Henry Kissinger died. He was 100 years old. When he was alive, pursuing his reign of terror, I was not paying attention to politics, so the width and breadth of his atrocities are new to me. This is how Rolling Stone presented his death.
The article is here. It's very well written and discusses how many people died because of his policies. There is no paywall.
Anthony Bourdain spent a lot of time in Asia. He hated Kissinger for the destruction of Cambodia with the illegal bombing carried out by this country. This tweet is from 2001.
WAPO has an article up about why Bourdain wanted to punch Kissinger in the face. The article is here. There is a paywall, but you get 10 free articles a month, so if you haven't used them up, this is a worthy read. Here is an extract.
Kissinger wielded unparalleled power over U.S. foreign policy throughout the administrations of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford, and Kissinger remains the only person ever to be White House national security adviser and secretary of state at the same time. He faced relentless blowback from critics who deemed him amoral and unprincipled for his foreign policy, namely the efforts in Vietnam and Cambodia that left countless dead and maimed. Kissinger and Ford also gave Indonesia’s Suharto the go-ahead for an invasion of East Timor that resulted in about 200,000 deaths, or roughly a quarter of the Timorese population.
Sandra Day O'Connor has died, she was 93. She was the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Although she was a republican she made several good decisions; upholding a woman's right to abortion, affirmative action, and ruling against Bush's post 9/11 detainee policy. CNN has a pretty good article up. No paywall. In the intervening years, the court has moved to the right and overturned much of her good work.
In news of the good, George Santos has been expelled from congress. The vote was 311 in favor of expulsion, and 114 against. He's been threatening to tell all about who is cheating on their spouses and other bad behavior if expelled. It will be interesting to see if he does it.
Here in Ye Olde Pueblo it is raining. It's a wide spread soaking rain at the moment. This morning it rained hard for a bit. This is all due to the fact that we washed and dried the car with our very own hands on Wednesday.
Other than this, I have not a lot to say.
Update to post 12/4/2023: Opinion piece on Kissinger's atrocious Cambodia policy.
That's quite a lot to say really - fascinating post! There was a clever cartoon in the UK times today about Kissinger. It is often problematic I think to review history from moral perspectives that were not those of the time - but in this case, I'm with Bourdain!
ReplyDeleteMy crummy, teeny tiny tax return of 1969 was audited because the bombing of Cambodia was so egregious I began writing Nixon, telling him to stop. That was even more satisfying than closing Euclid Avenue with protests against the war. Lot of good any of it did.
ReplyDeleteI was a kid during Kissinger's reign of terror, so I don't remember it in real time -- but later learned he was one of the chief architects of our backing the Chilean coup of 1973 and the installation of dictator Pinochet. So that's apparently another feather in his cap. I was always confused about whether Kissinger was secretary of state or national security advisor, so I appreciate that excerpt that explains he was both!
ReplyDeletedirty car equals blue skies, remember that!
ReplyDeleteSandra Day O'Conner used her life for all the good she could see to do. Wish we had more Republicans like her on the court today.
ReplyDeletegood riddance to Kissinger. the man was a monster. it's because of him that the Vietnam war didn't end in 1968 and Pinochet's reign of terror in Chili. and O'Conner, for all she voted for abortion access, she's the one whose brief said that she thought it was within state's rights to decide for themselves and now here we are.
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