Another John Kerry Howler

“Iran needs to recognize that the United States is not going to stand by while the [Mideast] region is destabilized or while people engage in overt warfare across lines — international boundaries — in other countries,” [U.S. Secretary of State  John] Kerry told PBS NewsHour.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/kerry-warns-iran/

He says, as the U.S. sends takfiri mercenaries into Syria to topple that nation's government.

Time to Admit Failure in Afghanistan

... And for a number of years, we did very well. Education, health services, democratic institutions, women’s rights, their arrival on the scene of Afghanistan – because of the support of the Afghan people and because of the support of all the countries present here, primarily, the big powers, Russia, China, Iran and so on. I was taken to the United States on a US plane. I was brought to Moscow, Mr President, on a Russian plane. Your government may have not told you. I came here on a Russian plane. I went to China on a Chinese plane. The Indians provided the same facilities. It was this massive international cooperation with the United States and its allies that made a success.

But soon, we began to get troubles. Extremism arrived again, violence erupted again, terrorism arrived again. And the US did not pay attention to where it was coming from. It began bombing Afghan villages, it began killing Afghan people, it began putting Afghan people in prisons. And the more they did the more we had extremism.

Today, I am one of the greatest critics of the US policy in Afghanistan. Not because I am anti-Western, I am a very Western person. My education is Western, my ideas are Western. I am very democratic in my inner instincts. And I love their culture. But I am against the US policy because it is not succeeding. It is causing us immense trouble and the rise of extremism and radicalism and terrorism. I am against the US policy because on their watch, under their total control of the Afghan air space, the Afghan intelligence and the Afghan military, of all that they have, that super power, there is Daesh in Afghanistan. How come Daesh emerged in Afghanistan 14–15 years after the US presence in Afghanistan with that mass of resources and money and expenditure? Why is the world not as cooperative with America in Afghanistan today as it was before? How come Russia now has doubts about the intentions of the US in Afghanistan or the result of its work in Afghanistan? How come China does not view it the same way? How come Iran has immense difficulty with the way things are conducted in Afghanistan?

Therefore, as an Afghan in the middle of this great game, I propose to our ally, the United States, the following: we will all succeed if you tell us that you have failed. We would understand. Russia would understand, China would understand. Iran, Pakistan, everybody would understand. India would understand. We have our Indian friends there. We see all signs of failure there, but if you do not tell us you failed, what is this, a game?

— Hamid Karzai, former President of Afghanistan

Looking at U.S. Government: Reality

For those who look at U.S. government through rose-tinted glasses, it might be enlightening to look occasionally at reality:

Obama also accurately described himself and his own record of militarism. To defend against charges that he Loves the Terrorists, he boasted:

As commander-in-chief, I have not shied away from using force when necessary. I have ordered tens of thousands of young Americans into combat.
I’ve ordered military action in seven countries.

The hazards of speaking from a teleprompter ...

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday during his visit to Vietnam—a nation still suffering from a U.S. invasion that lasted 20 years—that big nations should not bully smaller ones. ... 

Obama alluded to China’s recent actions in the South China Sea, when he made his bully remark[.]

Obama In Vietnam ‘Big Nations Should Not Bully Smaller Ones’, Mint Press News (May 24, 2016).

(Unless the bigger nation is the U.S.A., of course.)

Samantha Power Does Comedy Too

"And in the face of Russia’s continued aggression and blatant disregard for the UN Charter ..."

—  Samantha Power

Samantha is the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She delivered a comedic performance in the U.N. Security Council chamber on August 28, 2014, an absolute tour de farce.

That was my birthday and I watched it live on cable TV. So thanks, Samantha; you've got a great future as a stand-up comedian, maybe in a comedy team with your boss, John Kerry? He's done some some nice riffs along the same line.

Knocking the Paint Off Sen. Merkley and Sen. Wyden's Peace Credentials

This post is to place on the record that both Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Jeff Merkley were placed on notice at about 4 a.m. on September 18, 2014 of the facts stated in my emails to them, reprinted below. That was many hours before both joined a majority of the Senate in authorizing President Obama to provide weapons and training to the Syrian opposition, ostensibly to fight the "terrorist organization," the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State.

That authorization was tucked in yesterday as an amendment to H.J.Res. 124 --- Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015, and became section 149 in the bill that passed the House a few hours later. The Senate passed the same bill today unaltered, without any debate allowed. That was a decidedly sneaky ambush method for Congress to authorize war against Syria, obviously designed to avoid public participation.

The authorization unless vetoed by President Obama plainly constitutes a declaration of war against the the nation of Syria.


UPDATE 1: Oregon's Representatives in the House voted as follows on the Bill, by district number:

The Lesser of Two Evils Is Still Evil

It is an unwritten American law: in any close election, both the Democratic and Republican candidates will have as their major campaign slogan, "vote for the lesser of two evils." Here's a sterling example from Ronald Reagan:

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

The lesser of two evils argument is typically invoked immediately before listing a parade of horribles grossly mischaracterizing the effect of voting for the other candidate. (The argument is, of course, subject to the poetic license of apocalyptic hyperbole.)