US Sec of State Kerry: 'You just don't invade another country on a phoney pretext'

[-:Undertaker:-]

Yesterday I was making tea in the afternoon and had RT on in the background and heard this......

How Kerry kept a straight face I do not know. Just shocking.

Thoughts?

[The Don]

Wasn't kerry opposed to the US intervention before?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Wasn't kerry opposed to the US intervention before?

John Kerry opposed to US interventionism? The man who supports and signs off on US bombing raids via drones in Somalia, Pakistan and northern Africa? The man who supported meddling in Syria and who has armed al-Qaeda? The man who belongs to an administration that supported and carried out the Libyan campaign? http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/john-ke...ibya-1.1927612

Kerry belongs to the perpetual Bush-Obama administration remember. Not the Ron Paul administration... although listening to Kerry when the Republicans were in office, you'd be forgiven for mistaking Kerry for a non-interventionalist.

[Kardan]

Just because he's being hypocritical doesn't make him wrong.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Just because he's being hypocritical doesn't make him wrong.

It does when he says it, because it tells me that the reasons he's providing for being against Russian action in Ukraine aren't what he's really bothered about at all - that's just for public consumption.

What Kerry is really bothered about is the idea of the Ukraine, or at least a part of it, slipping out of the US/western sphere of influence and into the hands of Russia. They backed the coup in Kiev after all as a way to have a pro-US government installed. That's what he's really concerned about.

[Kardan]

It does when he says it, because it tells me that the reasons he's providing for being against Russian action in Ukraine aren't what he's really bothered about at all - that's just for public consumption.

What Kerry is really bothered about is the idea of the Ukraine, or at least a part of it, slipping out of the US/western sphere of influence and into the hands of Russia. They backed the coup in Kiev after all as a way to have a pro-US government installed. That's what he's really concerned about.

Ok, so if Kerry is wrong, but he's being hypocritical - that means you support Kerry's actions then?

You either don't support Kerry's actions and therefore don't support Russia.

Or do support Kerry and therefore do support Russia.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Ok, so if Kerry is wrong, but he's being hypocritical - that means you support Kerry's actions then?

You either don't support Kerry's actions and therefore don't support Russia.

Or do support Kerry and therefore do support Russia.

His actions? He hasn't taken any action. I'm confused.

[The Don]

Pretty sure he criticised Bush for the Iraq war, doesn't seem hypocritical.

[Kardan]

His actions? He hasn't taken any action. I'm confused.

I said Kerry is being hypocritical since he has supported the US on invading Afghanistan, Iraq and the US' actions in Syria/Libya etc. You agree (hence the 'How can he keep a straight face?')

But if you say Kerry is wrong in what he is saying, then you believe Russia are allowed to invade 'on a phoney pretext' and that the US was also right to do the same.

- - - Updated - - -

Pretty sure he criticised Bush for the Iraq war, doesn't seem hypocritical.

A quick google shows to me that Kerry supported the Iraq war back in the early 2000's, but has changed his mind in the 2010's

[-:Undertaker:-]

Pretty sure he criticised Bush for the Iraq war, doesn't seem hypocritical.

Yes just like Obama who also criticised the Iraq war but who continued it for years afterwards (they are still there now are they not?) and who also bombed Libya, tried to bomb Syria and who conducts bombing raids over Pakistan, Somalia and northern Africa.

Not a hypocrite. Yeah, right!

I said Kerry is being hypocritical since he has supported the US on invading Afghanistan, Iraq and the US' actions in Syria/Libya etc. You agree (hence the 'How can he keep a straight face?')

But if you say Kerry is wrong in what he is saying, then you believe Russia are allowed to invade 'on a phoney pretext' and that the US was also right to do the same.

But I don't think the comparisons between America invading Iraq and Russia going into the Crimea are the same at all. Indeed, even if one is against both - how could one claim they are in anyway similar? Such a comparison totally ignores the geopolitics of each area and how each conflict came about.

America stated that Iraq (a country many thousands of miles away in which it has no interest or history in) had WMD - it did not. Russia is taking action in the Crimea (which is on it's doorstep and which was until the 1960s a part of Russia and contains a majority of Russian people within it) based on the pretext that the new regime in Kiev is dangerous and that the Russians in the East face a civil war if Russian troops do not step in. Whatever you think of the Russian case - and we still do not know all of the facts so I am still weary - it isn't comparable to the US in Iraq.

I have said myself that I do not care what happens in the Ukraine as long as British interests preveil.