Henry Kissinger -- War Criminal

THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER

"Henry Kissinger is a war criminal," says firebrand journalist Christopher Hitchens. "He's a liar. And he's personally responsible for murder, for kidnapping, for torture." What is Hitchens on about? He could be talking about the lawsuit currently under way in Washington DC, in which Kissinger is charged with having authorised the assassination of a Chilean general in 1970. Or he could be referring to the secret bombing of Cambodia which, arguably, Kissinger engineered without the knowledge of the US Congress in 1969. Or perhaps Kissinger's involvement in the sale of U.S. weapons to Indonesian President Suharto for use in the massacre of 1/3 of the population of East Timor in 1975.

Kissinger BBC

I am not well enough acquainted with the details of Kissinger's actions while representing the United States to comment about Hitchens' allegations.
At the tail end of your linked article was a comment that I would like to respond to.
I think that it is stupendously hypocritical for the US to refuse to submit to the same laws that we are so willing to impose on other nations.
We are quick to demand extradition of "war criminals" to stand before a tribunal at The Hague, and quicker yet to explain why we shouldn't face the same sanctions.
It's easy to see why a large part of the world has such a love/hate ambivalence towards us.
"Do as I say, not as I do" usually stops being an effective persuasion when you're 5.

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Originally posted by clocker@22 April 2003 - 21:52
I think that it is stupendously hypocritical for the US to refuse to submit to the same laws that we are so willing to impose on other nations.
We are quick to demand extradition of "war criminals" to stand before a tribunal at The Hague, and quicker yet to explain why we shouldn't face the same sanctions.
It's easy to see why a large part of the world has such a love/hate ambivalence towards us.
"Do as I say, not as I do" usually stops being an effective persuasion when you're 5.

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Here! Here!

Yes-this is the crux of the accusation of arrogance-were it not for that quality our "Foreign Policy" would be (almost) unassailable.

BTW-anyone read Hitchens' book on the Clintons? DEVASTATING!!

If you thought Kissinger and Nixon were bad.......

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Originally posted by j2k4@23 April 2003 - 06:32
BTW-anyone read Hitchens' book on the Clintons? DEVASTATING!! If you thought Kissinger and Nixon were bad.......

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Really? Do tell!

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Originally posted by myfiles3000+23 April 2003 - 15:51--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (myfiles3000 @ 23 April 2003 - 15:51)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--j2k4@23 April 2003 - 06:32
BTW-anyone read Hitchens&#39; book on the Clintons? DEVASTATING&#33;&#33;&nbsp; If you thought Kissinger and Nixon were bad.......

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Really? Do tell&#33; [/b][/quote]
I can&#39;t do the book justice here; I was amazed at the Clintons&#39; brazen disregard for common decency, though, and flat-out shocked that Chris Hitchens wrote it. At one time, they were all big fans of each other&#39;s......I&#39;ll try to find the title-I borrowed the book; can&#39;t remember what it was called at the moment.

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Originally posted by myfiles3000+23 April 2003 - 15:51--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (myfiles3000 @ 23 April 2003 - 15:51)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--j2k4@23 April 2003 - 06:32
BTW-anyone read Hitchens&#39; book on the Clintons? DEVASTATING&#33;&#33;&nbsp; If you thought Kissinger and Nixon were bad.......

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Really? Do tell&#33; [/b][/quote]
It&#39;s called "No One Left To Lie To".

I recommend it highly. B)

j2k4, both Hitchens&#39; books are on my summer reading list, i&#39;ll get back to you on who&#39;s the bigger crook according to him -- clinton or kissinger. I have my suspicions...

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Originally posted by myfiles3000@28 April 2003 - 03:43
j2k4, both Hitchens&#39; books are on my summer reading list, i&#39;ll get back to you on who&#39;s the bigger crook according to him -- clinton or kissinger. I have my suspicions...

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Re: "Who&#39;s the bigger crook...."

