Cliff LyonKissinger - Victory in Iraq No Longer Possible
WaPo — Military victory is no longer possible in Iraq, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a television interview
broadcast Sunday. … In a wide ranging interview on BBC television, Kissinger presented a bleak vision of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq’s regional neighbors including Iran if any progress is to be made in the region.
Kissinger is only the latest to accept the reality that this war, judged by many combat experts to be ill-conceived from inception and subsequently bungled to an extraordinary degree, is unwinnable. Of course, there’s always the obligatory rejoinder that we ‘cannot leave right away’ or Iraq would ‘descend into civil war and chaos.’ Hear that soldiers, sailors, and marines? You can’t ‘win’ according to Kissinger — and a bunch of other people — but George Bush is going to let sectarian militias use you for target practice anyway. Putting aside the tragic consequences for our brave service people in harm’s way, and their families and friends, what are the stakes, according to the White House, if we do not prevail in Iraq?
George Bush in Salt Lake City, September 2006 — “Some politicians look at our efforts in Iraq and see a diversion from the war on terror. That would come as news to Osama bin Laden, who proclaimed that the Third World War is raging in Iraq. It would come as news to the No. 2 man of al Qaeda, Zawahiri, who has called the struggle in Iraq, ‘the place for the greatest battle.’ … If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities. The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror and that depends on victory in Iraq.
November 19th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
Kissinger is and always has been a piece of shit. I just wish the average republican had any idea.
November 19th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
When Kissinger says the war is not winnable, the war is REALLY not winnable. That means surrender and leave.
November 19th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Rovian dog meat for the knee jerk dog meat eaters.
November 19th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
“War on Terror” is THE dumbest thing this nation has EVER come up with. I wish this phrase had never been allowed to get off the ground. It’s just incredibly stupid and I hate that we’re being forced to talk about any of this in those terms. The damn thing needs to be undeclared once and for all, or we’re going to be playing this mind numbingly stupid game forever. The word ‘war’ doesn’t have any import anymore thanks to these asswipes.
Central front in a war that doesn’t exist. Jesus. We lost the moment we crossed the fucking border.
November 19th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
I must admit that this site is usually good for a few good laughs-due to the posters.
November 19th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Ah, Mr. Kissinger, that bastion of American diplomacy, who wimped at every chance he could get in trusting the North Vietnamese and handing an American defeat to them on a silver platter.
By all means, let’s trust HIS opinion! A poorer example of an American diplomat I can hardly think of.
There are good rejoinders against the war in Iraq, but Kissinger’s opinion is hardly one of them.
November 19th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Talk about paradigm shift. I’m going to sleep on that one Frank. I’m gonna do everything I can to try to convince myself that Kissinger isn’t really a hawk and that anyone more hawkish might actually NOT be delusional.
But before I go to bed, you could just give me even the smallest piece of evidence, of hope, that in all of history there is even the weakest of precedence for producing an outcome in the Middle East remotely resembling a western imposed democracy?
November 19th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
In his latest book, Bob Woodward mentioned that a few months ago Kissinger gave the White House a copy of a secret memo he wrote to Nixon in 1969. This was the now-famous “salted peanuts” memo, in which Kissinger said that U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam would be like salted peanuts for Americans– i.e. give them a little and they want more and more.
However, it’s worth reading the memo in its entirety (it’s not long). Kissinger’s conclusion was that Vietnamization wouldn’t work in time and the North Vietnamese would be able to wait out any U.S. strategy. The parallel with Iraq is obvious.
I would not be surprised if Kissinger was trying to drop a hint, but Bush stuck to “stay the course.” Now Kissinger comes out and says it in plain English.
November 19th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Thank you Richard. Excellent reading.
November 20th, 2006 at 6:17 am
The obvious parallel between Viet Nam and Iraq still leaves room for the denoumant to be plopped down in the Democrats’ laps this go round, unlike the Nixon, Ford, Kissinger lap of days gone by. At this point, I think that’s the quest. Timing is everything.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:02 am
The thick odious one says the war is unwinnable, and now it is the democrats war. Just pray democrats don’t get any more power, in that way they can distance themselves from this disaster, seriously, I don’t think you want the presidency, let it be someone elses’ fault.
Of course you could simply look at the whole affair as a scam, with the odious one playing counterpoint to the neo-con cabal(they are on the same team). The goal is chaos, and keeping the American people flat footed, so that chaos can remain,… as it is the environment that the oil biz is thriving in. Don’t think so? Look at their profits. Cui bono, follow the money.
February 16th, 2007 at 10:20 am
hoodia side effects…
news…