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Kissinger exemplified why the US is not the "shining city on a hill" that Hartung weepily imagines it to be
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Lou Bricano
Nov 30, 2023, 10:45:43 AM11/30/23
to
"Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite"
By Ben Rhodes
Mr. Rhodes is a former deputy national security adviser.
Nov. 30, 2023
Henry Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, exemplified the gap between the story
that America, the superpower, tells and the way that we can act in the world. At
turns opportunistic and reactive, his was a foreign policy enamored with the
exercise of power and drained of concern for the human beings left in its wake.
Precisely because his America was not the airbrushed version of a city on a
hill, he never felt irrelevant: Ideas go in and out of style, but power does not.
From 1969 to 1977, Mr. Kissinger established himself as one of the most
powerful functionaries in history. For a portion of that time, he was the only
person ever to serve concurrently as national security adviser and secretary of
state, two very different jobs that simultaneously made him responsible for
shaping and carrying out American foreign policy. If his German Jewish origins
and accented English set him apart, the ease with which he wielded power made
him a natural avatar for an American national security state that grew and
gained momentum through the 20th century, like an organism that survives by
enlarging itself.
Thirty years after Mr. Kissinger retired into the comforts of the private
sector, I served for eight years in a bigger post-Cold War, post-Sept. 11
national security apparatus. As a deputy national security adviser with
responsibilities that included speech writing and communications, I often
focused more on the story America told than the actions we took.
In the White House, you’re atop an establishment that includes the world’s most
powerful military and economy while holding the rights to a radical story: “We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” But I was
constantly confronted by the contradictions embedded in American leadership, the
knowledge that our government arms autocrats while its rhetoric appeals to the
dissidents trying to overthrow them or that our nation enforces rules — for the
conduct of war, the resolution of disputes and the flow of commerce — while
insisting that America be excused from following them when they become inconvenient.
Mr. Kissinger was not uncomfortable with that dynamic. For him, credibility was
rooted in what you did more than what you stood for, even when those actions
rendered American concepts of human rights and international law void. He helped
extend the war in Vietnam and expand it to Cambodia and Laos, where the United
States rained down more bombs than it dropped on Germany and Japan in World War
II. That bombing — often indiscriminately massacring civilians — did nothing to
improve the terms on which the Vietnam War ended; if anything, it just indicated
the lengths to which the United States would go to express its displeasure at
losing.
It is ironic that this brand of realism reached its apex at the height of the
Cold War, a conflict that was ostensibly about ideology. From the side of the
free world, Mr. Kissinger backed genocidal campaigns — by Pakistan against
Bengalis and by Indonesia against the East Timorese. In Chile he has been
accused of helping to lay the groundwork for a military coup that led to the
death of Salvador Allende, the elected leftist president, while ushering in a
terrible period of autocratic rule. The generous defense is that Mr. Kissinger
represented an ethos that saw the ends (the defeat of the Soviet Union and
revolutionary Communism) as justifying the means. But for huge swaths of the
world, this mind-set carried a brutal message that America has often conveyed to
its own marginalized populations: We care about democracy for us, not them.
Shortly before Mr. Allende’s victory, Mr. Kissinger said, “The issues are much
too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/opinion/henry-kissinger-the-hypocrite.html
Hartung believes a treacly Reagan myth about the U.S. What Hartung believes the
U.S. to be is not what the U.S. is.
From this kind of truth-telling, Hartung concludes that I "hate America." I
don't hate America. I want America to be better than it is, and I want America
to be honest about itself. Hartung prefers fairy tales.
The Hartungs of the world are just bad people. One of their worst attributes is
an immutable dishonesty. They are unable *not* to lie.
By Ben Rhodes
Mr. Rhodes is a former deputy national security adviser.
Nov. 30, 2023
Henry Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, exemplified the gap between the story
that America, the superpower, tells and the way that we can act in the world. At
turns opportunistic and reactive, his was a foreign policy enamored with the
exercise of power and drained of concern for the human beings left in its wake.
Precisely because his America was not the airbrushed version of a city on a
hill, he never felt irrelevant: Ideas go in and out of style, but power does not.
From 1969 to 1977, Mr. Kissinger established himself as one of the most
powerful functionaries in history. For a portion of that time, he was the only
person ever to serve concurrently as national security adviser and secretary of
state, two very different jobs that simultaneously made him responsible for
shaping and carrying out American foreign policy. If his German Jewish origins
and accented English set him apart, the ease with which he wielded power made
him a natural avatar for an American national security state that grew and
gained momentum through the 20th century, like an organism that survives by
enlarging itself.
Thirty years after Mr. Kissinger retired into the comforts of the private
sector, I served for eight years in a bigger post-Cold War, post-Sept. 11
national security apparatus. As a deputy national security adviser with
responsibilities that included speech writing and communications, I often
focused more on the story America told than the actions we took.
