Well, That Makes Sense
Henry Kissinger has been advising President Bush and Vice President Cheney about
Iraq, telling them that “victory is the only meaningful exit strategy,” author and journalist Bob Woodward said.The Washington Post editor’s third book on the Bush administration, “State of Denial,” comes out next week.
He said Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, has been telling Bush and Cheney that “in Iraq, he declared very simply, ‘Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy.'”
“This is so fascinating. Kissinger’s fighting the Vietnam War again because, in his view, the problem in Vietnam was we lost our will.”
The sound you just heard was Christopher Hitchens flying headfirst into his own liquor cabinet.
Dr. Death: Diggin’ for victory — again.
Interesting. From Joan Didion’s NYRB article on Cheney:
That’s right. That was in Rise of the Vulcans. All the neocons attacked Kissinger while he was in office, and always attacked him from the right. It was only once he was out of office and started writing memoirs that they began to suck up to him again — Norman Podhoretz being the biggest brown noser here.
Anyway, this was the cover Hitchens always used to say, “Bush/Iraq is not like Nixon-Kissinger/Vietnam, because the former actually have ideals.” Which was bullshit, as everyone knows.
The fact is that Kissinger has skills they were always willing to use. His penchant for secrecy and ruthlessness is why they named him to chair the 9/11 Commission, though they had to back down from that. Now his desire to refight Vietnam comes in handy. Also, his cheerful ability to work in the context of massmurder. If you’re looking for an advisor who doesn’t give a flying shit about casualties, Kissinger’s your man.
I was in Cambridge Mass. in 1968 when Kissinger was working first for Rocky, then for Nixon. The joke in Cambridge after Nixon won and after Dr. Strangelove moved to D.C. was that Harvard’s gain was the nation’s loss. Many years later, now, that old joke seems more true but a lot less funny.
Did you know that Hitchens’ official job title at the New School for Social Research was “Professor of Liberal Studies”?
Don’t forget, Hitch has used it as a point of pride, especially on the Iraq War, that he’s “never been on the same side as Henry Kissinger”. Oops. D’oh. Wah Wah etc…
Can we at least hope for a War Crimes prosecution this time ’round?
I was just thinking that this morning, but you bastards beat me to it.
Although I never would have thought of the nose-picking so kudos on both counts.
So is this an excuse for Hitch to finally go on the wagon?
I’m waiting for my apology on your 12 steps Hitchens!
Gad. Will no one rid me of this meddlesome mass-murderer? Christ, if I didn’t know better (er, actually, I don’t) I’d say that Kissinger was put on this planet to torment me. After vietnam, cambodia and Chile (I know, Retardo’s issue is Timor), what contribution has he ever made? I mean, unless you think the world’s biggest problem is overpopulation.
Can anyone be surprised that the architect of so much murder, torture, human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity has found welcome in the bush/cheney cabal? The worlds number one unindicted war criminal mentoring the worlds number two unindicted war criminal. If they could get Grigori Rasputin or Vlad Å¢epeÅŸ to join the NSC they wouldn’t even hesitate…
mikey
Now if only a statue of Mother Teresa would audibly proclaim her support for Bush, Hitchens’ nightmare would be complete.
Only the good die young, Mikey, which is why Kissinger has lived to a Nestorian age. He’ll probably still be advising junior war criminals when we’re all dead and buried.
I don’t mean to make Timor my issue at all, it’s just that the responsibility for it cannot be put on that other war criminal Richard Nixon, who is such a boogeyman that he’s considered by conventional wisdom to be sui generis. Timor is Kissinger and Ford and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz’s baby. It’s the genocide that can’t be blamed solely on Kissingerian “realism”; the neocons were a part of it, too. It’s something they can’t weasel out of, like a few of them can Vietnam.
Precious bodily fluids!
I never occurred to me that Kissinger was advising Bush. But now that it’s come out, it makes perfect sense. Now only is Kissinger a mass-murdering war criminal, but he’s fucking cluelessly incompetent to boot. It is a match made in heaven. I wonder if he and Bush “69” each other in the Oval Office after hours? Does Kissinger smoke cigars?
Right there with ya, ‘Tardo. I just have a real strong sense of the horrors visited upon 40,000 people in that soccer stadium in September, 1973. Like Sharon and Sabra and Chatilla, for me it is the defining inhumanity…
mikey
1. Hitch goes on the wagon
2. Hitch finds Jeebus
3. Hitch joins a mega-church (preferably, Ann Coulter’s church, heh indeedy).
4> Hitch keeps cheering for war, now as a fundy.
Kissenger wants to win Vietnam, Iraq to Kissenger is Vietnam.
Kissenger is just jonesing for body count…
mikey
the problem in Vietnam was we lost our will
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Will Wheaton since Star Trek:TNG, maybe Kissinger’s onto something here.
Geez, no posts sympathizing with Mark Foley yet?
please please please please please let that be the real Gary.
Silver bullets! Garlic! Wooden stakes! Will nothing work?
ps. if so, my long-standing theory has been proved correct. Check out http://www.drudgereport.com/
Considering how the left wants to legalize all the things that Foley could have done, it’s pretty hypocritical for them to criticize Foley.
Unlike you and your party Gary, the “Left” stands very strongly against sexual harassment and pedophelia.
So please answer my question – you do just get all your trolling from the Drudge Report don’t you?
That would explain the gooper blast fax talking points, Kathleen.
Considering how the left wants to legalize all the things that Foley could have done, it’s pretty hypocritical for them to criticize Foley.
This is Gartastic, truly Gararrific reasoning. Let’s see if I’ve got this:
Given: Republican congressman sends explicitly sexual emails to an underage object of his affection (gender irrelevant to me but perhaps not to Gary)
If: Existence of emails surfaces and said perv-emailer’s aides immediately accuse Dems of trying to smear their guy
And: Dems go “wha?”
And: Emails themselves are posted on the internets, most immediately and most spectacularly on right-wing and MSM sites
And: Dems read the posts but don’t really say a lot, at least not compared to the tighty-righties
And: None of the regulars (read: lefties) at Sadly No take the bait
And: First SN reference to the incident comes from Gary the Goptroll
Therefore: the Dems want to legalize sex abuse of minors by men in positions of power (who weirdly happen to be Republicans in most cases but no matter) while silently criticizing said action even though they very secretly either do the same thing or really, really want to.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Gary: what grade did you earn in your introductory logic/argumentation course?
“Can we at least hope for a War Crimes prosecution this time ’round? ”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…that was funny.
Too bad no one in Iraq is laughing.
Aravosis is reporting that Hastert has known about Foley’s fiddling for 11 months.
Covered it up because…. IOKIYAR, I guess.
…und zis is my Magic Murder Bag.
Can anyone be surprised that the architect of so much murder, torture, human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity has found welcome in the bush/cheney cabal? The worlds number one unindicted war criminal mentoring the worlds number two unindicted war criminal. If they could get Grigori Rasputin or Vlad Ţepeş to join the NSC they wouldn’t even hesitate…
Oh, let’s go full-Godwin. Kissinger has never disagreed with the Reich’s methods, just their less-than-perfect execution. (And, yes, I realize that Kissinger himself was one of their original targets, but then, to a good Straussian like Henry the K the targeting part is “immaterial”. Nothing personal, this year my clan, next year your clan, the important part is that the targeting be done precisely and with maximum efficiency. Because in Kissinger’s world people are trivial, while The State is all-important.)
The good news is, if Woodward the Weasel is jumping ship, then the Repub prison barge is truly listing and in grave danger of sinking under the weight of its own corruption. We progressives need to keep hammering the ties between self-admitted war criminal Henry Kissinger and Bush’s current policy in Iraq, because there are a lot of red-state voters who may not care about brown people in faraway places but who do remember how much America suffered the last time a resident of the Oval Office took Kissinger’s military advice. One of the few proverbs we all share is “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!” — we need to keep reminding voters that Iraq is looking more and more like Vietnam with sand.
Aravosis is reporting that Hastert has known about Foley’s fiddling for 11 months.
Covered it up because…. IOKIYAR, I guess.
