John Kerry miscues on a number of fronts

On at least two fronts, US Secretary of State John Kerry has got it so very wrong! First, he attacks Edward Snowden. And then, secondly, he virtually shows himself up as a misogynistic. It is clear from the response to Kerry's comments that he hasn't remotely understood how the public views Snowden and what he has revealed.

"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is facing widespread criticism for his comment that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—increasingly seen by the American public as a heroic figure for exposing government surveillance—should "man up" by returning home to face criminal charges.

“This is a man who has betrayed his country,” Kerry told CBS News on Wednesday, just hours before the airing of highly anticipated interview between Snowden and NBC News' Brian Williams. “He should man up and come back to the US.”

Seen widely as an attempt by Kerry and the Obama administration to turn public opinion against the 30-year-old former intelligence contractor, for many it had the opposite effect: making the Secretary look both petty and misogynistic—not to mention "wrong"—by characterizing Snowden as "less than a man" for his actions.

Responding to Kerry's remarks on his website, Peter Van Buren, a former government employee and whistleblower himself said that the Secretary of State—who at this point sounds "more like Grandpa Simpson than America’s Senior Diplomat"—has apparently been "relegated within the Obama administration to the role of mumbling bully-boy statements, faux-machismo rantings whose intended audience and purpose are very, very unclear."

On Twitter, some turned the tables on Kerry's comments, by saying that to the extent the term is cultural code for "courage or bravery" it is the Secretary of State and the government he represents who should "man up" by admitting their short-sighted and mistaken approach to the Snowden affair and foreign policy and surveillance issues more broadly."

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