Kissinger-ing Up
Henry Kissinger has written a real valentine to Barack Obama in today's Washington Post.:
It took courage for the president-elect to choose this constellation and no little inner assurance -- both qualities essential for dealing with the challenge of distilling order out of a fragmenting international system.
That Kissinger--who prides himself on being a source of indispensable counsel to American Presidents--might want to butter up the new guy is understandable. After all, it was only a couple of months ago that he was allowing the McCain campaign to issue--well, the word for it is a lie--under his name.:
McCain, responding to Obama, then mischaracterized what the Illinois senator had just said. He implied that Obama had said Kissinger approved of presidential level contacts with Iran. The Democrat did not say that.
Nevertheless, Kissinger later issued a statement to the Weekly Standard as if Obama had misspoken.
“Sen. McCain is right. I would not recommend the next president of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Sen. John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.”
If you look at what Kissinger had said in that forum at George Washington University, you will see that Obama had not mischaracterized Kissinger's comments. What Obama said was:
"Senator McCain mentioned Henry Kissinger, who's one of his advisers, who, along with five recent secretaries of state, just said that we should meet with Iran -- guess what -- without precondition. This is one of your own advisers."
Indeed, the precise quote from Kissinger at that forum was:
Well, I am in favor of negotiating with Iran. And one utility of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East, of a stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclear proliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it. And, therefore, I actually preferred doing it at the secretary of state level so that we -- we know we're dealing with authentic -- with authentic proposals.
Later, asked if those contacts should be at a high level, Kissinger expanded on his earlier comment:
Initially, yes. And I always believed that the best way to begin a negotiation is to tell the other side exactly what you have in mind and what you are -- what the outcome is that you're trying to achieve so that they have something that they can react to.
Now, the permanent members of the Security Council, plus Japan and Germany, have all said nuclear weapons in Iran are unacceptable. They've never explained what they mean by this. So if we go into a negotiation, we ought to have a clear understanding of what is it we're trying to prevent. What is it going to do if we can't achieve what we're talking about?
But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations. We ought, however, to be very clear about the content of negotiations and work it out with other countries and with our own government.
In other words, there was no daylight between Obama's position and Kissinger's on the question of opening up a dialogue with Iran. Yet, the statement put out by the McCain campaign under Kissinger's name implied there was a big difference--and was aimed at making Obama look weak and naive. Maybe this op-ed is Kissinger's way of saying he's sorry.
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1
Boy, two days in a row that I want to make Haldeman Diaries reference.
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Just read 'em. You'll learn all you'll need to about that narcissistic, posturing Senior Foreign Policy Stateman. -
2
KT -- Is Kissinger still relevant after all these years? If Lee Iacocca came to DC today and said that Congress should provide loan guarantees to the Big3, would he be relevant? Their key achievements occurred at approximately the same time in the 20th century.
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Trivia question: what do Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan and Rod Carew have in common? A hint is contained in KT post above. -
3
Okay, I want to believe that this is yet another instance of Kissinger lying. But... Kissinger didn't say anything about Presidential meetings with Iranian leaders, with or without preconditions. And the issue of Presidential meetings with Iranian leaders without preconditions was the issue being discussed in the debate. If I remember correctly, McCain never opposed initiating negotiations with Iran without preconditions. The only debate was whether that should be at the Presidential level, and even Obama backtracked from (okay, lied about) his earlier comments in the YouTube debate about Presidential meetings with enemy states' leaders without preconditions. So for Obama to say that Kissinger agreed with his views on negotiating with Iran, well that was only true if he ignored his own comments at the YouTube debate. Otherwise, Obama was either mistaken or lying. Kissinger's position is consistent.
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Meeting with the Secretary of State is not the same as meeting with the President. -
4
Rose, I don't think Kissinger is relevant any longer. The he said/he said stuff is immaterial to me.
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How about a different diplomatic approach. -
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Andy, I agree he isn't relevant. But still, when there are so many real instances of Kissinger lying it seems unnecessary to falsely accuse him of lying.
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6
Not quite sure I understand rose's point. As I remember it, the entire "debate" was really semantic. The McCain camp "mistakenly" described Obama's position by conflating "no preconditions" with "no preparation." Obama was consistent that meetings should not be conditioned on the other side already agreeing to everything demanded - which is the real meaning of preconditions. He never suggested that there should be no preparation prior to a meeting.
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Oh, and KT, it's mighty nice to see the word "lie" all written out like that. -
7
They all went to the same high school? But I don't think the reference to George Washington University really qualifies as a hint...
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8
And, rose, Kissinger clearly lied if the actual meaning of preconditions is taken into account.
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9
After listening to some of the new Nixon tapes this week, it amazes me anew that Kissinger is accepted anywhere in polite society.
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10
Here's the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Oj7Jn9rv4
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BTW, without preconditions preparation doesn't mean much. It means virtually nothing. Not that he even mentioned preparation. The clip also shows the simplistic "HRC doesn't want to meet with our enemies" narrative is a lie. The truth is that Obama said something a little bizarre without really thinking it through. We've all done that. It's not that important. But to pretend it never happened, and that Kissinger actually agrees with Obama is simply false. Also, Kissinger specifically referred to "conditions" in his comments at the foreign policy forum. He knew what he was talking about. There was no confusion between preconditions and preparation. -
11
We have a winner: hellslittlestangel. They went to George Washington (the hint) High School in NYC.
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12
Obama was consistent that meetings should not be conditioned on the other side already agreeing to everything demanded - which is the real meaning of preconditions.
