[REUTERS] Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
dismissed on Friday as "a myth" suggestions that the United States was withdrawing from world affairs.
"I'm perplexed by claims I occasionally hear that somehow America is disengaging from the world - this myth that America is pulling back, or giving up, or standing down. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth," Kerry told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
.
His remarks were seen partly as a response to Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief, who told a Davos panel earlier on Friday that the world was disappointed with a "sense of no direction" in U.S. foreign policy.
Kerry cited U.S. involvement with issues from Israel to Iran to Syria and in Asia and Africa to counter a similar view expressed by others in the Middle East and by critics in the United States.
He said it was based on a false assumption that the only tool of U.S. influence was its military. "If we don't have a huge troop presence or aren't brandishing an immediate threat of force, we are somehow absent from the arena," Kerry said.