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Foreign Policy Black Comedy: The Prince of Fools
You must give John Kerry credit. Who else could play the idiot with a straight face like he can. Just today — again — he knocked me to the floor with a comment so devoid of intelligence, so totally inane as to astound beyond all credence. Truly he is the Prince of Fools.
U.S. ‘disturbed’ by Iranian leader’s criticism after deal:
DUBAI, (Reuters) – The United States said on Tuesday it was very disturbed by anti-U.S. hostility voiced by Iran’s top leader after a nuclear deal, as both countries’ top diplomats sought to calm opposition to the accord from political hardliners at home.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowing to defy American policies in the region despite a deal with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program was “very troubling.”
“I don’t know how to interpret it at this point in time, except to take it at face value, that that’s his policy,” he said in the interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.
“But I do know that often comments are made publicly and things can evolve that are different. If it is the policy, it’s very disturbing, it’s very troubling,” he added.
The man has just concluded a complete major treaty with the Iranians. He just ran to the U.N. so he could lift vitally important sanctions from Iran, giving them the green light for further aggression. He did this before Congress, as agreed, could have a say, and as if the Congressional right to ratify treaties, under the Constitution, were something that could be waved. Now, he’s “disturbed” that the hideous tyrannical regime with which he’s been negotiating for years is just what it appears: a lawless monster intent on the destruction of America, Israel, and any rival in the Middle East.
“If it is the policy, it’s very disturbing, it’s very troubling.” The Supreme Leader of an absolute theocratic dictatorship publicly announced this, to mass rallies, and Kerry says “If it is the policy.” He’s just given away the store at the U.N., and now, a few days later, he is very disturbed and troubled.
Absolutely amazing! This is for the Idiot Olympics. Kerry is in a class by himself.
Regards,
Jim
Published in Foreign Policy, General
But his boss is a genius, so we are going to be okay.
(FOOL) ^ 2
Regards,
Jim
Warms the heart, doesn’t it? </sarc off>
Idiot or fiend following the script???
You got to feel sorry for the guy, after all his grades at Yale were worse than those of his contemporary George W Bush.
By the way, in defending the deal he’s also said that Iran will not ship weapons to its allies because there are UN Resolutions forbidding it! Hmm, I wonder how Hezbollah managed to get rearmed with all those resolutions?
I saw him up close in Massachusetts for many years. He’s simply not very smart which in and of itself would not be a problem except that he thinks he’s very smart.
Here’s the video and full transcript. Worth reading.
Note how Reuters frames this story:
Message: Iranian mullahs = American Republicans/conservatives
The remarks were made by the Iranian Supreme Leader on whose behalf the deal was negotiated; the Republicans did not negotiate on behalf of the US. This is the equivalent of Barack Obama, not the Republicans, making a similar remark.
It isn’t just the fact that he crafted a spectacularly bad deal and surrendered while in a position of strength that is disturbing about Kerry. It is the hair on the back of your neck tingling creepiness feeling you get watching him speak when you realize he really believes his own BS and really has no clue that all of Iran is laughing at him.
Recall how in 1979 Cyrus Vance wanted to kiss up to the Iranian thugs and surrender on any and all points? It was an asinine bargaining approach that surprised even the idiots holding our embassy staffers–the thugs assumed we were going to attack them. Even Jimmy Carter had had enough and ordered a military solution. But Vance could be forgiven insofar as his main concern was the lives of our hostages.
Unlike Vance, Kerry is oblivious to our hostages, had an enormous financial weapon in hand, the (initial) support of the rest of the world and was under no time pressure to achieve a deal. He folded a straight flush and thinks that was a strategic success. What an utter buffoon.
NB: The interview was given to Al Arabiya. This is an interesting comment:
Prince of fools aboard a ship of fools. The captain of the ship is the biggest fool.
The Iranian announcement and Kerry’s response demonstrates clearly that the Iranians had Kerry and Obama completely wired (in the sense we used to use in describing a difficult climbing pitch that one had carefully worked out all of the moves in advance of doing it.) Obama wanted a total cypher for SecState, and he got it. Kerry is a shallow, small minded, little man who proves clearly a contention I have held for many years that intelligence occurs in inverse proportion to ambition. Kerry could never have been president, but he makes the ideal Secretary of State for a president who simply wants to push his own agenda, the undoing to all the perceived sins of colonialism and white European privilege. Kerry acts without malice aforethought, likely without thought at all as to the consequences of his actions beyond his own aggrandizement (read: he wants a Nobel Peace Prize). Having done so, he is now shocked, not that his partners in negotiations are renegging, but that he might not get his prize.