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wvng, Actually that's not the real meaning of precondition. For example, a precondition could be pardoning a women in a rape case, or more likely limiting photo-ops at the meeting. To claim that everyone who opposes Presidential-level meetings with Iran without preconditions is imagining that Iran would have to agree to everything we want is unfair. It's all more complex than that. -
13
Has Kissenger ever been less important?
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The only upside to him poking his head out is it gives Thirsty Hitchens a distraction from his Clinton obsession. -
14
rose-
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Parsing campaign statements is kinda silly at this point. And Kissinger lying is highly correlated with his lips moving. I think we can leave it at McCain's and Bush's positions, that you only meet with unfriendly governments when they have already conceded the position sought is, well, just plain stupid. -
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rose, what jay said. Given the past 8 years, it really isn't "all more complex than that."
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16
Well, if we don't criticize journalistic errors when they unfairly characterize our opponent's positions, I don't think we have much credibility when we criticize journalistic errors that unfairly characterize people and policies we support. I certainly couldn't care less about Kissinger, but I don't like double standards.
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The "it's all more complex than that" comment was in response to the mischaracterization of people who oppose Presidential-meetings with Iranian leaders without preconditions. I was just giving examples of preconditions that are in no way equivalent to demanding that Iran does everything we want. -
17
Thank you KT.
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Of course we need to talk to Iran- and strict preconditions will prevent that. McCain could not admit this reality (although I suspect he knew this). He, as Bush, does not want normalized, harmonious relations with Iran. The neoconservatives that have dominated foreign policy during the past 8 years, and would have remained under a McCain administration, view Iran as convenient to advance their agenda, namely: military expansion, forward operating bases to police the region, missile defense systems and to deter the rise of super-power competitors. With no enemy to fear in the region, they would be unlikely to achieve their goals.
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I do not want to suggest that Iran poses no real threat to our interests. I believe that diplomacy can mitigate these threats and that we need to explore this possibility. IMO, we haven't tried (and wouldn't have under McCain) because those in power don't want the threat to go away- in fact, they exaggerate it for ulterior motives. -
18
Rose,
Clearly Kissinger was lying when he stated Obama was wrong about his position. Initially Obama said he would meet with the leader of country without preconditions. When he realized his error, he corrected (or clarified) stating that he would have high-level contacts without preconditions.Later when Obama stated Kissinger recommended contacts without preconditions, he correctly stated Kissinger's position. McCain tried to tie Obama to his initial statement (Presidential talks) which was not what Kissinger suggested, to Obama's later position. Kissinger lied in stating he never suggested high level talks. He did, which was in agreement with Obama's clarified position.
That's sad. While I maybe one of the few liberals who actually admires Kissinger, it is disappointing he feels the need to play Presidential politics at this stage of his life. I don't know why he feels the need to play the Republican line, especially since what he represents for the Republican party (an intellectual) is a dying breed.
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19
The pot is stirring - and we wonder what chemical reaction to expect from the new Cabinet Team. ...............
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/12/04/obamas-team-chemistry-the-x-factor/
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20
At that YouTube debate, it was pretty clear that Sen. Clinton just wanted to highlight a nearly nonexistent difference, and Sen. Obama didn't want to concede a point. It seemed like a great big nothing at the time, so naturally it became a media sensation.
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I totally missed the fact that the headline was punning off "kissing up." It brought to mind instead an old Onion infographic, "Least Used Resume Phrases" or somesuch, which included the term "faggotted up."
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Obama will probably give Kissinger a nice phone call. I don't think that's what he deserves, but may as well have every single non-Bush Jr. policy professional on your side, I guess. Oh, and Ken Adelman, too. -
21
Reading the above discussion, I've come to the conclusion that many things would be much simpler if Kissinger just rolled over and died. Everything he says wastes my time and my attention span.
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22
Speaking of preconditions, doesn't Kissinger have to check extradition laws of the countries he travels to because of some of his past deeds. Surprisingly, some places outside the U.S. see him as a war criminal. (Google: "Uruguay Operation Condor", "Chile Pinochet" and East Timor "Suharto" for more info.)
Luckily, our "liberal" media does not burden our beautiful minds with such information.
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23
Cliff, and if Kissinger would just clear his gd throat before he starts talking, too.
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24
If anybody still cares
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Barack Obama never said he personally would meet with the leaders like Ahmadenijhad. The guy said "would you be wiling...yadda yadda yadda" to which Obama replied yes. (As an aside it was Hillary Clinton who then tried to frame it as if Obama promised to meet with them in his first year no matter what instead of just being willing to meet with them) But its no different than if somebody asks Obama "Are you going to pull the troops out off Iraq". Yeah he is going to order it done, but he won't be on the ground coordinating it. Now to be precise the part of the statement that was a lie was the part where it said that Kissinger's stance was not opposed to John McCain's stance because John McCain didn't want talks with Iran at ANY level and thats where the lie is. -
25
Barack Obama never said he personally would meet with the leaders like Ahmadenijhad. The guy said "would you be wiling...yadda yadda yadda" to which Obama replied yes.
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You might want to watch the clip again. It's very clear that they're talking about Presidential meetings. I agree with Elvis on this - it's a minor manufactured difference. Obama said something a little bizarre without fully thinking it through. Who hasn't done that? Here's Yglesias with more background: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200806/yglesias-obama
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And... I have to admit that Bill Clinton would be impressed by your definition of "you!"
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