Does Kerry understand how silly he looks when he insists on this?
Think you will find self-conscienceness is NOT part of Duhmerikan genetic makeup. Has something to do with income.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Apr 10 2016 13:58 utc | 3

This type of behaviour goes with his head. Lost and clownish. I guess that is what you are reduced to when your public role is to defend schizophrenia. The skill of critical thinking, perhaps at one time present, now replaced by proclaiming the establishment narrative – even if that narrative can change with the wind, overnight.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Apr 10 2016 14:44 utc | 5

What would change? – b.
If a ‘nationalist’ figure acceptable to the Syrian voters could be found, well nothing, as b says. In fact such a figure might be ‘more’ nationalist (as I’m one of the few who opines that Assad made some horrible mistakes but that argument is past ..) Just as, for ex. dislodging Putin (and anti-communist centrist, open to, collaborative with, the W until recently) might have results unfavorable to neo-cons. Such a rational pov, however, ignores:
1. The ‘opposition’ plan is to re-write the Constitution and transform the Syrian state. (I have not found any concrete proposals worth reading. Imho none exist.) The last Const. is from 2012 and was accepted by referendum. Proposed by Assad, it made some important changes (see wiki etc.) Assad belongs to the ‘past’ structure. Setting up a whole new one is aimed at destroying any kind of ‘continuity.’ Assad is not just the ‘symbol’ but the guarantor of that continuity, seen as a head of State who should remain, etc. A clean break! (sic) Assad must go = the Constitution must go, and *everything* has to change. Plus, naturally, any trouble making may have startling yet favorable results…
2. Many always consider the US organises everything in its own interests, which is questionable. The ones who loathe Assad are not the US, but KSA, Qatar, and the like. The US bends or agrees with ‘allies’ (incl. Israel) to a degree which imho is pathetic. This is not a way to hold on to even limited power.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 10 2016 15:06 utc | 7

Poor Kerry. He’s caught in a betwixt situ – in the long American quagmire..the quicksands of the Middle East.
Vicious Cycle: Why It is Time for Washington to Get Out of the Middle East
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160408/1037723512/washington-war-middle-east.html
The United States has found itself bogged down in the Middle Eastern conflicts; two questions then arise: why Washington can’t win and since it has not won, why it can’t get out of the Mideast quagmire, American historian Andrew J. Bacevich asks.
In his article for Politico Magazine Andrew J. Bacevich, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, draws historic parallels between the World War I bloody stalemate on the Western Front and an analogous stalemate Washington has found itself stuck in in the Middle East and Islamic world in general.
[.] In the Middle East US military forces “bombed, raided, invaded, occupied and worked through proxies of various stripes.” Meanwhile, Washington policymakers — both Republicans and Democrats — were lulling themselves into the illusion that “US military power will somehow put things right.”[.]
~ ~ ~ ~
Military might found wanting. Let’s try begging.
And Oh, more begging;
“it’s time for Russia to return to the G7”club says German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier
https://www.rt.com/news/339110-german-fm-g7-russia/

Posted by: likklemore | Apr 10 2016 16:03 utc | 9

thanks b.. i like bens literal answer @1..
@7 noirette – #2.. was it the gcc’s that wanted regime change in iraq and libya? i don’t buy your rationale.. do you think the gcc’s want to isolate russia from the rest of europe as well? i think you need to think this out a little bit more.. always enjoy your commentary btw.. thanks..

Posted by: james | Apr 10 2016 16:18 utc | 11

noirette – remember nulands tapped conversation to pyatt where ‘yats’ is there man? yats is now gone.. a better question would be who is in charge of usa constant meddling where all sorts of war corps/banks and etc profit?

Posted by: james | Apr 10 2016 16:30 utc | 13

Assad’s revenge?
http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12994423_10209452550175288_1543734774479972792_n.jpg?oh=c3634d0a25b62fad05a0523b9c7b5355&oe=57B85A96

Posted by: Yonatan | Apr 10 2016 16:54 utc | 15

I suspect that Kerry, Obama and Hillary are all looking forward to their post-term payoffs, and want to appear at least to be making the best efforts that they can, to carry out the Empire’s directives.

Posted by: AntiSpin | Apr 10 2016 17:34 utc | 17

Does Kerry understand how silly he looks when he makes these ‘Please make Bashar al Assad go’ rounds?
Kerry looks silly to whom – grown-ups?
He’s saying childish things so that the nasty, childish, destructive, racist “Israelis” can include it in their nasty, childish Existential Threat, and Identity Politics, bullshit.
Maturity, empathy and logic are alien concepts to the kids in charge of the Shitty Little Country**.
**H/T Ken Livingstone, Dec 20, 2001.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 10 2016 17:56 utc | 19

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died in the last 4 years since the war started in 2011.
So who is to blame for all those deaths? It’s utterly imperative from the US, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish point of view that Assad take the blame, as the ‘dictator who murdered his own people’, because if it’s not Assad’s fault, then it’s harder for them (and their Syrian lackeys) to hide their own responsibility. If the Syrians strongly support Assad in the next elections, it gets harder to establish Assad as the scapegoat the US needs him to be.
Now of course it’s true that there is no way most people in the US, Israeli or Saudi societies will admit anytime soon just what role their countries played in this bloodbath, but they don’t want Syrian or Chinese or Russian historians or media teaching their people a version of events that assign them the sort of blame they probably deserve. They don’t want future generations in any country learning the sort of lessons that interpretation of events might result in.
They particularly don’t want the sort of blowback they might get if the hatred of the Syrians gets pointed at them and their countries. Someday, 30 or 50 or 100 years in the future, the Syrian people just might be more powerful than the Israelis or Saudis of that time. And if their accepted historical narrative blames the Israelis or Saudis for this war, some future Syrian leader might pick up that historical grievance and use it as justification to attack the Israelis or Saudis in the way Syria was just attacked.

