New Yorker blog post: 2014: THE YEAR OF JOHN KERRY

[whometense]

by John Cassidy http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2014/02/2014-the-year-of-john-kerry.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyemail&mbid=nl_Daily%20(111)

Hi all,

Happy new year. I hope everyone's well.

[mylye2222]

1. We just have to hope

Kerrywill be succesful on all top diplomatic issues. I trust him for that. Except if he faces another smear campaign from home as well as abroad. ( Isn't it, Israeli RW dumbasses?)

[karynnj]

2. Great to hear from you!

Great find. It is amazing how he has attacked all these issues head on - letting the world see what he meant in speaking of genuinely exhausting diplomatic efforts to make the world better. It will be astonishing if he can - with the help of other countries - make even one of these problems better.

Reading that post and thinking of all the skepticism before he was chosen and as he started his Israel/Palestine effort, I remembered the discussions you, Tay and other MA people had in the wake of 2004 - comparing Kerry to a weeble. This year, he has seemed to have his own, internal balance and the ability to just focus on the goals he is working toward - ignoring the bias and derision of the many in the media -especially the DC pundits. (ie I don't remember any of them mocking either Condi Rice or Bill Clinton on their diplomatic efforts.)

I think reestablishing relations with Iran might have the best chance for really being a game changer in the Middle East. I also wonder if the Clinton letter from a few days ago against more sanctions (after the effort was already waning) may be a sign that her experts think they will have at least some success - after all she did wait 2 months before taking any position.

However, I think he has already changed the game on Israel. Unlike any past effort, this effort seems likely to be the test of whether Israel really would accept a 2 state solution. I suspect that is why the Israeli right is attacking him to the degree they are.

Syria is a huge mess. Here, it might be that just eliminating the chemical weapons (and that has to be pushed) and maybe getting some humanitarian relieve might be all that can be achieved.

[MBS]

3. Fantastic, thanks!

How are you, whome?

[ProSense]

4. Thanks for posting.

Kerry's experience over the years seems to be coming in very handy.

Happy new year, whome.

[YvonneCa]

5. Excellent, excellent article. It really...

...lays out both the challenges and the risks that we face in the ME. And it clearly defines the opportunity for success that Sec. Kerry is hoping to achieve with his relentless diplomacy. I, for one, am just so glad he is going 'all out' to find the diplomatic solution. I don't think that has ever been done. And the window is closing... (jmho).

Thanks for posting, Whome.