Kerry misspeaks 2x ; said drone attacks to stop soon in Pakistan. Nope.

[cali]

<snip>

First was Kerry’s answer to a question from a Pakistani reporter about America’s ongoing, and extremely unpopular, drone campaign in Pakistan, in which he suggested the drone strikes might be about to stop:

“I think the program will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it,” Kerry said. “I think the President has a very real timeline, and we hope it’s going to be very, very soon.” Was Kerry announcing a dramatic policy shift? Nope. Within hours a State Department spokesperson had walked back his comments, saying: “This was in no way indicating a change in policy…. I have no exact timeline to provide.”

(This, by the way, wasn’t the first time Kerry has spoken in somewhat wishful tones about drone program, says the Council on Foreign Relations’ Micah Zenko. In late May, Kerry declared that “the only people that we fire on [with drones] are confirmed terrorist targets at the highest levels after a great deal of vetting.” To which Zenko replies: “That’s not true.”)

and this:

More consequential was Kerry’s explanation of why the U.S. has tolerated the Egyptian military’s ouster and arrest of president Mohamed Morsi in an event the Obama administration has artfully declined to call a coup.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/02/oops-john-kerry-gaffes-washington-backpedals/#ixzz2aqfQm0Mj

[kenny blankenship]

1. Joe Biden's foot must have been in his mouth.

BIDEN!!!

[Fumesucker]

2. The large print giveth, the small print taketh away

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, words without end, amen.

[cali]

3. I've never heard that before- love it. did you coin that expression?

[Fumesucker]

4. It's a slight twist on a prayer I learned in church as a child

Only one word different, words for world.

ETA: I mean the latter sentence, not sure about the former, probably read it somewhere.

[Enrique]

9. i learned it from Tom Waits

[Enrique]

5. disingenuous of Crowley to assume these are gaffes

a lot of these walk-backs look planned out.

[cali]

7. could well be, but I'd place the blame on the State Department

[kentuck]

13. I think most are planned out.

Yes. I think every country likes to polish the propaganda they put out? But all propaganda is not the same. There is good propaganda and there is bad propaganda. Good propaganda is distributed for a positive end. Bad propaganda is meant to deceive.

[ProSense]

6. This is nonsense. The media fixation on trying to create a gaffe.

<...>

The secretary of state told a Pakistani television station that President Barack Obama has a "very real timeline" for ending the strikes.

He did not provide specifics on the timeline.

"We hope it's going to be very, very soon," Kerry said Thursday, according to a transcript provided by the State Department.

"I believe that we're on a good track. I think the program will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it," Kerry said.

He added that the cessation depends on "a number of factors" and that Washington is working on it with the Pakistani government.

A State Department statement later addressed Kerry's remarks.

"Today, the secretary referenced the changes that we expect to take place in that program over the course of time, but there is no exact timeline to provide," the statement said.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/01/politics/pakistan-drones

Kerry: Obama has timeline for ending Pakistan drone strikes 'very, very soon'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023388548

[Aerows]

10. Bullshit is bullshit

No one needs to create a bullshit smell for it to be smelled when it is obviously plopped out - that's what perfuming over a story that reveals the bullshit is for.

Not that anyone believed this to begin with, but have at it. *Shht shht* Air freshener makes it all better. *shht shht*

[ProSense]

11. What the hell does whether you believe it or not have to do with the point? n/t

[Aerows]

15. Oh, I'm sorry

I didn't realize that I had to actually post something *marginally* believable, for it to become a fact. Clearly you can source that with links to your own posts.

[cali]

12. the nonsense is what YOU post.

just the other day you posted an op about how Kerry said drone attacks would end very soon.

hell will freeze over before you will ever admit that anyone in this admin ever errs. it's mind boggling.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/08/01/kerry_says_drone_strikes_in_pakistan_will_end_spokesperson_takes_it_right_back

[Aerows]

16. Yeah, but

cali, You are wrong. Let me link back to my own opinion posts to tell you why you are wrong cali. You are absolutely wrong.

Where in the hell do you get off telling posters that have links back to their *own* opinions that their opinions are wrong? Where are your facts?

Oh. Those facts can't be right. Let me link you to what MY version of reality is, regardless of whatever petty evidence of fact you may have.

[ProSense]

17. Nonsense, "very soon" means what?

He gave no specific time frame. In fact, he stated exactly what the parameters were. Despite the bullshit headline, taking two different press conferences in which he's responding to a different set of questions and trying to create a conflict is what's silly. From the link:

Kerry is in Pakistan to try and make nice with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the country's newly elected leader who has made repeated, vociferous demands for the United States to end its use of drone strikes on Pakistani territory. And for a few hours on Thursday it seemed that he had arrived bearing a major olive branch and a striking concession on U.S. drone policy. "The program will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it," he said in the interview. "I think the president has a very real timeline and we hope it's going to be very, very soon."

But of course it was not meant to be. In a news conference with Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's national security advisor, Kerry went on to offer something of a defense of American drone strikes. Though Pakistani officials argue that such strikes breach Pakistani sovereignty, Kerry noted that terrorist attacks by militants in the country also "violate the sovereignty of this country."

Together, the two statements send a clear message. When all the terrorists are dead, the United States will be happy to end its program of covert drone strikes in Pakistan. Until that day comes -- and it will be "soon," according to Kerry -- strikes are likely to continue. To underscore that reality, the United States carried outthree drone strikes in Pakistan during the month of July. And in Yemen, the drone war made a roaring comeback this week with the United States carrying out three strikes in five days.

Nonetheless, Kerry will be returning to Washington with a diplomatic prize in hand. In his meetings with Pakistani officials Thursday, Kerry secured an agreement to restart partnership talks that collapsed two years ago amid intense anger in Islamabad over the impunity of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.

It's parsing two different statements when the parameters never changed: eliminating the threat.

"I think the program will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it," Kerry said.

As to the existence of a U.S. timeline for cessation, he added: "I think the President has a very real timeline and we hope it’s going to be very, very soon."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023388548

[Aerows]

18. Vague statement is vague

but naturally, it means something substantive to those that want it to sound specific. "The water might be cold soon".

That means a lot when you are trying to figure out if you are going scuba diving, fishing or building an igloo when you don't have relevant data. And there was none, just vague statements. Your idea of soon might be 100 years from now, and so might Kerry's. You'd both be right.

[ProSense]

20. The point isn't about whether or not the statement is "vague." n/t

[NuclearDem]

8. So, "very very soon", but no timeline

So, basically, it's not going to stop

[hughee99]

14. Very, very soon... yes, once we figure out the cheapest way to blow shit up from space,

the drone strikes will end.

[cthulu2016]

19. I just want to know who "we" is.

“I think the President has a very real time-line, and we hope it’s going to be very, very soon.”

The longer you ponder it, the weirder it gets.

If the president has a very real time-line (and one assumes he is aware of his own very real time-line) then who is "we" in that sentence?