?President?s unlikely surrogates on strikes: Kerry

WASHINGTON: They are both Vietnam veterans with a clutch of purple hearts and silver stars to their credit, their politics shaped by their respective wartime experience. They both ran, unsuccessfully , for the White House. Five-term Senators since the mid-1980 s, albeit from two opposing parties, their personal ties ? beyond camaraderie ? are so intimate that when John McCain was going to question his friend, secretary of state John Kerry, at a Senate committee hearing on Syria , he jokingly told Kerry's wife Teresa Heinz, "I apologize for what I'm about to do to John."

He didn't have to. Both men are on the same page as far as Syrian military strikes are concerned. What has surprised political observers is how two men who have been in the thick of war, and have reasons to abhor it, have become the go-to guys for the strikes.

McCain, who famously pushed for US reconciliation with Vietnam after the American rout, is the hawk. Kerry, is more cautious, but is nevertheless pushing for strikes.

Kerry himself was pushed to acknowledge the irony of advocating military action before the very Senate in front of which he opposed the Vietnam War as a young Naval lieutenant 42 years ago, after an anti-war protestor interrupted his testimony . "We don't want another war!" screamed the activist of Code Pink, a grassroots peace movement.

"The first time I testified before this committee when I was 27 years old, I had feelings very similar to that protester ," Kerry told the committee as the protester was escorted out, before explaining "that is exactly why it is so important we are all here, having this debate, talking about these things before the country. And that the Congress itself will act representing the American people. And I think we all can respect those who have a different point of view, and we do."

If that be the case, then the Obama administration is up against it in terms of popular opposition to strikes against Syria, and Congressional reflection of that sentiment , unless the President produce compelling evidence of imminent danger to US from the Assad regime.

When two war heroes seem unable to make the case, it appears even less unlikely that Obama, whose politics was centered on opposition to dubious wars, will be able to swing it.

Source: http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/c/33039/f/533917/s/30f0cc65/sc/7/l/0Ltimesofindia0Bindiatimes0N0Cworld0Cus0CPresidents0Eunlikely0Esurrogates0Eon0Estrikes0EKerry0Eand0EMcCain0Carticleshow0C2240A80A50A0Bcms/story01.htm

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