Posted by: Glenn Brown | Apr 10 2016 18:03 utc | 21

Kerry represents the Western mentality of an insufferable ‘exceptional and indispensable’ lunacy like another people that thought they were ‘uber alles’.

Posted by: AriusArmenian | Apr 10 2016 18:31 utc | 23

ot @14 dh… what is it with those of jewish decent always getting in positions of power? they are very good at this! Volodymyr Groysman is married and has two daughters and a son.[3] He is of Jewish descent.[19]
i take it his position has been approved by the usa/israel lobby? if it ain’t yats, it can be….

Posted by: james | Apr 10 2016 18:56 utc | 25

@7 noirette, ‘ The US bends or agrees with ‘allies’ (incl. Israel) to a degree which imho is pathetic.’
I agree with you.
@12 noirette, ‘Is the US Gvmt actually in charge of foreign policy?’
Let me take a shot at an answer. The US’ interest, seen through the eyes of the CIA who have been running Obama’s presidency, is regional chaos, from which the TNCs – not necessarily all American – can benefit. If Syria and Iraq – and Iran and Turkey – are split up into statelets, that’s good. Think fragmented governments that needn’t even be drowned in a bathtub.
It’s all about TNCs, not about national advantage. Think TPP, TIPP. And the attack is three-fold, not just the fusiliers, but by the financiers …
[P]GCC to borrow up to $390bn by 2020

A new report says the six oil-rich Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region are expected to borrow between $285 billion and $390 billion through 2020 to finance budget deficits resulting from the low price of oil.
The report that has been prepared by Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) says all six countries –Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates that make up the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) – are expected to post a shortfall of $318 billion in 2015 and 2016.

… and of course the fossil-fuelers. The new oil producers will be restructured along the lines of the Daesh-Erdogan / Saudi-Yemeni model.
The future is mad max, according to US policy. I never saw the movie, but if there’s a chief pirate/marauder among those warring all-against-all called mad max, the US armed forces – all that’ll be left of the USG, muscle for the TNCs – will be him.
According to the ‘plans’ of Kerry (Obama, Hillary, Donald, …) and his (their) qualified and experienced mentors.

Posted by: jfl | Apr 10 2016 20:38 utc | 27

@27 ‘ – all that’ll be left of the USG, muscle for the TNCs – ‘
– and that’s all that is left of the USG, muscle for the TNCs –

Posted by: jfl | Apr 10 2016 20:49 utc | 29

@28 I’m not sure. My sense is that the Maidan got its support from Ukrainian nationalists with facist undertones. Maybe they see having ‘certain people’ in key positions as the best way to deal with the IMF.

Posted by: dh | Apr 10 2016 21:04 utc | 31

@Noirette and @jfl
Nice posts.

Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 10 2016 21:22 utc | 33

But his hair is so nice and the blue ensemble works so well with the background.

Posted by: Forest | Apr 11 2016 6:17 utc | 35

Was it the gcc’s that wanted regime change in iraq and libya? james at 11.
No. (one could discuss? – They made no moves against.) But in Syria, definetly, and since forever, and with bitter, crazed hatred. **Pipelinistan,** secular state, Alawite, Assad dynasty, Syria becoming more ‘modern’ etc. And fears of emboldening their own internal opposition, though that would take some working out. Their alarm intensified with a semi-rapprochement USA + World-Iran (well before sanctions were lifted as it was clearly on the cards), Iran is an ‘islamic republic’ — not a tin-pot black-gold royal medieval dictatorship — and a despised enemy to boot.
Do you think the gcc’s want to isolate russia from the rest of europe as well?
Imho they completely disregarded Russia and did not expect Russian intervention in Syria (there was none in Iraq or Lybia), and care not a fig for US-Russia relations. They only think OPEC and regional situation or ‘own moves.’ They counted on the US (+ its allies Turkey, Israel) to hold fast (say) and keep their status as protected by the most powerful patron in place.
jfl at 27, I pretty much agree.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 11 2016 14:42 utc | 37

“After the U.S. supported “rebels” broke the ceasefire by attacking government position in south of Aleppo and in Latakia the Syrian army is preparing for a big offensive. The aim is to free all of Aleppo governate from the “rebel” al-Qaeda menace.”
On the other hand:
The Russian military says it is helping the Syrian army fight the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front around Aleppo, but has no plan to storm the city.
Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s general staff told Monday’s briefing that Nusra has nearly 10,000 fighters southwest and north of Aleppo and plans to cut a strategic highway linking the city with the rest of the country.
Rudskoi said that the Syrian army backed by Russian warplanes is taking action to derail Nusra’s plan. He added that “there is no plan to storm Aleppo.”
Rudskoi’s comment contradicted a statement by Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halki, who reportedly told Russian lawmakers in Damascus on Sunday that Syrian troops backed by the Russian air force are preparing a joint operation to capture Aleppo.
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2016-04-11/the-latest-un-envoy-urges-syrian-sides-to-preserve-truce

Posted by: Emil Pulsifer | Apr 11 2016 23:27 utc | 39