State Dept. Boasts: Oh, Yeah, We ‘Brought Peace’ To Syria
[guest post by Dana]
The U.S. State Dept. issued its Year-in-Review Pivotal Foreign Policy Moments of 2015, which is essentially their brag page listing State Dept. “successes” on any number of issues.
In what can only be described as reporting straight from The Onion, included in the State Department’s list of accomplishments is the claim of “Bringing Peace, Security to Syria.” Seriously.
John Kirby, spokesman for the State Department and the post’s author, touts the United States’ “humanitarian aid contributions” to the war-torn country and praises Secretary of State John Kerry for his role in the UN Security Council resolution that laid plans for upcoming peace talks. “From the humanitarian crisis endured by refugees fleeing violence, to the reprehensible human-rights violations and violence carried out by the Asad [sic] regime, the Syrian people have borne a heavy load,” Kirby writes.
Interesting, especially in light of the ongoing raging civil war in Syria, the travel warning issued by the State Dept. for anyone thinking of vacationing in Syria, the strong presence of ISIS in Syria, and the more than 4 million Syrian refugees who have fled the country, with the greatest number of refugees seeking asylum having occurred this year.
Anyway, along with peace and security in Syria, you can also read about how the same State Dept. ensured the world a peaceful Iranian nuclear program.
What a fabulous year it’s been, John Kerry. Kudos.
–Dana
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: From the travel warning:
The Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens against all travel to Syria and strongly recommends that U.S. citizens remaining in Syria depart immediately. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated March 3, 2015, to remind U.S. citizens that the security situation remains dangerous and unpredictable as a violent conflict between government and armed anti-government groups continues throughout the country, along with an increased risk of kidnappings, bombings, murder, and terrorism.
No part of Syria should be considered safe from violence.
Mmmm, just soak in that “peace” and “security”!
Hello.
Dana (86e864) — 12/28/2015 @ 1:56 pmo come let us adore him
happyfeet (831175) — 12/28/2015 @ 2:00 pmHeh.
Dana (86e864) — 12/28/2015 @ 2:05 pmNow wait just a minute. Don’t you know who he is!?!?!?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/28/2015 @ 2:06 pmhttps://earloftaint.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/john-effin-assface.jpg
mg (31009b) — 12/28/2015 @ 2:27 pmUPDATE BY PATTERICO: From the travel warning:
Mmmm, just soak in that “peace” and “security”!
Patterico (eac304) — 12/28/2015 @ 2:35 pmWhy do the words “slash budgets” come to mind ?
daveinminnesota (685527) — 12/28/2015 @ 2:40 pmThe words Red Line come to mind and the admonition that nipping trouble in the bud is a wise course of action. Of course Obama and Hillary were too busy arming ISIS and ducking the consequences of turning their backs on brave Americans fighting for their lives and covering up their treachery to bother about any silly lines in the sand.
ropelight (197636) — 12/28/2015 @ 3:17 pmIsn’t this the same US State Department that promotes ideas similar to, for example, the notion that a video posted to Youtube besmirching Islam instigated so much anger towards Americans that it triggered the attack on the US consulate office in Benghazi?
Liberalism is a form of mental illness and there’s no shortage of that at various federal agenices.
Mark (74fce8) — 12/28/2015 @ 3:25 pmBaghdad Bob (no relation) comes to mind.
BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 12/28/2015 @ 3:40 pmSo, starting peace talks is the same as “bringing peace” to the Obamanauts. I thought they could not surprise me any more.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 12/28/2015 @ 4:00 pmWhy do the words “slash budgets” come to mind
Well, all they have to do hold a press conference on balanced budgets and they can check that box, too.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 12/28/2015 @ 4:01 pmThe Department of Delusion with the man who still has his hat from Cambodia in charge.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 12/28/2015 @ 4:05 pmWhere’s the contradiction between the lost of accomplishments and the warning?
The State Department says that they’re bringing </b? peace to Syria, not taht they have already brought it!
They are supposedly bringing peace because they now have all these negotiations lined up and they have a peace process. That is itself considered an accomplishment.
Sammy Finkelman (67f658) — 12/28/2015 @ 4:54 pm9. Mark (74fce8) — 12/28/2015 @ 3:25 pm
Isn’t this the same US State Department that promotes ideas similar to, for example, the notion that a video posted to Youtube besmirching Islam instigated so much anger towards Americans that it triggered the attack on the US consulate office in Benghazi?
That was the CIA. Undr Hillary Clinton, it didn’t fight it, and, it seems, Hillary also tried to mollify one family by saying that the man responsible for the attack would be arrested. But that lie was only intended for the family.
Sammy Finkelman (67f658) — 12/28/2015 @ 4:57 pm“I can’t believe the White House’s strategy
scrutineer (905d41) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:03 pmon Syria is working out this well. I doubt
they can, either.”
– Ezra Klein (10 Sep 2013)
Honestly, I’m afraid that folks are just looking for more bumper stickers…without thinking.
