National Memo on Sec. Kerry's superb work at State

[MBS]

http://www.nationalmemo.com/john-kerry-bittersweet-at-best-what-might-have-been/

Secretary of State John Kerry won’t trumpet it, but the Iran and Cuba triumphs mark the most monumental moment in American foreign policy for a generation. President Obama will be remembered for the breakthrough, but the craftsman whose name is on the woodwork is John Kerry.

Kerry has shown the fine stuff he’s made of this summer — reaching a deal on Iran’s nuclear program and normalizing relations with Cuba. Opening the Cuban embassy in Washington was a grand affair, long overdue. Palpably, the last brick of the Cold War wall fell over the heads of the Cuban-American vocal contingent in Congress.

Move over, Henry Kissinger, you are no longer at the head of the table, no matter how many more memoirs you churn out. Opening the road to China was worth writing home about — but over and over? Kerry achieved a way to find a peaceful footing with a true enemy, Iran. After all, as they say, you don’t make peace with your friends. Vibrant Cuba was left in the cold too long. Now I predict it will become one of our favorite neighbors.

But it’s bittersweet at best, to consider how such a capable eminence, Kerry, could have been president. . .You remember, back in 2004, Kerry was a presidential nominee before the American people snapped into seeing the ineptitude of President George W. Bush. Senator Kerry ran a good race, but the better man lost. A tragic war carried on, one which Kerry surely would have ended, knowing a lost cause when he saw one. . . .