Considerations of "scale" are important, but you WILL be impressed with the pettiness/slimyness/abusiveness of the Clintons. And crooks? I await your opinion with the proverbial " &#39;bated breath".

simple truth of life = history is written by the winners

u ever read the gauls account of the Agricolla? - live with it

When I went to type something about this post I had already finished and mysteriously .....the screen flashed and my post was deleted.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I had gotten past the commentary on the book on Clinton and his pardoning of Susan McDougall....and moved on to comment on the current regime. Is this just fortuitous or could it be a symptom of a deeper problem??? :unsure:

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Originally posted by leecheskicked@30 April 2003 - 22:26
simple truth of life = history is written by the winners
u ever read the gauls account of the Agricolla? - live with it

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of course history is written by the victors. this doesn&#39;t give them carte-blanche authority to do anything they wish....I am not prepared to "live with" war crimes. that they are selectively prosecuted is a problem with the administration, not the value underneath. deal with it.

kissinger is a mass-murdering psycho - definitely
how USA can remain ignorant for so long is disgusting
he is still be sent as a peace broker

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&#39;you can bomb the world to peices, but you can&#39;t bomb it into peace&#39;

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Spearhead.
USA crimes are usually worse than others aswell because there is more money and people to do them
who else has B52s? who else used atomics? daisy-cutters, aerosol bombs, napalm, DU weapons?
anyone else would be rogue states, terrorists, communists, insurgents, rebels, treats to national security.
[i know that the brave in the land of the free is the native americans - the whiteys kill from afar like scared cowards]

I hesitate to buy into this debate about Kissinger as other significant half sits next to me telling me that Lyndon Johnson ("red dog democrat") was responsible for the bombing of Cambodia.

"Because Lincoln was a Republican ...they would vote for a Republican even if it was a red dog. Maybe Kissinger engineered it by Johnson that filth bag carried it out. You can blame Kissinger but he wasn&#39;t the President and couldn&#39;t order it, he was just an advisor, and not only that........(breath)....but Johnson lied about it to Congress and to the public .....and...(breath)...he accused Goldwater of accusing it to do it to get elected. It is disgusting. Everyone was disgusted by it. It was a long time ago but I think it bears repeating. Johnson was not a peacemaker, and was going to whack Ho Chi Minh&#39;s pecker off, and that is not a peacemaker attitude is it".

..........."Kissinger, (cough) even if he was bad had to take it in the totality of his career. People think he was bad but I respect him. He understood Dictators and knew how to deal with them. Perhaps that is because he had a bit of that in him." :blink:

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It was a long time ago but I think it bears repeating. . . even if he was bad had to take it in the totality of his career.

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the Third Reich and the holocaust were a long time ago too, half the western word ended up against hitler, he had to deal with terrible men like stalin. should we re evaluate the holocaust against his whole career - he got the trains running on time his scientist cronies invented magnetic recording tape, balistic missiles and instant coffee all things which have influence in our lives

USA seems to want to exist outside of the actions and complexities of history as some one dimensional hollywood action hero, viewing it&#39;s murder as liberation through rose coloured cable TV glasses
"quick Michael Moore isn&#39;t sticking to the script, swell the play out music, overdub booing and break to a commercial"
if you keep your head in the sand, something&#39;s going to kick your ass

"The only thing that stopped Stalin was the nuclear bombs being dropped on Japan. Hitler is one of the ones on that list that the US got rid of too. Stalin was neutralised by the US. He was ready to go into Europe, and it is said that Stalin knew at the point the bomb was dropped that his plans were foiled".

significant other

there was more...

"It isn&#39;t intentions that matter rather the consequences of your actions that matter. Chamberlain in retrospect was responsible for a lot of death and destruction and that is despite the fact he did what he did trying to prevent death and destruction. Kissinger&#39;s philosophy was that you have to be very firm and consistent with Dictators."

who were the target dictators for K in Cambodia and Laos?
there children are still born hidiously mutated by the US chems K dropped on their land

all of the great powers have alot to answer for [especially the english speaking ones]
but the bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki are war crimes without equal
US command had a morotorium on bombing both of these targets so that they would provide optimal testing conditions for the new US weapon.
conventional war and the extent of the Japanese supply chain ended the Japanese campaign
[i suppose that bombing Japan to &#39;neutralise&#39; a Russian dictator makes about as much sence as bombing Afganistan because a bunch of Saudis kamakasied]

firm and consistent with dictators ehh.
what?, like providing two of the best [suharto & pinochet] with all the CIA and covert support US taxes can supply
most &#39;dictators&#39; got there due to US intervention
US liberation is seems to be little worse than death, so maybe destroying villages to liberate them is a great and noble idea