Reading about Henry Kissinger is challenging because it's clear that he had a generational effect on American self-conception as an imperial power (dominating for power's sake) that afflicts us today. Clinton would've continued this. Trump seems oblivious, but he's weakening us.
There was a brief window in the 1990s when we could have used our unipolar power to promote equality and human rights, e.g. in the former Soviet Union, but instead we continued in a Kissingerian vein, assuming that neoliberal capitalism would take over the world. Then came 9/11.
Kissinger was all about using power to create new realities. He was hoping that Kennedy would bring about an idealistic new world order. The quote about "we're an empire and we create our own reality", attributed to Karl Rove, actually reflects Kissingerian "Realpolitik."
War for war's sake is completely depressing to me, but it fires up a certain % of the population. The goal of people like Henry Kissinger was finding ways to convince the majority of Americans that we had a valid pretense for invading other countries (from Cambodia to Iraq).
What's ironic to me is the alt-right loves to say "facts don't care about your feelings", but when you study American foreign policy since WWII, for people like Kissinger, decisions are based on feelings, & how best to manipulate the masses into feeling them. Facts are secondary.
A perfect example of this is the Downing Street memo: "George W. Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_S…
Does Donald Trump have a "policy", besides being friendly to Russia and hostile to Muslims & Mexicans? He's a firm believer in us having a "tippy-top" military, but why?
In a way, this incompetence is freeing. The folks skeptical of Hillary Clinton perpetuating the status quo…
In a way, this incompetence is freeing. The folks skeptical of Hillary Clinton perpetuating the status quo…
…now have the freedom to propose alternatives, including peaceful ones.
