What the President Can Learn From Ukraine

Posted on by

Ukrainian army personnel dispatched to reclaim a city from pro-Russian forces decided instead to defect to the Russian side. [Credit: AFP/Getty]

Ukrain­ian army per­son­nel dis­patched to reclaim a city from pro-Russ­ian forces report­ed­ly defect­ed to the pro-Russ­ian side. Last night’s ten­ta­tive agree­ment will put an inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion — includ­ing Russ­ian, Amer­i­can and Euro­pean mon­i­tors — at the lead in return­ing the cities to Kiev’s con­trol. [Cred­it: AFP/Getty]

Ear­li­er this week, four armored troop car­ri­ers head­ed toward the east­ern Ukraine city of Slo­vian­sk, which had been occu­pied by pro-Russ­ian forces.  The para­troop­ers from Ukraine’s 25th brigade were dis­patched by the gov­ern­ment in Kiev to spear­head its “anti-ter­ror­ist” offen­sive, designed to reclaim the city for the cen­tral gov­ern­ment.  But after talk­ing with the demon­stra­tors who met them out­side the city, the troops report­ed­ly defect­ed to the pro-Russ­ian side, replaced the Ukraine flag with a Russ­ian one, and drove their vehi­cle into Lenin Square.

Short­ly after Rus­sia invad­ed Crimea, Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry said, “The peo­ple of Ukraine will not sit still for this.  They know how to fight.”

Evi­dent­ly not. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Next Ukraine Crisis

Posted on by

Pro-Russian Crimeans celebrate referendum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine crisis. How should the West prepare for the next one? [Credit: China Daily]

Pro-Russ­ian Crimeans cel­e­brate ref­er­en­dum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine cri­sis. How should the West pre­pare for the next one? [Cred­it: Chi­na Daily]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his Admin­is­tra­tion have been pro­claim­ing for weeks that the Rus­sians would suf­fer if they didn’t with­draw from Crimea.

They haven’t with­drawn.  They’re not suf­fer­ing.  Now what?

Vladimir Putin seems once again to have pre­vailed, annex­ing Crimea with­out mil­i­tary or eco­nom­ic reprisals of con­se­quence.  Our government’s veiled threats of mil­i­tary action and explic­it warn­ings of deep eco­nom­ic pain have thus far proven emp­ty, though both the US and Europe are expect­ed to add to the list of Rus­sians on whom it will impose trav­el and finan­cial restric­tions. The cri­sis may soon wind down, but we can expect anoth­er in a few months when new elec­tions are to be held and bills come due for a Kiev gov­ern­ment on the edge of bank­rupt­cy.  The Admin­is­tra­tion should han­dle this next cri­sis differently.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Ukraine Economic Woes Could Hold Key To Peace

Posted on by

Uniformed troops believed to be Russian stand guard outside a Ukrainian military base in Crimea. Is there a peaceful resolution to this crisis? [Credit: Business Insider]

Uni­formed troops believed to be Russ­ian stand guard out­side a Ukrain­ian mil­i­tary base in Crimea. Is there a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to this cri­sis? [Cred­it: Busi­ness Insider]

Ukraine’s inter­im gov­ern­ment, whose part the Admin­is­tra­tion has tak­en in the Crimea cri­sis, includes a promi­nent polit­i­cal leader who has in the past urged his coun­try­men to fight the “Mus­covite-Jew­ish mafia” and called on his gov­ern­ment to halt the “crim­i­nal activ­i­ties” of “orga­nized Jewry.”

The author of this calum­ny, Oleh Tyah­ny­bok, is a leader of Ukraine’s Svo­bo­da (“free­dom”) par­ty, who in Decem­ber 2012 was named Per­son of the Year by read­ers of the coun­try’s lead­ing news mag­a­zine, Kor­re­spon­dent.

Such are the com­plex­i­ties that lurk not far beneath the sur­face in the ongo­ing cri­sis over Russia’s incur­sion into Crimea. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

On Ukraine, President Obama Should Heed Merkel

Posted on by

Russia has seized control of Crimea, the southernmost portion of Ukraine. Resolving the crisis peacefully requires adult leadership. [Credit: Washington Post]

Rus­sia has seized con­trol of Crimea, the south­ern­most por­tion of Ukraine. Resolv­ing the cri­sis peace­ful­ly requires adult lead­er­ship. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

In deal­ing with the Russ­ian incur­sion into Ukraine, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma will hear no bet­ter advice than this: lis­ten to Angela Merkel.

A week ago, it appeared that Ukraine would prove an embar­rass­ment for Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin. Demon­stra­tors in Kiev demand­ed the res­ig­na­tion of the country’s Russ­ian-backed Pres­i­dent, Vik­tor Yanukovych, reject­ing a ten­ta­tive set­tle­ment with protest lead­ers that would have allowed him to retain pow­er tem­porar­i­ly. Yanukovych fled to Rus­sia and a tran­si­tion gov­ern­ment was formed in Kiev, which prompt­ly charged him with mass mur­der. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Iran Nuclear Deal and the Price of Raising False Hopes

Posted on by

US Secretary of State John Kerry shares a moment with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif, after concluding an agreement for relaxed sanctions and renewed talks. [Credit: BBC]

US Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry shares a moment with his Iran­ian coun­ter­part, Mohammed Javad Zarif, after con­clud­ing an agree­ment for relaxed sanc­tions and renewed talks. [Cred­it: BBC]

Iran, World Pow­ers Reach His­toric Nuclear Deal. – Wash­ing­ton Post 

“What was agreed last night in Gene­va is not a his­toric agree­ment, it is a his­toric mis­take.” — Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu

The irre­sistible ten­den­cy of gov­ern­ment to over­sell its achieve­ments was on dis­play in this past weekend’s announce­ments of an agree­ment between Iran and the so-called G5+1 – the five per­ma­nent mem­bers of the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil and Germany.

News out­lets the world over her­ald­ed the Iran nuclear deal as “his­toric.”  Its crit­ics called it his­toric fol­ly.  Review­ing the agree­ment, it appears that both sides are exag­ger­at­ing. It nei­ther sets back Iran’s capac­i­ty to devel­op nuclear weapons nor facil­i­tates their devel­op­ment. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Do You Believe In Government Conspiracies?

Posted on by

Secretary of State John Kerry last week offered up his theory on the Kennedy assassination, joining the many of Americans who subscribe to conspiracy theories. [Credit: The Guardian]

Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry last week offered up his thoughts on the Kennedy assas­si­na­tion, join­ing many Amer­i­cans who sub­scribe to con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

“Mod­ern diplo­mats approach every prob­lem with an open mouth.” — Arthur J. Gold­berg, for­mer Labor Sec­re­tary, Supreme Court Jus­tice, and UN Ambassador

If Gold­berg is right, then there is no more mod­ern a diplo­mat than our chat­ty Sec­re­tary of State, John Ker­ry. Ker­ry last week mused aloud on the Kennedy assas­si­na­tion dur­ing his inter­view with for­mer net­work news­read­er Tom Brokaw. “To this day,” Ker­ry said, “I have seri­ous doubts that Lee Har­vey Oswald act­ed alone.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →