General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumswhat pisses me off about Kissinger is that he's accepted in
the highest circles of our government and our society. Accepted? Hell, he's lauded and treated as an elder statesman.
It highlights a cognitive dissonance of epic proportions. As a nation, we hold ourselves up as more moral than other nations and yet we turn a blind eye over and over again the the crimes committed by high government officials. We sweep it all under a bulging carpet.
I don't claim that everything this country has done has been evil, but it sure as hell has committed some terrible crimes, and not acknowledging and dealing with that will inevitably lead us to committing those same acts over and over and over.
Kissinger represents some of the worst of those crimes.
LuvNewcastle
(16,869 posts)Most people just don't know anything really about all the misery caused by Kissinger in his advisory role to Presidents and many other powerful people in the world. But there's no excuse for people in our government to admire him. There's no way that Obama doesn't know about Kissinger's history. The only conclusion i can draw from that is that the people running our government either agree with what Kissinger has done, or they've turned a blind eye to it. The fact that they still consult and admire that evil old toad tells me all I need to know about their moral makeup.
PNW_Dem
(119 posts)I see a lot of general criticism of Kissinger on this site and I dont disagree with it. However, it would be interesting to have a summary of his offensive acts for the record (and discussion).
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Conspired with the Chilean military in the coup that overthrew the democratically-elected Marxist president of Chile, in which thousands of people were murdered.
Conspired with the military juntas of the Southern Cone in Operation Condor, in which they took turns kidnapping, torturing, and murdering leftists from each others' countries.
Cynically urged the Iraqi Kurds to rebel against Saddam Hussein, then left them to their dire fate after cutting a deal with Hussein.
The last four years of the Vietnam War.
This guy should be at the Hague, not being feted and lauded by out political leadership.
lastlib
(23,394 posts)...ought to be deemed a war crime on its own merits. He and Gerald Ford both should have had a one-way ticket to The Hague for that. More than 100,000 people died in that little atrocity, and that doesn't count the mass rapes and all the other pretty little details.
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Vanje
(9,766 posts)Watch it, and consider if you really want this guy contributing foreign policy pointers with anyone in the Obama Administration.
He has no regard for laws. He lies. He targets civilians.
SylviaD
(721 posts)Vanje
(9,766 posts)nauseates me.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Too big to be shamed.
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Small countries and their citizens are just expendable pieces on the chess board. "Realists" view Kissinger as someone who gets things done in the rough-and-tumble "real" world. Niggling over a few hundred or thousand dead, here and there, is namby-pamby peacenik stuff. We've got power, and we need hard men to make the hard choices to properly project it.
leftstreet
(36,119 posts)And unfortunately, since the US likes to pretend Russia doesn't exist, Kissinger is the only one who's met with Putin more often than any other politician or diplomat. So Kerry and Obama probably need his help
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)To tell them that Putin is good or bad, what makes him tick...?
Vanje
(9,766 posts)Kissinger chooses war every time, and he plays it dirty.
Kissinger breaks laws, murders, kidnaps, assassinates, lies, and lays waste to civilian innocents.
I am not exaggerating.
Hutzpa
(11,461 posts)because the truth really does hurt and it hurts real bad.
You have it on the money, it's wrong, it's not right, but it IS the truth.
It is this same attitude and approach that has systematically destroyed the American middle class.
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,514 posts)malthaussen
(17,242 posts)... no fan of Kissinger here, but he represents very well the kind of statesman for whom realpolitik is a great virtue. Totally unconcerned with human fallout or the rule of law (or the rules of diplomacy, if it comes to that), he worked quite brilliantly to advance the agenda of the ruling elite of our country. Opening China to counterbalance the USSR was brilliant, and helped to achieve detente and reduce tensions among the superpowers. Whatever we may think about the menace of China and its incalculable potential, it was also a realistic acknowledgement of how things really were in the world, rather than how we wished them to be.
It's kind of sad that it took an amoral, dishonest, and loathsome man to achieve ends that those who were more admirable in every way could not accomplish. I wonder what that says about our society, and about diplomacy in general?
-- Mal
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)to be used as pawns in foreign policy. H. Kissinger.
It's a shame that I'll never get the chance to kick Dr. K's fat Machiavellian ass into a foxhole with the the dumb, stupid animals he put there. Curse the sonofabitch. If there's a hell, no one deserves more to be in it than Henry.
malthaussen
(17,242 posts)... Talleyrand, Metternich, and Bismarck, all of whom are no doubt on Henry's speed-dial list.
-- Mal
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)The one difference is that with Kissinger it's personal.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)BlueMTexpat
(15,376 posts)snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)and are great actors saying, at times, what we want to hear.
All the while, the evil is playing out behind the scenes. There
is no remorse.
Rex
(65,616 posts)If they did, then they would put principle above politics. And it is not just this group, ALL groups feel this way. We are expendable numbers in the work force and that is all. We are the Have Nots and they are the Haves.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,032 posts)In "The Silence of the Lambs," FBI agent Clarice Starling visits deranged and incredibly evil cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in prison in order to learn more about "Buffalo Bill," another deranged, evil serial killer they are trying to catch.
So one might think of Kerry as Clarice Starling, visiting Hennibal Lecter/Henry Kissinger to find out more about Buffalo Bill/Assad?
cali
(114,904 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,032 posts)to keep him from eating people.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)politics, and his deeds. It's almost like official Washington is playing like the consequences of the man's deeds are just fine and dandy.
GeorgeGist
(25,327 posts)NuttyFluffers
(6,811 posts)as long as the appellation is used continuously it will push the truth home.
i suggest people only refer to War Criminal Kissinger by his full title every time. it can only degrade his public image in circles unaware. eventually such names stick and hurt acceptability.
DeeDeeNY
(3,357 posts)The war criminal referred to in the title of this book is none other than Kissinger http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1181098.Never_Shake_Hands_with_a_War_Criminal
Agony
(2,605 posts)most people around me just tune me out now because thinking about things like this is just "too depressing".
I think we have a "rotting advanced civilization" on our hands.
but thanks for posting this
CK_John
(10,005 posts)At that time Kissinger was the voice of reason and the best of the best.
It wasn't always easy to be correct but that's the way it was.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)very particular of what they discuss.
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)the new Democrats.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Kissinger is the worst but all of our criminals on the right wing get reprieved