Kerry has always been at his best when concentrating on fighting for American against the reactionary forces who threaten to do so much harm to this country. When free of the constraints of political handlers Kerry can speak truth to power and say what so many realize but few dare to say out loud. Speaking in Davos, Kerry spoke out against a major problem of the Bush foreign policy, that the United States has become “a sort of international pariah.”
Kerry was asked about whether the U.S. government had failed to adequately engage Iran’s government before the election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Kerry said the Bush administration has failed in addressing a number of foreign policy issues.
“When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don’t advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy,” Kerry said.
“So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East — in the world, really. I’ve never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today.”
Kerry said the government needs to use diplomacy to improve national security.
“We need to do a better job of protecting our interests, because after all, that’s what diplomacy is about,” he said. “But you have to do it in a context of the reality, not your lens but the reality of those other cultures and histories.”
Kerry criticized what he called the “unfortunate habit” of Americans to see the world “exclusively through an American lens.”
He also criticized President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to Baghdad to help secure Baghdad from rampaging sectarian violence.
“I don’t care how many troops are put in — Iraq is not going to be pacified,” Kerry said. “Now, we are partly responsible. The absence of legitimate significant diplomacy is a disgrace. Quick flights in by a secretary of state are not diplomacy.”
“There should be a special envoy, maybe a joint bipartisan special envoy. Why not a President Clinton together with a Republican of high ability, and bring them together and really work the process?”
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Needless to say, the authoritarian right, who would lead this country to disaster before admitting that their leader is in error, is outraged. Little Green Fascists Footballs calls this “appalling blast at his own country,” having no understanding of the difference between one’s country and its leaders when wrong–a common trait among authoritarians.
The right wingers resort to their usual tactic of both distorting what Kerry is saying and presented a warped view of Bush’s record. After all, their views cannot hold up to reality, with its well known liberal bias (to paraphrase Colbert). Several conservative blogs try to refute Kerry with exaggerated claims about Bush’s efforts to fight AIDs in Africa. They ignore inconvient facts such as that Bush has regularly been criticized by international organizations, including the UN secretary general’s special envoy for HIV/AIDs in Africa, for his actions such as pandering to the religious right causing a shortage of condoms which would assist with reduction of transmission of the HIV virus.