Heck, I saw a post on Facebook the other day: “President Obama fixes economy G.W. Bush wrecked.”
Um?
It’s like people only care about headlines.
Simon Jester (a5098f) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:11 pmWho’s going to call them on it, and how many people really care? On the hierarchy of concerns of the American public, Syria ranks well below a frayed aglet on a shoelace. At best, it may serve as momentary distraction from a bruise on a banana.
nk (dbc370) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:20 pmPanem et circenses, nk. Panem et circenses
Simon Jester (a5098f) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:28 pmKelly Burriesci, nk.
mg (31009b) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:40 pmActually, quite a few Americans care about ISIS terrorism in Syria. Certainly more than enough to reject presumptuous nonsense about aglets or overly ripe bananas. Your Milhouse’s Syndrome is showing.
ropelight (197636) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:50 pmI posted her mind numbing interview in a local new York paper, larf all the way down.
narciso (732bc0) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:00 pmEat my shorts, ropelight.
nk (dbc370) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:08 pmWow, these Fed clowns are delusional and/or loaded. I grew up in a time of peaceful and wouldn’t even term any large American city peaceful; esp a place where two super-powers and mentals are posturing
Angelo (1be77f) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:11 pmSpeaking of delusional, I found this interesting:
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:12 pmhttp://thefederalist.com/2015/06/08/how-to-escape-the-age-of-mass-delusion/
The State Department brought peace to Syria as surely as it brought peace to Libya. Red lines or phantom videos, who cares as long as Islamic terrorists continue to receive US arms and money, courtesy of Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Valerie Jarrett, and Huma Abedin.
ropelight (197636) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:19 pm@#23 Good read Doc. My kids know Dad is a cranky dinosaur. They don’t necessarily agree with me but know I’m not nuts, lol
Angelo (1be77f) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:22 pmYes, i found it helpful and passed it on to my daughter as well,
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:27 pmguess what, there is a reason why one is feeling manipulated…
#21, no thanks, nk, you keep ’em. They might come in handy, you never know. Or maybe Hillary might be interested, she managed to get a tax deduction for Slick’s old shorts.
ropelight (197636) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:29 pmRIP Lemmy!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:32 pmOur man in east ghosts Mr allouch was cried over by aq, like the rancor’s master did in return of the Jedi.
narciso (732bc0) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:48 pmKevin M@11:
Not quite.
It’s not “starting peace talks” but “sponsoring a UN Security Council resolution to put forward a framework for a transition.”
In other words, what was done is to starting peace talks as starting peace talks is to achieving peace: pretty close to useless.
To be fair, I note that the State Dept. actually uses the present participle (“Bringing peace, security in Syria”), which they could argue does not mean that they have already achieved…anything, just that they are doing something.
Ibidem (f7be92) — 12/28/2015 @ 6:49 pmBut even that is stretching things.
Opening series 3rd qtr. Bengals up 14 to 3 over the Broncos. AJ McCarren (Alabama) is at QB for the guys in the funny hats and doing a heck of a good job.
ropelight (197636) — 12/28/2015 @ 7:01 pmsince when does peace look like Russian military.
steveg (fed1c9) — 12/28/2015 @ 8:32 pmtheir roe’s are old school
#25: Doc, thanks for the link. There are so many things going on right now that fit this analysis. The legal and professional war on AGW deniers, including Michael Mann’s law suit to silence Mark Steyn, and the recent attack on Willie Soon, fit this perfectly.
I also appreciated this thought:
So many people support suicidal social policies for just such reasons. In the early 60’s the death penalty was a common topic in high school debates (or so I was told, I didn’t participate, although friends of mine did,) and exploiting the possibility for emotional blackmail seemed to be the weapon of choice by those who were deemed the winners. These propagandists were laying the ground work diligently while we were growing up.
And how else can you explain the frauds that this administration routinely perpetrates, as exemplified here by declaring success in Syria. The social pressures within the confines of the NY-DC axis, that make such actions possible, must be incredibly pervasive. And those who presumably know better, and who actually have a moral, and I would say Constitutional, duty to deny falsehoods such as the claimed success in Syria, appear to be silently and meekly counting the days in their offices at the Pentagon and at Langley. Can you imagine going in to the Sec. Def.’s office and saluting that slatternly fool … the titular civilian head of our military services? Or just dealing in ordinary ways with State Department employees at any level. There can be no respect shared between any such parties at this point.
BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 12/28/2015 @ 9:28 pm18. nk (dbc370) — 12/28/2015 @ 5:20 pm
A lot of people know and care about what’s going on in Syria – if they don’t, they don’t care about ISIS at all – but few people pay attention to what the Administration is saying or even doing, about Syria, not even, it seems, the Republican presidential candidates.
Few noticed that Obama has this peace plan all worked out, and his next step in fighting ISIS in syria is arranging a ceasefire between all groups that aren’t terrorists – and folowing taht. there’s supposed to be transitional government – how they are supposed to tranistion and to what is not yet decided.
