It was only three weeks ago that the secretary of state committed a perfect Washington gaffe, complaining that media coverage of terrorism is making life difficult for him and the administration he serves: "Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn't cover it quite as much. People wouldn't know what's going on."
The mockery and ridicule to which he was subjected afterward was, as they say on the Internet, epic. But John Kerry does not learn from experience, and so he's done it again.
In a press appearance Monday Kerry was asked about his latest diplomatic disaster, the "cease-fire" in Syria. The fighting was supposed to stop so that aid could be delivered to civilians, but the fighting never stopped and the aid was never delivered, because Kerry didn't realize that his negotiating partners were lying to his face about everything. It's not a good situation when America's top diplomat is unaware that the Russians, Syrians, and Iranians tend to be dishonest in negotiations.
Anyway, asked for comment on the cease-fire, Kerry wasn't upset that Assad and the Russians had snookered him again. No, he was annoyed, for the second time in a month, that the media found out, in this case because the Syrians told them:
QUESTION: The Syrian military is saying the seven-day ceasefire is over. It – has it failed?
SECRETARY KERRY: We have not had seven days of calm and delivery of humanitarian goods, and so – it’d be good if they didn’t talk first to the press but if they talked to the people who are actually negotiating this. ... we're happy to have a good conversation with them about how to proceed.
So, to summarize: John Kerry negotiated a fake cease-fire with people who have an unblemished record of undermining American interests and lying to him personally. Now they've pulled the rug out in the most conspicuous and humiliating way possible, and Kerry thinks Assad simply goofed on media etiquette and wants to iron out the details of the cease fire in a new round of negotiations -- and it'd all be possible if the media would stop claiming that he has failed.
Vain, dense, and self-deluded, John Kerry is such an enormous embarrassment to the United States and such a profound cretin as a human being that it almost makes his humiliation enjoyable to watch. Except that there are civilians in Syria whose lives depend on the aid Kerry so cruelly keeps promising, and which he should know will never be delivered.