Obama, Kerry Wonder Why Falcons Didn’t Try To Use ‘Soft Power’

“What did Atlanta expect, taking a 28-3 lead in the third quarter?”

Washington, February 6 – Former President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry voiced puzzlement today at the Atlanta Falcons’ decision to employ outright force in yesterday’s Super Bowl, when the successes of the “soft power” model offered by the previous administration was so evident. Had the Falcons done so, noted both men, they might have prevailed over the New England Patriots.

Obama and Kerry spoke separately to reporters last night following New England’s 34-28 come-from-behind victory over the Falcons in Houston. Both expressed regret for Atlanta’s team and asserted that had they followed the former administration’s approach to conflict – namely, avoiding it at all costs – the game could have ended with a victory for the AFC team.

Obama pointed specifically to his achievements in staying out of direct conflict with Russia over the latter’s invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory. “At no point did you see American troops at risk of confrontation with Russian forces, either in Ukraine or in Syria,” noted the former president, on whose watch Russia remained free to entrench itself deeper in Ukraine as it pleased, and to establish a foothold in the Middle East that had theretofore been denied it by sixty consecutive years of American policy.

Kerry, for his part, invoked his triumphant diplomacy surrounding the Iran nuclear deal, which kept US forces out of harm’s way, except when Iran took US Navy personnel hostage and forced the administration to ransom them for hundreds of millions of dollars in cash that was then used to fund terrorism and a Shia takeover of Syria. “Soft power is critical, sometimes more so than hard power,” explained the former top diplomat. “You can’t go putting your armed forces in harm’s way. That’s not what they train for. It was a mistake to let our sailors provoke Iran like that, aggressively manning their craft and fulfilling their mission. Soft power is all about the indirect approach.”

Had the Falcons applied soft power instead of direct defense and offense, contended Obama and Kerry, the Patriots might have responded differently, they argued. “What did Atlanta expect, taking a 28-3 lead in the third quarter?” continued Kerry. “They basically invited further confrontation by doing that, with unfortunate results. People always end up getting hurt when they adopt a direct approach instead of a patient policy of negotiation.”

Kerry added that nowhere in the Falcons’ offensive or defensive approach to the game did he discern the astute application of economic incentives, the rescinding of trade sanctions, or repeated cash payments. “The only thing I say that I could identify as congruent with my approach was avoiding calling foul when the other side did something wrong,” he noted.

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