World View: New Kerry Gaffe Leads to Further Political Chaos over Syria

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• New Kerry gaffe leads to further political chaos over Syria
• An example of the intelligence of today’s college professors

New Kerry gaffe leads to further political chaos over Syria

John Kerry

U.S. Secretary of State made a major new gaffe on Monday, when he wasasked in London what Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad could do toprevent an American strike. He said:

“Sure, he could turn over every single bit of hischemical weapons to the international community in the nextweek. Turn it over, all of it, without delay, and allow a full andtotal accounting for that, but he isn’t about to do it and itcan’t be done, obviously.”

This remark was completely off-script, and the last phrase wasapparently a failed attempt to recover. Too late. Russia’s foreignminister Sergei Lavrov immediately asked Syria to promise to turn overhis chemical weapons to the international community, and Syriaimmediately said they accepted the proposal, though they never saidthey would implement it. United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moonimmediately approved the plan to launch a project to transfer chemicalweapons to “places inside Syria where they can be safely destroyed.”He said that the “international community will have a very swiftaction.”

That’s all that President Barack Obama needed to apparently back offcompletely from the threat of a Syria strike. According to onecommentator, President Obama appeared to be breathing a sigh ofrelief when he said that he would take the time to considerthe “Russian proposal.”

This all would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. I’ve writtenbefore about my utter astonishment at what’s going on — a return to1938-type appeasement, when Adolf Hitler snookered Britain’s primeminister Neville Chamberlain into declaring “Peace in our time,” at atime when Hitler was already making preparations for a war withBritain. I never dreamed that I would see a repeat of that scenarioin my lifetime, but here we are. Kerry bumbled and made a gaffe, andRussia turned it into a “Russian proposal,” Ban Ki-moon turned into a

Obama will be addressing the nation on Tuesday evening. Atlantic Wire and Telegraph (London)

An example of the intelligence of today’s college professors

Columbia University Political Science Professor Kimberly Marten

As I was writing this column, Al Jazeera aired an interview withKimberly Marten, Professor of Political Science at the SaltzmanInstitute of War and Peace Studies at Barnard College, ColumbiaUniversity. I decided to transcribe what she said, as a shiningexample of the level of intelligence and scholarship of collegeprofessors today, and also an example of what our college students arebeing taught.

Marten was asked what she thought of the “Russian proposal” to askal-Assad to turn its chemical weapons over to the internationalcommunity. She praised Russia’s president Vladimir Putin:

“I think it was a BEAUTIFUL proposal.

It was a BRILLIANT move by Putin. He looks STRONG before hisdomestic audience because he SOLVED this problem. He’s actuallydone a FAVOR for Obama, by getting Obama out of a jam, which Ithink maybe he was looking to do, because there were indicationsearlier in the summer that he wants a good relation ship withOBAMA.

And you know he looks like the GOOD guy in all of this. He getssupport throughout the WORLD for not being the warmonger.

I think it gets ASSAD out of a jam too. It’s a way of insuringthat there are no STRIKES on his TERRITORY – he doesn’t actuallyNEED chemical weapons to accomplish anything. Chemical weaponsare not the most effective weapons to use. So it makes HIM looklike not such a bad guy either.

I don’t think [Assad is getting away with anything], because thereare other ways you can punish Assad. you could take him and hisregime to the International CRIMINAL Court. So I don’t think it’sthe end of the story.

But I think, you know, PUTIN is a JUDO master. And I think thiswas a JUDO move. You don’t win in judo games by being thestronger player. You do it by having SURPRISE attacks that throwyour opponent off balance.”

Well, I do agree with this moron about one thing: Putin did win onMonday, and Obama and the United States lost big. Al-Jazeera

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