Or not a fool, just on a different side:
Its anecdotal but back when Kerry was running for president, a photographer followed him around Kennedy Space Center all day taking picture. His one sentence characterization of Kerry was “He is not the sharpest fencepost around”. Nothing I have every heard or seen from Kerry years later on any subject has lead me to believe differently. So from all the evidence, he really is altogether dumb. Hillary Clinton looks competent and brilliant besides Kerry.
I think the Iranians are just starting with the humiliation of the one with the long, straight face and his boss, the One – Schadenfreude will be the one enjoyable aspect of the next 18 months – couldn’t happen to two more deserving guys.
They are totally clueless about Iranian and Islamic culture – the chickens are coming home to rooooost.
If it weren’t so serious it would be hilarious.
Wait what is he saying? Is he saying that the Saudis need to be more proactive in heading off Iranian involvement in adjacent nations?
Claire,
Amazing! Kerry has fool’s chutzpah to the max. An ally who has no sworn anti-American ideological agenda, no active nuclear program, and is already involved in a war defending its interests against an Iranian proxy is told off by Kerry. As if the Saudis haven’t spent enough money on whatever fantasy policy Kerry thinks they should have pursued.
What they are going to be spending money on very shortly is a nuclear bomb of their own. Kerry is NUTS!
Regards,
Jim
He was a couple thousand votes in Ohio away from being elected President in 2004.
Thought experiment – if Kerry had won, Obama would probably not be President now [even assuming Kerry gets two terms, it’s pretty rare for the same party to hold the office for more than 8 years]. Better or worse for the country if Kerry had won?
It’s really not Kerry’s fault. He just happens to be the useful idiot they found to spearhead the PRESIDENT’S foreign policy. If it weren’t for the fact that he actually believes this cr0ck of …. I could almost feel sorry for him
I read it as “Stop funding ISIS and we’ll take your concerns more seriously.”
It’s not Obama’s fault he’s President. As I’ve said elsewhere, the folks who elected him are the real fools.
Not sure that I can give Obama credit for merely being a fool, somehow I would have to know his objective was to do the U.S. some good before I could blame his polices on foolishness.
OK, it’s a country of fools. ;)
I was just being snarky. There wasn’t a lot of thought that went into my comment. :)
I don’t say lightly that a public figure is dumb. It’s an easy way to explain away differences of opinion. But in this case the abject stupidity on display is breath-taking. There is nothing in Kerry’s public record that shows him to be very bright. He is too dumb to be a Manchurian candidate. Obama is an open question. He is smart enough to be one, but he’s also smart enough (and coddled enough) to be just as dumb as his fop of s SecState.
Wouldn’t you have loved to have the chance to interview him the way this reporter did? What a bombastic windbag he is. You can practically hear the interviewer thinking, “What a stupid, stupid man you are.”
Claire,
If this is what Kerry is driving at, isn’t that an absurd thing to hit them with after he has just swept away all concerns about Iran’s avowed desire to destroy the Zionist State, attack America and support its chain of proxy armies throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. Kerry rushed to hand them 150 billion, all sanctions lifted and the keys to the nuclear bomb without the assurance of the slightest change in behavior. The Saudis, with whom we have been in a shooting war as allies, should be given the stiff arm. Just brilliant.
BTW, by now I don’t believe the CIA or any American Intelligence on this. They are in Obama’s pocket. Smearing the Saudis to give the ball to Iran is just the kind of thing that the geniuses who created the Arab Spring would imagine to be good policy.
Regards,
Jim
This is from 2010 (the Ah-aNutJob era), but it still seems apropos:
Thank you for playing dumb, Obama!
Why is it you could not be found when this lady could have used your support?
Worse. Obama would have run in 2012 and even after 8 years of Kerry he’d have a very good chance of winning because of his race. So we’d be in the first Obama term instead of the 2nd, with 6 more years of him to look forward to.
Better. Kerry would have been a terrible President (more importantly he has a horrible personality and is incapable of inspiring the worship that Obama has received) and the financial crisis of 2008 would have hit on his watch making it a pretty good shot for a Republican and avoiding Obama. If the Republican was competent we’d be OK till 2016.
All you have to know is that this is the man who selected the appalling John Edwards as his running mate in 2004.
If Kerry had won, and had been reelected in 2008, we might be looking at a possible second term for President Edwards at this point.
So in that sense, I guess things actually could be worse.
But they (Kerry and Edwards) had the best hair.
And don’t forget that Edwards was right about there being two Americas – one for Edwards family and the other for Edwards other family.