John Kerry Addresses Pacific Council on National Security

Senator John Kerry
Speech to Pacific Council on International Policy, Century City, California
As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you all for coming today. I want to especially thank Secretary Christopher for his kind introduction. It’s truly an honor to be here with Secretary Christopher today. He is a distinguished diplomat in the finest tradition, the embodiment of the kind of statesmanship we need more than ever to keep America safe in these challenging times.

From the Middle East peace process to the Dayton Accords for Bosnia, to the Agreed Framework with North Korea and the restoration of civilian leadership in Haiti, Secretary Christopher lived the ideal that that the essence of effective foreign policy is achieving your goals without having to use military force.

Unfortunately, our current diplomacy is not anywhere near as effective as it needs to be – and we are much less safe as a result. In fact, so much of what we used to take for granted in national security policy has now been called into question.

Kerry Attacks Bush Over Iraq Policies

The administration's choice of confrontation instead of diplomacy has harmed the U.S., the senator says in a speech in Los Angeles.
By Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) harshly criticized the Bush administration for "disdaining diplomacy" in favor of a confrontational and unilateral foreign policy that has hurt the United States' standing around the world and made it less safe.

In a speech Thursday in Los Angeles, the former (and perhaps future) Democratic Party presidential candidate warned that the mistakes of Iraq must not be repeated in the current standoff with Iran.

War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy," Kerry told a gathering of the Pacific Council on International Policy. "Yet our current leadership has arrogantly discarded this basic principle…. All too often they disdained diplomacy as little more than an inconvenient detour on the chosen path to armed conflict."

The result, he said, was an ill-advised rush to war in Iraq that alienated other governments and diminished sympathy for the U.S. generated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. America's current isolation, and the presence of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, is "playing right into Iranian hands…. The Iranians are delighted," Kerry said.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-me-kerry2jun02,1,5005276.story