In the White House, you’re atop an establishment that includes the world’s most
powerful military and economy while holding the rights to a radical story: “We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” But I was
constantly confronted by the contradictions embedded in American leadership, the
knowledge that our government arms autocrats while its rhetoric appeals to the
dissidents trying to overthrow them or that our nation enforces rules — for the
conduct of war, the resolution of disputes and the flow of commerce — while
insisting that America be excused from following them when they become inconvenient.
Mr. Kissinger was not uncomfortable with that dynamic. For him, credibility was
rooted in what you did more than what you stood for, even when those actions
rendered American concepts of human rights and international law void. He helped
extend the war in Vietnam and expand it to Cambodia and Laos, where the United
States rained down more bombs than it dropped on Germany and Japan in World War
II. That bombing — often indiscriminately massacring civilians — did nothing to
improve the terms on which the Vietnam War ended; if anything, it just indicated
the lengths to which the United States would go to express its displeasure at
losing.
It is ironic that this brand of realism reached its apex at the height of the
Cold War, a conflict that was ostensibly about ideology. From the side of the
free world, Mr. Kissinger backed genocidal campaigns — by Pakistan against
Bengalis and by Indonesia against the East Timorese. In Chile he has been
accused of helping to lay the groundwork for a military coup that led to the
death of Salvador Allende, the elected leftist president, while ushering in a
terrible period of autocratic rule. The generous defense is that Mr. Kissinger
represented an ethos that saw the ends (the defeat of the Soviet Union and
revolutionary Communism) as justifying the means. But for huge swaths of the
world, this mind-set carried a brutal message that America has often conveyed to
its own marginalized populations: We care about democracy for us, not them.
Shortly before Mr. Allende’s victory, Mr. Kissinger said, “The issues are much
too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/opinion/henry-kissinger-the-hypocrite.html
Hartung believes a treacly Reagan myth about the U.S. What Hartung believes the
U.S. to be is not what the U.S. is.
From this kind of truth-telling, Hartung concludes that I "hate America." I
don't hate America. I want America to be better than it is, and I want America
to be honest about itself. Hartung prefers fairy tales.
The Hartungs of the world are just bad people. One of their worst attributes is
an immutable dishonesty. They are unable *not* to lie.
Klaus Schadenfreude
Nov 30, 2023, 10:56:20 AM11/30/23
to
[Default] "Cunt Flaps" Canoza typed:
>"Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite"
> From this kind of truth-telling, Hartung concludes that I "hate America." I
>don't hate America.
Here is the kind of America hypocrite Rudy wants, where he can get
away with this:
The Impotent Canoza Death Threat File™
Just Some of Rudy "Cunt Flaps" Canoza's
Hilarious Death Threats
He's Feebly Squealed in Usenet
To The Amusement Of All
I would gladly pay $2,000 for the privilege of beating your fucking
face to a pulp in person.
-Rudy, losing again
-Message-ID: <ire3D.198667$bJ2....@fx15.iad>
"I'd like to see some political violence aimed at *you*, you rancid
cunt."
-Rudy losing another argument.
-Message-ID: <KJC2F.238959$i84.2...@fx34.iad>
Fuck off and die, and give me your fucking address so I can come help
you do it.
-Our favorite dwarf, Rudy Canoza, coming out from under the
couch to bark.
-Message-ID: <oIGlG.2165$uE....@fx24.iad>
Fuck you and fuck every Hartung, and I hope you're all beaten to
death.
-Rudy losing another discussion
-Message-ID: <rf7116$16bu$4...@neodome.net>
Read it and *weep*, Schild, you squat-to-piss fairy whom I can - and
*will* - strangle with my bare hands:
-Rudy, displaying his impotent rage and gynaphobia in one
sentence
Message-ID: <rgngn8$1fa3$1...@neodome.net>
Your kind need to be marginalized, preferably exterminated.
-Rudy, wishing he wasn't impotent
-Message-ID: <vz%fH.342246$I15....@fx36.iad>
...if you're [sic] post your real name and address here, I'll gladly
come down and scatter your 73 brain cells in front of your nursing
home.
-Rudy,fantasizing about having the upper body strength to
beat a senior citizen.
-Message-ID: <kMTvH.5377$ev6....@fx14.iad>
"I'd have hauled you out back and shot you dead."
-Brave, brave Rudy, telling us what he would do to the
President if his White House Press Credentials were revoked.
-Message-ID: <s0v8v0$1v4e$1...@neodome.net>
"You need to be shot dead."
-Rudy's usual response when someone out-argues him.
-Message-ID: <s0v8v0$1v4e$1...@neodome.net>
Why can't we have a mass annihilation of Trumpswabs?
-Little Rudy, confessing his wish to commit suicide.