And because “Looky! An internet pervert in your very own Congerss!” is supposed to distract the FOX News viewers from a news story that might otherwise expose unwelcome details about those in control of the Oval Office. By the Rove/Murdoch calculus, better to sacrifice one Repub congressman with a hot-button issue like pedophilia, if his sacrifice can distract Nancy Grace and the “Oooh, shiny!” demographic from truly dangerous revelations like those in Woodward’s new book. Especially since bottom-feeding paid trolls like Gary R can be counted on to shriek that busting a Repub for sexually harassing teenagers somehow means that Democrats are in favor of kiddy porn — it makes no sense whatsoever, but the noise is supposed to drown out all serious discussion.
If Hastert’s really been sitting on Foley’s case for 11 months, it just proves to what lengths the Repubs will go in their attempts to control and distort what Americans are allowed to know. The assumption is that it didn’t matter whether other teenagers were harassed, as long as the Repubs had a “handle” they could use whenever they deemed it most important.
Is Ruppert posting from India (qua Kitty Harris’s paid trolls) or from Congress?
But, re: Hitch. I’d recommend sending him several thousand lightly used copies of Homage to Catalonia.
Garybot – “Considering how the left wants to legalize all the things that Foley could have done, it’s pretty hypocritical for them to criticize Foley.”
You certainly do have your way with words.
Most of the things he “could have done” ARE legal.
Unfortunately, the things he did… maybe not so much…
So just which side are you on, Gary? Who are you defending?
What do you give to a congressman for Christmas?
Promise him anything, but give him a page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Page_sex_scandal
Hey, if Gary can do it, so can I. Bush gave a speech today. It was filled with lies and justifications. Nobody reads my shitty little blog, so I’d like to mention a few of them here. First, and this is the sound byte coming out of this speech, he took the path of carefully parsed speech:
He said “you do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism.”
This is both dishonest and stupid. It is ENTIRELY dependent upon HOW you go about fighting terrorism. Simple minded sot. If you invade and occupy muslim countries, kill thousands of their people, imprison thousands more, and are generally perceived as a crusader, you OF COURSE will contribute to terrorism. You’ve created a situation where they HAVE to fight you and they have no other way to do it. Yes, there is a way to, not fight, that’s stupid, but PROTECT ourselves from terrorism without creating more. These sadly stupid ass clowns can’t figure out how to do that.
And then bush goes on to say: “See, the enemy understands what we’re doing. And they don’t like it. That’s why they’re reacting the way they’re reacting.
See, he wants to be a tough guy and convey the message that what we’re doing is hurting them, and that’s why they’re fighting, and therefore we’re winning. But there’s really some honesty here. The Muslims see us invading, occupying, imprisoning and torturing their citizens. Damn right they don’t like it. And guess what they do? Yep, they try to kill Americans to make the horror stop. Who could not have predicted that? And who can believe the sad lying spin of the administration?
So let’s ask ourselves one question. Are they more likely to stop trying to kill us if we continue to occupy their nations, imprison and kill their young men and exploit their resources, or would they perhaps consider living in peace if we let them live in peace?
mikey
And then bush goes on to say: “See, the enemy understands what we’re doing. And they don’t like it. That’s why they’re reacting the way they’re reacting.”
Murdering their families, destroying their neighborhoods, obliterating their past and stealing their future? In Bush’s tiny mind, what’s not to like about stuff like that? Because, hey, it’s not HIS family, his house is thoroughly protected 24/7, and that other stuff just doesn’t bother his “beautiful mind”. So, if the Iraqis are fighting back, it’s gotta be sheer spite. What an ungrateful bunch, after all we’ve spent on them!
That may be the heart of the whole sorry problem: The Iraqis “understand what we’re doing”. The man in the Oval Office who’s supposed to be responsible for all of it… doesn’t. And the puppeteers behind the Oval Office occupant either don’t understand, or don’t care, or both. We are sooooo f*cked, mikey… I’m just glad I don’t have kids.
i’ll bet I can tie every bit of this back to Kissenger, just by saying his name.
His mark is as distinct as Frank Lloyd Wright, though Wright was a successful architect.
Gary the Ruppert, answering the doorbell.
