Kerry: US Foreign Policy ‘is Not Defined by Drones’
In his Senate confirmation hearings to be the next Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry declared US foreign policy “is not defined by drones and deployments alone,” as he tried to emphasize humanitarian assistance and development projects instead of American militarism.
“President Obama and everyone here knows that American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone,” Kerry said.
“American foreign policy is also defined by food security and energy security, humanitarian assistance, the fight against disease and the push for development, as much as it is by any single counter terrorism initiative,” he added.
While its true that drones and military deployments are not the only policies that define US foreign policy, they are the central tools of how the US implements its national security strategies abroad.
“Since November 2002, there have been 400 more documented US targeted killings in the non-battlefield settings of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines,” writes Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Targeted killings have exacted a considerable toll, far beyond what anyone imagined in the immediate post-9/11 era,” Zenko adds. “Although the publicly available numbers vary among research organizations, an estimated 3,400 people have been killed” in a new kind of war that “shows no signs of ending.”
President Obama has been exploiting a loophole afforded to him by this new military technology. On the one hand, he gets to present himself as less interventionist, less militarist than his predecessor George W. Bush, who never shied away from conventional ground invasions and troop buildups. But Obama has been just as interventionist and similarly indifferent to legal restrictions on the use of force, especially with drones.
As far as troop deployments, Kerry certainly knows how fundamental they are to US foreign policy.
This past June, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Kerry was chair at the time, released a report describing how Washington needs to maintain key military bases and troop presence throughout the Middle East, which is vital because the region is “home to more than half of the world’s oil reserves and over a third of its natural gas.”
“The United States should preserve the model of ‘lily pad’ bases throughout the Gulf,” read the study, “which permits the rapid escalation of military force,” enabling “the United States to quickly deploy its superior conventional force should conflict arise.”
President Obama himself has overseen a considerably troops surge in Afghanistan and the broader Middle East region, and has also escalated the US military presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
With the drone war rapidly increasing under Obama and US troops stationed in more than 130 countries around the world, Kerry was being merely rhetorical in his rather symbolic confirmation hearing.
Don_Bacon
January 24th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Really? A few hundred Marines in Darwin, three thousand miles from Hong Kong, across the Indonesian archipelago, is escalating the US military presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region? The Marines are useless there.
Guest
January 24th, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Rand Paul seems sad that more Pakistani children aren't being killed by drones
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January 24th, 2013 at 6:01 pm
Earth to Sen. Condiment, US foreign policy IS defined by drones. And extrajudicial assassinations and humanitarian interventions and hubris and disingenuous bullsh*t and wars of naked aggression and torture. Oh yeah, that glorious torture.
Say, John Kerry is starting to look like Christopher Warren. Yikes, that's scary.
MvGuy
January 24th, 2013 at 7:13 pm
THEN WHY SEND THEM…..???????
Tamesha Travers
January 24th, 2013 at 10:42 pm
The push for development, as much as it is by any single counter terrorism initiative,” he added.
Gary Marino
January 25th, 2013 at 7:16 am
They are taking over the world and trying to put a Smiley face on it… Can't you tell?
MvGuy
January 25th, 2013 at 9:36 pm
WHAT a MONSTER this man has become to facilitate his ever expanding quest for higher office and power…. It is as if he were reprogrammed, the NEW Unkinder and rougher John Kerry or is it Kolhn .. Who knows what to think about the NEW Kerry….. Is his every utterance just soap suds and about as real as his hair…??? I don't think I could ever vote for this guy… unless he ran against Bush Jr. again…!!!
Coletta Conaway
January 26th, 2013 at 12:20 am
“The United States should preserve the model of ‘lily pad’ bases throughout the Gulf,” read the study, “which permits the rapid escalation of military force,” enabling “the United States to quickly deploy its superior conventional force should conflict arise.”
MvGuy
January 26th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
I hope you are gonna pay for it "Coletta Conaway ·" and send your kids to "quickly deploy their superior conventional force should conflict arise.”
I myself would like to see the lily pads deployed in space so "Coletta Conaway·" and her fellow interventionalists can "quickly deploy their superior conventional forces…. should conflict with aliens arises”…………. !!!
MvGuy
January 26th, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Station the interventionalists in space too where they will cause as little collateral damage as possible….!!!!!!!
Watch
January 29th, 2013 at 12:49 am
They are talking big but in reality they are losing control.
Walter Cole
January 29th, 2013 at 2:29 am
Yes, why send a bunch of totally useless US Marines, unless you are sending a message to the world that we own the region wherever there are Marines present.
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February 12th, 2013 at 3:48 am
best thing was onsiderable toll, far beyond what anyone imagined in the immediate post-9/11 era
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February 19th, 2013 at 7:55 am
Don't be naive. It's hard to control this kind of mess ;)
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