Message-ID: <AQKyI.98089$5%7.3...@fx13.iad>
"I would really like to pump bullets into your head."
---Rudy as "Bill Flett" 1/22/18
"You need to be depopulated."
- Gruppenfuhrer Canoza
Message-ID: <Okl3J.120840$rl3....@fx45.iad>
"I'm striking a blow for decency and Christian love. You need to be
offed."
-Father Rudy
-Message-ID: <Rts6J.138409$lC6....@fx41.iad>
"I'll send right-wingnuts to hell. I'm more than ready for you
piss-ants."
-Brave, brave Rudy, gearing up
-Message-ID: <RV%lJ.28968$L_2....@fx04.iad>
You know I could kill you easily if we ever met.
-Rudy Canoza, dreaming again
-Message-ID: <QHCqJ.97446$Ql5....@fx39.iad>
I swear to fuck, someone needs to sneak into your nursing home and
strangle you in the middle of the night.
-Rudy Canoza, waiting for his testicles to drop.
Message-ID: <qFJBJ.197370$SW5...@fx45.iad>
Put all Republiscums/QAnon to death *now*
Message-ID: <vNoLJ.12128$H_t7...@fx40.iad>
Maybe JThomQ and his family should be hacked to death with dull axes.
-Rudy Canoza, wishing he had the upper body strength to swing
something bigger than a fly swatter
Message-ID: <Xt5UJ.27675$R1C9...@fx22.iad>
Trump roots openly for Putin to prevail, and so do all
Republiscums/QAnon. Machine gun all of them.
-Rudy, masturbating to his wildest fantasy
Message-ID: <oOHYJ.107219$4JN7....@fx05.iad>
Whatever it takes - Stop the traitor Republiscums/QAnon. Execute them
*all*.
-Rudy, wishing he wasn't an impotent dwarf
Message-ID: <j7Y7K.338066$Lbb6....@fx45.iad>
Bullshit. Fuck off and die. Tell me your real name and address and
I'll come help you with it.
-Brave Sir Rudy, hoping *this* dragon never shows up.
-Message-ID: <9rAfK.41324$qMI1....@fx96.iad>
I'm not a coward, Jack-off Skeeter Shit-4-Braincell â€â€Â?
you are. You won't fight me because you know I'll snap your fucking
neck.
-Rudy, wishing he was tall enough to reach 'Somebody too's' neck
Message-ID: <C3jBK.565503$X_i....@fx18.iad>
Do you want me to kill you? Just say the word, bitch.
-Rudy, forging Klaus's name, way past his bed time.
Message-ID: <ItgQK.7452$OR4c...@fx46.iad>
You are going to be culled, you shitbag.
-Rudy, threatening someone while he forges someone else, like the
coward he is
-Message-ID: <bH%WK.96542$ocy7....@fx38.iad>
What we have too many of are racist neo-Nazi shitbags like you. I'm
going to reduce that number by one.
-Rudy Canoza, wishing
Message-ID: <rKZXK.97277$chF5....@fx08.iad>
The right wing need to be annihilated. They are not fit to live in
civilized society.
-Right-wing fascist Rudy
-Message-ID: <ZlDrJ.78124$JZ3....@fx05.iad>
If killing annoying people were permitted, I would have offed you long
ago.
-Rudy, wishing he had the balls
Message-ID: <KZc5M.2727415$9sn9....@fx17.iad>
Someone needs to genocide you, you shit-4-braincell cocksucker.
-Rudy, getting to old to do it himself, apparently
Message-ID: <meY8M.648815$5CY7....@fx46.iad>
>"Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite"
> From this kind of truth-telling, Hartung concludes that I "hate America." I
>don't hate America.
away with this:
The Impotent Canoza Death Threat File™
Just Some of Rudy "Cunt Flaps" Canoza's
Hilarious Death Threats
He's Feebly Squealed in Usenet
To The Amusement Of All
I would gladly pay $2,000 for the privilege of beating your fucking
face to a pulp in person.
-Rudy, losing again
-Message-ID: <ire3D.198667$bJ2....@fx15.iad>
"I'd like to see some political violence aimed at *you*, you rancid
cunt."
-Rudy losing another argument.
-Message-ID: <KJC2F.238959$i84.2...@fx34.iad>
Fuck off and die, and give me your fucking address so I can come help
you do it.
-Our favorite dwarf, Rudy Canoza, coming out from under the
couch to bark.
-Message-ID: <oIGlG.2165$uE....@fx24.iad>
Fuck you and fuck every Hartung, and I hope you're all beaten to
death.
-Rudy losing another discussion
-Message-ID: <rf7116$16bu$4...@neodome.net>
Read it and *weep*, Schild, you squat-to-piss fairy whom I can - and
*will* - strangle with my bare hands:
-Rudy, displaying his impotent rage and gynaphobia in one
sentence
Message-ID: <rgngn8$1fa3$1...@neodome.net>
Your kind need to be marginalized, preferably exterminated.