His mark is as distinct as Frank Lloyd Wright, though Wright was a successful architect.
Given that a number of Wright’s buildings are apparently falling apart, you were actually right the first time.
ITTDGY, that was some funny shit…
…Mikey, these people in power are stupid worthless lazy no good goddamn freeloading SOBs retarded big mouth know it all asshole jerks oh yeah they’re murdering lunatic assholes to boot. But the people in this country don’t seem to mind. Go figure…
But hey, the Giants have a shot to knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs at least…
Can I just say that I started a new job three weeks ago, which has pretty much taken all of my time away from doing things like, oh, watching the news, reading blogs, sleeping. I didn’t know about the bill’s existence, much less it’s passage, until sometime tonight (Friday).
Nothing like the death of the constitution to put a damper on my weekend.
STREPSIADES: I’m dying a miserable death in here!
These Corinthian crawlers keep biting me.
gnawing on my ribs,
slurping up my blood,
yanking off my balls,
tunneling up my arse hole—
they’re killing me!
CHORUS: Don’t complain so much.
STREPSIADES: Why not? When I’ve lost my goods,
lost the colour in my cheeks, lost my blood,
lost my shoes, and, on top of all these troubles,
I’m here like some night watchman singing out—
it won’t be long before I’m done for.
Why doesn’t Mark Foley use bookmarks?
He prefers his pages bent over.
please please please please please let that be the real Gary.
I love this blog.
Oh, let’s go full-Godwin.
No worries. Godwin’s Law was repealed Thursday evening around 6:30 Eastern.
knaverupe said,
Why doesn’t Mark Foley use bookmarks?
We should forgive Foley’s misdeeds. We should give every sinner the chance to find Jesus and reform. Foley has turned over a new leaf…
…Starting at the bottom of the page.
Give poor Henry a break, so he lost the Vietnam War – I’m sure he’ll do much better with Iraq this time around. Oh’ wait…
Mary Jones – “Given that a number of Wright’s buildings are apparently falling apart, you were actually right the first time.”
touché.
So, am I the only one amused at the thought of Kissinger trying to explain things to Bush?
Actually, if you want one resolvable problem that the whole world faces and that has ramifications for every individual on it, overpopulation would certainly qualify.
And if your most available and cheapest remedy exists in your military capacity for demand destruction–i.e., killing humans as quickly and thoroughly as possible–why let all that capacity sit there on the bases and in the silos and laboratories?
Think of it: problems of pollution, soil degradation, deforestation, water shortages, elimination of animal habitats, etc., etc., can be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, killing all the people, or 99.995 percent of them. You don’t even need nukes to achieve this.
The biggest question for the Kissinger Man is tactical and logistical, not moral. It’s NEVER a question of morality as cultures or religious teachings describe it. Survival for the greatest number, or benefit thereto, is not on the table. Only the survival of the best-supplied and best-armed matters.
As a country the US is now on the destroying end; the smaller cabal that I personally call BushCo has no loyalty to people born in this country who look rather like them and were raised in the same geographic location and in the same basic culture.
Once the American citizenry becomes a logistical and tactical problem, it’s just so much meat in the way of the tanks. What’s been aimed at Vietnamese, Afghanis, Iraqis, and countless other non-Americans over the centuries will then be aimed at pesky patriots waving a piece of paper and talking about the rule of law.
Kent States everywhere. Many Philly fires and South L.A.s and Liberty City events. People mowed down faster than their friends can haul them away. That’ll do it. Americans will have the white chemise of their civil virginity rudely ripped away.
Awesome. A website for another group of ignoramouses who have totally convinced themselves that they have the entire world and everything firgured out. Wonderful… just what humanity needs. I mainly oppose right wing mentality and I still think your commentary to my life is imbecilic. I’m not saying that you’re wrong in doing this or setting this site up, but your group is mainly comprised of mudslingers and hypercritics.
Don’t respond to this, just think about it.
Oh and the email is real and more than open for debate. Of course, I spend the majority of my time in the physical world, actually SOLVING problems and helping those around me instead of lurking on chatrooms and message boards with nothing better to do than mindlessly derogate other people; people who I will never look in the eye.