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Henry Kissinger Has Died

nytimes.com

61–70 of 673 posts

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#61
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe one of the few publications with the integrity to publish those words.

> one of the few publications with the integrity to publish those words And a symptom of the term being neutered into meaninglessness. A critical element of war criminality is command. If you don’t command armed forces, it’s difficult to commit war crimes, legally speaking. You can have condoned or collaborated or contributed to them.

[deleted]

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#62
post #53

In foreign policy you have to walk a line between moralism and realism. Kissinger was too much a realist. But moralism has its dangers too, as we saw with the Bush (Iraq, Afghanistan) and Obama (Libya) administrations. At any rate, it's hard to think of anyone who is more responsible for the continued post-war global dominance of the US than Henry Kissinger.

FDR, Eisenhower, Truman. Hell even Clinton is more responsible for post war global dominance than Kissinger.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#63
post #32

The pro-Kissinger side will obviously have plenty of defense. Here's a good unrolling of the "piss on his grave" perspective for those who are confused (or angry but concerned they may not be showing enough consideration to a different perspective): https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-ki... Anthony Bourdain on Kissinger [0]: “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry…

To quote Tom Lehrer: "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."

Kissinger's legacy will be debated for a long time and I have personally only scratched the very surface. I do however intend to read Hitchen's "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" [1] one day, if not just to enjoy the fire with which he could write.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trial_of_Henry_Kissinger

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#65
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing as he was 100, I doubt they were taken by surprise. These things are usually canned and updated once in a while for people of interest, especially past a certain age (or at least that's my understanding).

Yes exactly, so why doesn't the BBC have more than 3 lines on Kissinger?

Maybe they couldn't find anything nice to say about him?

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#67
post #5

I'm surprised at the extreme brevity of this obituary; were they taken by surprise someone could die of old age as young as 100 and didn't have anything prepared? I would have expected at least an brief summary of his career, highlights, major points of controversy, etc. e.g. like this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/29/henry-kissin... (and undoubtedly many others). Also, this ruins my "Jimmy Carter v.…

I’m really surprised to see such a glaring typo, I don’t think I ever seen one before from the BBC: > Born in Germany in 1973,

It is a side-effect of the learning cutoff date for the LLM they are using to write articles.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#68
I always go back to this quote from Bourdain when it comes to Kissinger:

“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”

Referenced many places, but I got it from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/anthony-bourdain...

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#70
post #5

I'm surprised at the extreme brevity of this obituary; were they taken by surprise someone could die of old age as young as 100 and didn't have anything prepared? I would have expected at least an brief summary of his career, highlights, major points of controversy, etc. e.g. like this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/29/henry-kissin... (and undoubtedly many others). Also, this ruins my "Jimmy Carter v.…

There you go: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19872410

The BBC tend to keep separate breaking news (which they usually keep short, or run a live feed) and more long term articles about the state of the world, obituaries, etc.

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