Giving context to Pariah Kerry [Lileks]

At the international Davos gabfest, John Kerry called the United States "an international pariah.'' While that does set us apart from nations that manage to be pariahs domestically, it makes you wonder if his quotes were taken out of context. He's smart. He went to college, studied hard. How did he manage to get stuck in Switzerland?

The Davos conference is the annual gathering of bespoke-suited nomenklatura who hang around lobbies smoking cigarettes before heading into smaller rooms to talk about important things, like reducing cigarette consumption in Third World countries. No one gets a standing O for suggesting that the industrialized nations of the world were perfectly content to let Saddam butcher his people as long as they could buy his oil and sell him weapons.

In all fairness, Kerry was referring to America Under George W. Bush, a strange, mutated version of the real thing. The Real America, when run by Democrats, is loved by the world, and that's very important. If you're a teen counting the number of friends on your MySpace page, that is.

In additional, ultra-nuanced fairness, the topic was Iran. A questioner asked Kerry whether the U.S. was partly to blame for the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, since the Bush administration had failed to ''engage'' the Iranian government. The question presumes the mullahs would have dumped their man for a Persian Gandhi if only the U.S. had sent flowers and chocolates.

Rather than address that detail, however, Kerry slammed the Bush administration. You can understand why. The former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, was on the same stage. Criticize the Iranians, and whoo boy: frosty looks over the buffet table later. Better to kick your own country than spoil the groovy Davos vibe.

No, that's not fair. Kerry elaborated, just on different subjects.

Why is the United States a pariah? Because it "walk(ed) away from global warming (and) Kyoto.'' Kerry, of course, voted for the resolution that forbade adopting the Kyoto protocols. If he were a female R&B singer, he'd be Pariah Kerry.

"We are irresponsibly slow in moving towards AIDS in Africa,'' he further said. Well, the Bush administration spent $3.2 billion in '06 on PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. And its requested increase for this year _ $800 million _ is more than twice the amount the Clinton administration spent on international AIDS prevention in 2000.

What's more, Bush wants all direct humanitarian aid to Africa to hit $9 billion by 2010. Cheapskate.

We're also a pariah because we don't use enough of that magic oil called ``diplomacy.'' It's a wonderful liniment made entirely of hot air and paper, and softens the most adamantine heart. "We need to do a better job of protecting our interests, because after all, that's what diplomacy is about,'' Kerry said. Right! Who needs a carrier group when you have Madeleine Albright?

"But you have to do it in a context of the reality, not your lens but the reality of those other cultures and histories.'' Why the Kerry camp failed to use "A Context of the Reality'' as a campaign slogan back in '04, we'll never know. If there's anything people hunger for, it's an unlensed reality, contextualized.

Americans, Kerry expanded, have an "unfortunate habit'' of seeing things "exclusively through an American lens.'' As in "an American city has been attacked'' or "an American convoy was killed by Iranian mercs,'' one supposes. Provincial clods.

Never mind that the sentiment is condescending: Other states have cultures and histories that shape their views, but they can't be expected to be flexible; the U.S. must view things through their lens. The idea of serving up the enemy a hot, steaming bowl of KNOCK IT OFF, PAL a la World War II seems foreign to Kerry. Correction: It seems native to Kerry, and that's the problem. Native equals bad. Foreign equals good.

Who cares? It's not like he's running for anything. No, but he is a senator, badmouthing the home team in front of a free-floating claque of internationalists who probably believe Iran's quest for nukes is really a desperate cry for help.

Imagine if Kim Jong Il had appeared in Davos. How uncomfortable: ooh, a pariah playoff. Imagine if Sen. Kerry had cold-cocked Kim: boos and outrage. Imagine if he'd shaken Kim's clammy hand: applause and cheers.

And that's all you really need to know about the people whose love we're supposed to earn.