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99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
Fri Feb 12, 2016, 05:00 PM Feb 2016

Intercept: Kissinger’s War Crimes Are Central to Divide Between Hillary and Bernie Sanders

Henry Kissinger’s War Crimes Are Central to the Divide Between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders
by Dan Froomkin * Feb. 12 2016 * The Intercept

The sparring during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over whether Henry Kissinger is an elder statesman or a pariah has laid bare a major foreign policy divide within the Democratic Party. ~snip~

Kissinger is an amazing and appropriate lens through which to see what’s at stake in the choice between Clinton and Sanders. But that only works, of course, if you understand who Kissinger is — which surely many of today’s voters don’t. ~snip~

Kissinger is reviled by many left-leaning observers of foreign policy. They consider him an amoral egotist who enabled dictators, extended the Vietnam War, laid the path to the Khmer Rouge killing fields, stage-managed a genocide in East Timor, overthrew the democratically-elected left-wing government in Chile, and encouraged Nixon to wiretap his political adversaries.

First, let’s review what happened at the debate. Here’s the video, followed by the transcript:



And now, some background about Kissinger.

Greg Grandin, a history professor at New York University, just published a timely book called Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman. In an article in the Nation last week, “Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton’s Tutor in War and Peace,” he offered this pithy summary:
Let’s consider some of Kissinger’s achievements during his tenure as Richard Nixon’s top foreign policy–maker. He
(1) prolonged the Vietnam War for five pointless years;
(2) illegally bombed Cambodia and Laos;
(3) goaded Nixon to wiretap staffers and journalists;
(4) bore responsibility for three genocides in Cambodia, East Timor, and Bangladesh;
(5) urged Nixon to go after Daniel Ellsberg for having released the Pentagon Papers, which set off a chain of events that brought down the Nixon White House;
(6) pumped up Pakistan’s ISI, and encouraged it to use political Islam to destabilize Afghanistan;
(7) began the U.S.’s arms-for-petrodollars dependency with Saudi Arabia and pre-revolutionary Iran;
(8) accelerated needless civil wars in southern Africa that, in the name of supporting white supremacy, left millions dead;
(9) supported coups and death squads throughout Latin America; and (10) ingratiated himself with the first-generation neocons, such as Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, who would take American militarism to its next calamitous level. Read all about it in Kissinger’s Shadow!

A full tally hasn’t been done, but a back-of-the-envelope count would attribute 3, maybe 4 million deaths to Kissinger’s actions, but that number probably undercounts his victims in southern Africa.

https://theintercept.com/2016/02/12/henry-kissingers-war-crimes-are-central-to-the-divide-between-hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders/
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Intercept: Kissinger’s War Crimes Are Central to Divide Between Hillary and Bernie Sanders (Original Post) 99th_Monkey Feb 2016 OP
K&R - the fact that Kissinger is embraced by the Democratic Party is VERY disturbing. He's a myrna minx Feb 2016 #1
Are NRC/DNC hinting that Kissinger may be Hillary's pick for SOS? 99th_Monkey Feb 2016 #2
Thanks for posting. I love the Intercept. n/t Peregrine Took Feb 2016 #3
Hillary's Neo-con foreign policy approach on full display. Motown_Johnny Feb 2016 #4
Yep. Proud friend of war criminal. Like on so many other things 99th_Monkey Feb 2016 #5

myrna minx

(22,772 posts)
1. K&R - the fact that Kissinger is embraced by the Democratic Party is VERY disturbing. He's a
Fri Feb 12, 2016, 05:03 PM
Feb 2016

war criminal. THAT is a deal breaker for me. It's just astonishing.

 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
2. Are NRC/DNC hinting that Kissinger may be Hillary's pick for SOS?
Fri Feb 12, 2016, 05:08 PM
Feb 2016

It is both very revealing and very disturbing .. I don't think this ^ is really true, but still ..

It really makes one wonder WTF the Hillary campaign is thinking by repeatedly referencing
an infamous war criminal as a trusted advisor. It's very strange.

 

Motown_Johnny

(22,308 posts)
4. Hillary's Neo-con foreign policy approach on full display.
Fri Feb 12, 2016, 05:43 PM
Feb 2016

The worst part is that she is just so damn proud of it.





 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
5. Yep. Proud friend of war criminal. Like on so many other things
Fri Feb 12, 2016, 05:53 PM
Feb 2016

she "just can't help herself" .. growing cracks in her "progressive" veneer

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