Robert Reich on John Kerry and Syria

[Coyotl]

via the Robert Reich Page on Facebook
8 hours ago near Berkeley, CA
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich

The driving force behind the folly of bombing Syria is Secretary of State John Kerry. I’m told Chuck Hegel has strong reservations, as do the Pentagon’s top generals. But Kerry has no reservations at all, and has convinced the President to stake much of his second-term presidency on it. Why? It’s possible, of course, that Kerry honestly believes that a punitive military strike against Assad is necessary, and that the benefits of such a strike would outweigh the potential costs. But I suspect something else is going on. Kerry is an intelligent man, but he has a fatal flaw. He craves the limelight. He wants to be in the center of the action and attention. Over the years I heard again and again from his Senate colleagues that Kerry grandstanded and wanted all the credit, said things that would get him on the evening news, pushed too fast and too far in order to make his mark. Recently he seemed to be making progress getting the Israelis and Palestinians back to the table, but perhaps he sensed that the incipient talks would drag on forever, and needed a new cause.

Forty years ago John Kerry called for an end to the Vietnam War but in his public pronouncements this past week he has sounded eerily like Robert McNamara in that tragic time – urging that America show “resolve,” that our “credibility” is at stake, that our “enemies are watching,” that we mustn’t “back down.” These were not then, and they are not now, reasoned arguments; they are exhortations. Kerry is on the warpath. The President is ultimately responsible, of course, but I fear he is listening mainly to the loudest voice in the room. And that loud voice is channeling loud voices from America's past -- voices that have led us seriously awry.

[JEFF9K]

1. "MUST READS"

Reich and Krugman are "must reads."

[Coyotl]

2. I just Liked his Facebook page so I'll get everything he posts in my FB News Feed.

[Coyotl]

3. This is a duplicate thread. Go to this page to discuss (and REC it too):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3619391

[enough]

4. This rings true with Kerry's weird tone of barely suppressed excitement about

the Arab countries' willingness to pay the cost of military action by the US. The statement by Kerry at Wednesday's hearing had a surreal edge, essentially that the US can do whatever it wants, at any scale, and the Arab countries will pay for it. As if that is how decisions are now made about what the United States of America will do. It may be the most overtly corrupt, degenerate thing I have ever heard a high US official say in public.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/liveblog/the-houses-syria-hearing-live-updates/?id=e68f139f-e012-476c-876e-2467ba30e5e3

Secretary of State John Kerry said at Wednesday’s hearing that Arab counties have offered to pay for the entirety of unseating President Bashar al-Assad if the United States took the lead militarily.

“With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes,” Kerry said. “They have. That offer is on the table.”

Asked by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) about how much those countries would contribute, Kerry said they have offered to pay for all of a full invasion.

“In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost,” Kerry said. “That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about getting this done.