John Kerry Has the Audacity to Offer Hope

Audacity

1. boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

2. effrontery or insolence; shameless boldness….

Hope

1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best….

2. a particular instance of this feeling….

3. grounds for this feeling in a particular instance….

John Kerry delivered a message to the victims of state sponsored terrorism in Pakistan:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Pakistanis on Thursday he hoped U.S. drone strikes in their nation would end "very, very soon," a message meant to ease anti-American resentment in the strategic country.

"I think the president has a very real timeline and we hope it's going to be very, very soon….”

He “hopes” it will end “very, very soon.”  Kerry works for the state sponsoring the terror.  His boss – the traffic cop on the corner of audacity and hope – is in charge of this.  Doesn’t Kerry know?  Doesn’t he ever talk to his boss?

Obama knew this about Kerry nine years ago.  In his career-launching keynote speech, entitled “The Audacity of Hope,” given at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama said:

Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope….

Well, now Kerry is calling on the Pakistanis to hope.  I hate to be cynical, but hope in Obama or Kerry hasn’t done Americans or the rest of the world much good. 

When asked whether Pakistan wanted the United States to curtail the strikes, [Sharif’s] foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, told reporters, "We are asking them to stop it, not just curtail it."

What about this doesn’t make sense?  Why is “asking” part of the dialogue?  Isn’t this Pakistani airspace?  Isn’t it Pakistani territory? 

"I want to emphasize the relationship is not defined simply by the threats we face, it is not only a relationship about combating terrorism, it is about supporting the people of Pakistan, particularly helping at this critical moment for Pakistan's economic revival," Kerry told reporters.

Kerry, who as a senator sponsored legislation to provide $7 billion in assistance to Pakistan over five years….

Ahhh, now it is clear: you let us bomb your country, we will send you billions.

But wait, all is not sunshine in this audaciously hopeful dialogue:

Michael Kugelman, an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center think tank, said he believed Washington had no intention of ending drone strikes in Pakistan before the end of 2014, when it pulls troops out of neighboring Afghanistan.

The Woodrow Wilson Center…about as connected a think tank as there is in Washington. 

Maybe Kerry hasn’t asked permission yet….

Back to Obama’s keynote speech:

I'm not talking about blind optimism here….

Those victims in Pakistan of this state sponsored terror should keep this in mind.