Russia has agreed to all this, and they passed a United Nations Security Council Resolution a week ago. The United States and Russia have a disagreement as to which armed groups belong in the terrorist category. And there’s also the problem that the Assad government just killed the leader of a group it was supposed to be negotiating with. But thse are small difficulties to a man like John Kerry.
Sammy Finkelman (67f658) — 12/28/2015 @ 9:37 pmAnd just think, we could have elected John Kerry as the president. Just think how wonderful everything would have been if he had been in charge of the government. Why, the mind just can’t cope with what we have missed… /sarc
Bill M (906260) — 12/28/2015 @ 9:43 pmR.I.P. Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer & bass player for Motörhead
Icy (b83f97) — 12/28/2015 @ 10:59 pmThat was the CIA. Undr Hillary Clinton, it didn’t fight it, and, it seems, Hillary also tried to mollify one family by saying that the man responsible for the attack would be arrested. But that lie was only intended for the family.
The idiocy of liberalism or leftist bias is the common thread that binds together all the various entities of the US government — whether the CIA or State Department (or the Nidal-Hasan-ized US military), nurtured by the many years of the corrupting influence of the scrounge now in the White House. All made possible by the “progressive” feelings far too many people uphold and embrace.
Mark (f713e4) — 12/28/2015 @ 11:21 pmGreat, then return all Syrian “refugees”
saturn (505ac6) — 12/28/2015 @ 11:35 pmmaybe the strategy was to bring peace by transferring all the takfiri to Europe
steveg (fed1c9) — 12/29/2015 @ 4:14 amWas it Orwell who said that the first duty of sane people is to restate the obvious.
People of general good will often do not see the point of that, they think that once it has been said that should be enough, they don’t count on the fact that many others are constantly claiming it isn’t true.
Truth is like a marathon, or a 50 mile forced march, nothing fancy in one respect, just taking one step after another,
But we need to keep doing it, again and again and again.
In our short sightedness we get bored or distracted and grow lax.
Evil doesn’t do that.
MD in Philly (not in Philly) (deca84) — 12/29/2015 @ 5:57 amIt’s odd because when I click it it opens. Try this:
https://mail.verizon.com/webmail/driver?nimlet=download&fid=Pawter&mid=8&partIndex=0.1&disp=inline
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 12/29/2015 @ 6:24 amSorry, wrong thread.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 12/29/2015 @ 6:26 amJust remember that our current Sec State is the same character who, when he ran for President of the US, demonstrated his sound judgment by selecting John Edwards as his running mate.
Bar Sinister (c62a89) — 12/29/2015 @ 6:46 amThe same fellow who met with those winter soldiers who plotted to kill senators not to their liking.
narciso (732bc0) — 12/29/2015 @ 6:48 amI blame auto-correct.
seeRpea (7be2b6) — 12/29/2015 @ 6:51 am“pieces bought to Syria” was the real intent.
More horse puckey from Ol’ Horseface—
Comanche Voter (1d5c8b) — 12/29/2015 @ 7:53 amIt’s simple, really; they wanted a list of accomplishments, so they made one. Reality was merely an inconvenient distraction, so they ignored it.
A legend in their own minds. We’re in the very best of hands.
Arizona CJ (dabb2a) — 12/29/2015 @ 3:38 pmNow they are saying “peace was brought to Syria” they have not accepted the offer as of yet.
steveg (fed1c9) — 12/29/2015 @ 7:11 pm“Pearls before Swine” less the offensive pork reference
This guy found his peace… Of a sort… http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=934_1451344391
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 12/29/2015 @ 7:19 pmKerry selected Edwards even after Edwards lied to his face in the initial interview Kerry had with all his prospective VPs.
Edwards would traffic in the tale of how he supposedly got up on the slab with his dead son in the morgue, just to lay there next to him, which I suppose was supposed to demonstrate he was an empathetic character and therefore would be an asset to the campaign. He began his story with the words “I’ve never told anyone this before, but….”
The problem? Edwards had already told Kerry that story he had supposedly never told anyone before. He had told that story he insisted he never told anyone before so many times to so many people that he had lost track. So there he was, telling Kerry for a second time, “I’ve never told anyone this before but….”
Mr. Theresa Heinz was supposedly stunned by the lie. But it didn’t stop him from picking Edwards as his running mate.
These people not only lose track of which lies they’ve told, but how many times they’ve told the same lie to the same people.
Keep that in mind whenever “Winter Soldier” Kerry says anything about anything in any capacity, but most especially when he says he’s working on behalf of this country as SecState.
Steve57 (58e78d) — 12/29/2015 @ 8:28 pmWell then, problem solved. Now that our illustrious State Dept. has brought peace to Syria there’s absolutely no reason for there to be any refugees let alone for us to take them in.
Steve57 (58e78d) — 12/29/2015 @ 8:30 pm