Kerry Slams ‘Trigger Happy’ Critics: U.S. Should Be ‘Proud’ of Obama’s Diplomatic Successes
Juggling foreign policy hotspots from Israel to Iran to Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry strongly defended the Obama administration’s foreign policy to Meet the Press host David Gregory, arguing that the administration had successfully used diplomacy to further peace whereas certain previous administration (a-HEM) were “trigger happy” to the point of starting wars.
“What [Obama] faces is a problem with a bunch of critics who want to jump to conclusions without looking at the facts,” Kerry said. “The facts could not be more clear. The United States of America has never been more engaged, helping to lead in more places than we are now.”
Kerry listed multiple diplomatic successes, from a quieter North Korea to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons to the rollback of Iran’s nuclear program.
“One thing I’ve seen for certain: people aren’t worrying around the United States, sitting around wanted the US to leave; people are afraid the United States might leave,” Kerry said. “The fact is that in every fundamental issue of conflict today, the United States is in the center, leading, and trying to find an effort to make peace where peace is very difficult. The American people ought to be proud in terms of what this president has done in terms of peaceful diplomatic engagement, rather than quick trigger, deploying troops, starting or engaging in a war of choice.”
Watch the clip below, via NBC News:
[Image via screengrab]
