“On Thursday there will be a great celebration for Margaret Thatcher’s 80th birthday. Like Kissinger, she is an example of the power of the moral will in human affairs. She is 80, Henry Kissinger is 82, and a third leader of the postwar world, Lee Kuan Yew, is also an 82-year-old. As Thatcher has written: “Mr Lee almost single-handedly built up Singapore into one of the most astonishing economic success stories of our times, and he did so in the face of constant threats to his tiny state’s security and, indeed, existence.
“These three, born into different cultures, seem to me to have shared the basic qualities that allow great statesmen to influence the world for the good; qualities that I most admire. They have shown great courage, unending determination and a clearly defined set of beliefs. They are wholly committed to the security and advancement of the countries they have led. All three also have an attractive intellectual gift; they always look far into the possible consequences in the future. They have imagination as well as intellectual force.”
It never ceases to amaze me how journalists are more than willing to become little more than mouthpieces for tyrants, of the Western kind. Henry Kissinger “an example of the power of the moral will in human affairs”? Spare me. Online magazine, Salon, had in right in 2001: “If Henry Kissinger isn’t guilty of war crimes, no one is.”
Fred Branfman explains:
“If killing hundreds of thousands of innocent peasants by dropping million of tons of bombs on undefended civilian targets is not a war crime, then there are no war crimes. If Kissinger is not responsible for these crimes, then there are no war criminals.”
For people like Rees-Mogg – and every generation produces its fair share of little men and women with a taste for power and immorality – actions are irrelevant, outcomes are what matter. The Murdoch press wouldn’t even understand how telling the publication of such an article truly is. In their worldview, the killing of innocents is justified when Western military power is used to spread “freedom and democracy.” Therefore, the death of thousands in Iraq is acceptable because America’s aims are noble.
Rees-Mogg should expect a Christmas card from Kissinger. Not unlike Australia’s resident Rees-Mogg. Dining with Kissinger must be so taxing.