Secretary Kerry Says US Willing To Negotiate With Assad, State Department Spokesperson Says Assad Must Go

An already confused US foreign policy just got more confusing. Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that, despite the "New Hitler" campaign launched previously against him, the US was open to negotiating with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad saying "We have to negotiate in the end," and "We've always been willing to negotiate in the context of the Geneva I process."

A reasonable position given the recent shift in US foreign policy. Now that the US has claimed that ISIS is an official enemy it would seem to be a bad move to continue to call for the ouster of the head of the government fighting ISIS in Syria. Or would it?

Not long after Secretary Kerry's comments State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf tweeted "Policy remains same & is clear: there's no future for Assad in Syria & we say so all the time." In other words, the policy of regime change remains in place.

That should be a short negotiation then. "Leave." "No."

But it is unfair to blame Secretary Kerry and a spokesperson for presenting such a disjointed and clownish image of the US government to the world. The truth is the policy is disjointed and clownish. From the beginning President Obama has had conflicting policies in the Middle East never quite sure if he wants to promote human rights, protect national interests, or imperialistically try to remake the Middle East in his own image (a tradition among US presidents).

Whether it was supporting the overthrow of Mubarak in favor of democratic reform only to then bless a military coup in Egypt, destroying the country to protect it from "massacres" in Libya, or the regime change policy in Syria, the Obama Administration does not appear to have any idea of where it wants to end up even in the medium term. An ad hoc foreign policy with the world's most powerful military has, not surprisingly, sown more disorder and heartbreak than it has alleviated.

The only upside to President Obama's lack of commitment is his lack of commitment to something amazingly stupid like the 2003 invasion of Iraq under President Bush. But not doing something amazingly stupid is a pretty low bar and despite his prudent avoidance of large blunders Obama has sent troops back into Iraq and reversed his own timetable for troop withdrawal in Afghanistan.

There is no doubt that dogmatically following a grand strategy can be dangerous, but so can having no strategy at all.

Venezuela: Press Laughs As State Department Spokesperson Claims US Does Not Support Coups

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has publicly accused the United Stats of trying to foment a coup in Venezuela. The accusations come as the Obama Administration has bizarrely labeled Venezuela a national security threat to the United States despite that obviously not being true.

Maduro's accusation stems not just from being labeled a national security threat but from a plot Venezuelan security services uncovered which was publicly detailed by Madura on Venezuelan TV. According to Maduro the plot involved Carlos Manuel Osuna Saraco who operates out of New York and Miami, allegedly with the help of the US government. There is audio of Osuna dictating a statement rebel leaders should read after the coup.

If the plot is true it will be the second attempt by the US to foment a coup in Venezuela this century. The first being an amazingly blatant attempt in 2002 against President Hugo Chavez which the White House itself publicly supported before the coup was reversed and Chavez was returned to power.

Which brings us to the laughing stock State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki became yesterday when she claimed in response to Maduro's accusations:

As a matter of long standing policy the United States does not support transitions by non-constitutional means. Political transitions must be democratic, constitutional, peaceful, and legal. 

We've seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela. These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan government to deal with the grave situation it faces.

The Associated Press reporter, Matt Lee, immediately jumped in with quite reasonable incredulity saying "I'm sorry. Whoah, whoah, whoah. The US has a long-standing practice of not promoting [coups] - how long-standing would you say?" Lee continued audibly scoffing and laughing "In particular in South and Latin America that is not a long-standing policy."

Spokesperson Psaki attempted to deflect answering further questions from Lee on how exactly long the term "long-standing" meant. She then took a question from a reporter who - accurately - noted that the US government had supported an unconstitutional transition in Ukraine. Psaki responded that the assertion that the transition in Ukraine was unconstitutional was "ludicrous."

The Obama Administration's Venezuelan policy is getting so ridiculous even the establishment press is calling bullshit.