I 
this. A new classic way to memorialize a life best demonized.
ETA: I lift this week up with memories of the life and work of Rosalynn Carter, and refuse to give this war criminal the benefit of another thought, beyond good riddance.
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Thank God that Donnie’s a Fuck Up.
Let’s hope he doesn’t get one more chance. He’s no Kissinger but I think it’s important we all outlive him. Then we can all do the happy dance before we crossover.
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On Fox News he’s being canonized as Saint Henry.
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My view in looking at Kissinger’s views and effects, for good or for ill, he never seemed to see, or maybe want to see, past the moment, what is best in even the near future instead of what is expedient now. Kissinger’s failure to do or see past what is expedient now explains his support for the raw use and belief in power, that might makes right. However, like it or not, it sometimes is the case that might makes right, like when Bush Sr. forced Saddam out of Kuwait. Noting that there was no bigger opponent to the Bush Jr. Iraq War and no bigger proponent of Bush Sr. Iraq war then myself, Kissinger supported both Iraq Wars.
So while this article and other posters have honestly laid bare the worst part of Kissinger’s effect on the world, libthinker’s comment in looking at his legacy is we need to discuss all his actions and effects on the world. For example, we should also discuss his “shuttle diplomacy” that helped bring an end to the October war or his influence in beginning the very necessary reproachment with China.
Sometimes in life and especially in foreign policy there are only bad choices. For example what happened in Libia when Muammar Gaddafi was fighting an insurgency. The choice was to let Gaddafi murder tens of thousands and the resulting humanitarian crisis as many more were driven out of Libia into neighboring countries or see him overthrown and deal with the instability that would follow. Both were bad choices but the former was both more expedient and less troubling in the SHORT TERM and the latter was better for the future.
Had Kissinger been advising Obama, based on Kissinger’s record, there is no doubt in my mind we would have made a different choice in Libia and Gaddafi would have survived but many more alive today would not be alive today and the world and America would be worse for it.
That is in my view Henery Kissinger was more than anything else was a short-term thinker in that when faced with a choice, often a choice between bad and worse, he would take the expedient choice. In that is my view of “Realpolitik” in U.S. policy is based on political expedience instead of morality or what will matter more in the future. Kissinger’s support for simple expediency which is often just the raw use of power caused both unnecessary deaths and destruction and had little positive effect on the world 40 years after he left Government.
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Robert Reich did in his Substack post today.
From Wikipedia [quoting the author of The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide]: "Nixon liked very few people, but he did like [Pakistani dictator] General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan."
The article on Khan goes on to explain that “since 1960, Pakistan was perceived in the United States as an integral bulwark against global Communism.”
Ironically, our support for Pakistan spurred India to cozy up to Russia.
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From Josh’s kitchen sink/top of the head piece today: " He got it from spending time abroad, especially in Cambodia. “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands,” Bourdain wrote in his 2001 memoir."
For over half a century now I’ve imagined K having been put on trial and then guillotined at the front gates of Arlington Cemetery. Shrub and Uncle Dick deserve the same.
Kissinger‘s pressure campaign to allow the recently deposed Shah of Iran to enter the US for medical treatment for “humanitarian” reasons set into motion the Iranian crisis that culminated in the taking of American hostages — a manufactured crisis that contributed to Carter’s political downfall.
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I’m curious. What happened to all the fools on here who went ape shit insisting that no matter who dies we should be respectful? Don’t get me wrong, I think Kissinger is a piece of shit who should have spent every day since 1973 in a prison cell. But when I made a joke about Feinstein finally “retiring” when she died, a whole bunch of leftie loons came at me with righteous, unhinged rage. Now the same people are gleefully celebrating Kissinger’s death. The point is, you either have principles or you don’t. Having a shit fit over a very funny joke and celebrating now just makes you a hypocrite, no better than the two-faced right. At least I’m consistent. Who gives a fuck if you’re dead? You get no more respect from me after you’re gone than you did before.
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It has been said to say only good things about the recently deceased: "Henry Kissinger is dead. Good."
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I liked your Feinstein joke.
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In regard to this application of foreign policy it reminds me how the media in 2004 ate up John Kerry for the sin of being NUANCED compared to George Bush “with us or again us”.
Repugs, as I called them back then as I was so outraged by Bush Jr. lying America into the war in Iraq, in discussions with me would constantly poke fun at Kerry for his nuance. It caused me on about 50 different occasions to spit back at them, “when it comes to foreign policy, NUANCE GOOD”.
And you are right to especially make this point about Libertarians and also I might add the same applies to true socialists, which by the way Bernie Sanders is not, that there absolute and simplistic answers that make for good theory when applied in the real world just don’t work.
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“A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic career."
Henry Kissenger’s obituary as Stalin might have written it.
That’s Andrea Mitchell.
Timely, as I just listed to Mrs. Alan Greenspan ( something…Mitchell ) [i have somehow repressed the reporter’s name]
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Yes, that rings a bell. Thank you for clarifying. 
She’s the one I thought should have been retired at MSNBC, along with Tuck Chodd…
This makes me want to ask the question of who, in the U.S. government and history past the 1900’s, was really insightful in long term foreign policy. This is not my forte at all. But is sure is the forte of a lot of people in TPM…
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One more disaster that could be added:
According to Kai Bird’s bio of Carter, it was Kissinger along with David Rockefeller (another saturnine presence) who talked Carter into accepting the Shah of Iran into the US for medical treatment. The hostage crisis and 45 years of US-Iranian enmity were the payback.
Given as much attention as has been paid to Watergate, it’s amazing that Kissinger is not routinely placed front and center. Much of Nixon’s criminality might not have happened (or at least not happened the way it did) if Kissinger hadn’t been on the scene.
When the Pentagon Papers were leaked, Nixon was initially rather pleased because the papers made previous Democratic administrations look bad. But Kissinger insisted that the administration turn over every rock, by fair means or foul, to find the leakers(s). Hence the illegal wiretaps and break-ins, snowballing into Watergate.
Kissinger was like Iago, whispering into the ear of Nixon’s Othello. And the bastard skated after Watergate, and ended up fucking over the Ford administration: the disastrous “rescue” of the crew of the Mayaguez (after the Khmer Rouge had already released the crew) was Kissinger’s idea, too.
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Given all the dough and establishment muscle behind her campaign, Hillary had an almost supernatural lack of talent for retail politics. An ex-staff member of the House Judiciary Committee that reported the articles of impeachment of Nixon literally embracing one of the authors of Watergate is just one example.
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Just as Hitler forced our fathers and grandfathers to clarify their position on genocide.
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