In his infinite wisdom, Secretary of State Kerry went off-script and
inadvertently offered up a diplomatic alternative to bombing Syria.
Immediately after he made the statement he moved to dismiss it. It was
as if the “Oh, !@#$” light went off in his head, “What have I done?” One
could only imagine the White House reaction the moment he said it;
“What the @#$% is he saying? Oh %^&*, really Kerry, a peaceful
solution you jackass!?!? Just when we’re gearing up for another
arm-twisting, horse-trading session with members of the House and
Senate, you go and throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing?!?!?!
Hillary would have never done this… Oh well, maybe nobody saw it”.

Within the hour, as the White House was orchestrating a disclaimer,
Russia jumped on it and responded to the unintended proposal by making
it official. Within 2 hours the Syrian government accepted it. The White
House’s efforts to distance itself from the Kerry snafu had to be
called off.

The Obama administration was left wondering what the hell just happened.
They hadn’t even had enough time to cancel Obama’s speech, which now
clearly had to be scraped and rewritten. I can only imagine Kerry’s
demeanor when he met with the president. It probably resembled that of a
player getting a “dressing down” by his coach immediately following a
terrible play. Obama, “You knuckle-head! What were you thinking? Better
yet, what were you not thinking?” Hillary wouldn’t have made that
mistake … I miss my Hillary … Where is my Hillary? … Could someone get
me Hillary please? … I need my Hillary …

In any case Russia was not about to let the U.S. off the hook. This was
just too good to pass up. Eager to score political points and jam Obama,
they suddenly became the voice of reason. All of the sudden they had
considerable clout with Bashar, apparently. They got him to sign off on
the deal before Kerry made it back to the White House. Since when did
diplomacy work so fast? The Russians were offering concessions on
Syria’s behalf faster than Obama could pull his hair out.

“Kerry’s suggestion” was not intentional. First of all, it was not
Kerry’s suggestion to begin with. The U.N. envoy, headed by AlAkhdar
Al-Ibrahimi, and Amnesty International had been barking about just such a
diplomatic solution, and others, since the beginning of the crisis. No
one in U.S. mainstream media gave them a hint of coverage. Insofar as
the media was concerned, there was no diplomatic solution, which in turn
led most of the public to assume the same.

In any case, it really doesn’t matter how we got here, what is important
is that we did (thank you Kerry). Kerry may have inadvertently sparked a
diplomatic process that could end the Syrian crisis!!! Diplomacy can
work if given half a chance. Diplomacy is not some abstract exercise in
futility. It is a real political process that can yield peaceful,
longer-lasting, more dignified, solutions than military intervention
ever could, provided it is done in good faith. Maybe that’s our problem,
“good faith”.