-Rudy, wishing he wasn't impotent
-Message-ID: <vz%fH.342246$I15....@fx36.iad>
...if you're [sic] post your real name and address here, I'll gladly
come down and scatter your 73 brain cells in front of your nursing
home.
-Rudy,fantasizing about having the upper body strength to
beat a senior citizen.
-Message-ID: <kMTvH.5377$ev6....@fx14.iad>
"I'd have hauled you out back and shot you dead."
-Brave, brave Rudy, telling us what he would do to the
President if his White House Press Credentials were revoked.
-Message-ID: <s0v8v0$1v4e$1...@neodome.net>
"You need to be shot dead."
-Rudy's usual response when someone out-argues him.
-Message-ID: <s0v8v0$1v4e$1...@neodome.net>
Why can't we have a mass annihilation of Trumpswabs?
-Little Rudy, confessing his wish to commit suicide.
Message-ID: <AQKyI.98089$5%7.3...@fx13.iad>
"I would really like to pump bullets into your head."
---Rudy as "Bill Flett" 1/22/18
"You need to be depopulated."
- Gruppenfuhrer Canoza
Message-ID: <Okl3J.120840$rl3....@fx45.iad>
"I'm striking a blow for decency and Christian love. You need to be
offed."
-Father Rudy
-Message-ID: <Rts6J.138409$lC6....@fx41.iad>
"I'll send right-wingnuts to hell. I'm more than ready for you
piss-ants."
-Brave, brave Rudy, gearing up
-Message-ID: <RV%lJ.28968$L_2....@fx04.iad>
You know I could kill you easily if we ever met.
-Rudy Canoza, dreaming again
-Message-ID: <QHCqJ.97446$Ql5....@fx39.iad>
I swear to fuck, someone needs to sneak into your nursing home and
strangle you in the middle of the night.
-Rudy Canoza, waiting for his testicles to drop.
Message-ID: <qFJBJ.197370$SW5...@fx45.iad>
Put all Republiscums/QAnon to death *now*
Message-ID: <vNoLJ.12128$H_t7...@fx40.iad>
Maybe JThomQ and his family should be hacked to death with dull axes.
-Rudy Canoza, wishing he had the upper body strength to swing
something bigger than a fly swatter
Message-ID: <Xt5UJ.27675$R1C9...@fx22.iad>
Trump roots openly for Putin to prevail, and so do all
Republiscums/QAnon. Machine gun all of them.
-Rudy, masturbating to his wildest fantasy
Message-ID: <oOHYJ.107219$4JN7....@fx05.iad>
Whatever it takes - Stop the traitor Republiscums/QAnon. Execute them
*all*.
-Rudy, wishing he wasn't an impotent dwarf
Message-ID: <j7Y7K.338066$Lbb6....@fx45.iad>
Bullshit. Fuck off and die. Tell me your real name and address and
I'll come help you with it.
-Brave Sir Rudy, hoping *this* dragon never shows up.
-Message-ID: <9rAfK.41324$qMI1....@fx96.iad>
I'm not a coward, Jack-off Skeeter Shit-4-Braincell â€â€Â?
you are. You won't fight me because you know I'll snap your fucking
neck.
-Rudy, wishing he was tall enough to reach 'Somebody too's' neck
Message-ID: <C3jBK.565503$X_i....@fx18.iad>
Do you want me to kill you? Just say the word, bitch.
-Rudy, forging Klaus's name, way past his bed time.
Message-ID: <ItgQK.7452$OR4c...@fx46.iad>
You are going to be culled, you shitbag.
-Rudy, threatening someone while he forges someone else, like the
coward he is
-Message-ID: <bH%WK.96542$ocy7....@fx38.iad>
What we have too many of are racist neo-Nazi shitbags like you. I'm
going to reduce that number by one.
-Rudy Canoza, wishing
Message-ID: <rKZXK.97277$chF5....@fx08.iad>
The right wing need to be annihilated. They are not fit to live in
civilized society.
-Right-wing fascist Rudy
-Message-ID: <ZlDrJ.78124$JZ3....@fx05.iad>
If killing annoying people were permitted, I would have offed you long
ago.
-Rudy, wishing he had the balls
Message-ID: <KZc5M.2727415$9sn9....@fx17.iad>
Someone needs to genocide you, you shit-4-braincell cocksucker.
-Rudy, getting to old to do it himself, apparently
Message-ID: <meY8M.648815$5CY7....@fx46.iad>
Jack Sovalot
Nov 30, 2023, 9:08:50 PM11/30/23
to
strong. Your obvious need to fantasize otherwise is quite pathetic.
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