Kerry becomes first war casualty By M K Bhadrakumar

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-100913.html


Three major gaffes within the space of a week is a terrible record for a top diplomat

1. last week during the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings when out of the blue Kerry interjected that the congressional resolution on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Syria should not expressly preclude the deployment of ground troops - "boots on the ground".

Chuck Hagel who was seated beside him passed a slip of paper with just a "?" scribbled on it

2. Kerry expressed confidence that the "moderate" opposition is the main thing in Syria and the al-Qaeda groups are a sideshow. He judged that hardcore Islamist fighters account for only some 15% of the rebel army.

Vladimir Putin, who openly said Kerry was "lying" since the formidable dimensions of the al-Qaeda problem in Syria have been a matter of serious discussion between Moscow and Washington, and Kerry was fully aware of it.

3.   he undercut Obama's war strategy with a stunning public statement:  Sure, if he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community, in the next week, turn it over. All of it, without delay and allow a full and total accounting for that, but he isn't about to do it, and it can't be done, obviously.

His predecessor  Hillary Clinton had to say following a meeting with Obama:  if the [Syrian] regime immediately surrendered its stockpiles to international control as was suggested by Secretary Kerry and the Russians, that would be an important step. But this cannot be another excuse for delay or obstruction.

She hit the nail on the head; namely, that the chemical weapons topic is only an alibi for the US military intervention and not the prime reason. Kerry should have known this simple truth.

4.  It's check and checkmate for Obama.