Charlie Rose

GetaCluair  04/12/2009 01:21 PM Report

As the United States paves way for a new era of leadership in International Law, Mr. Kissinger's deeds and words will serve US as the base metric of what ought to be systemically eradicated to approach global peace.

Now that the former advisor has lost even the most gentle pretense of credibility, the Departments of State, Defense and Energy may liberate their policy from his teachings on ignoring intelligence assessments and act consistently and out of the shadows.

earthlover  04/12/2009 10:25 AM Report

I have always found Zbig to be spot on, and it was good to hear the two agree so much. Namely that Obama's foreign relations so far look pretty good, even though in overture, (note to others - for earth's sake give him a break and be patient) and that threats can be damaging to diplomacy. I hope that Obama takes notice of this point as regards Nth Korea as I had to agree with Zbig on this that a patient reasoned response would have been best. But I guess he was appeasing the war mongers in the US.

REMant considers Obama a failure but I have noticed that almost all of those that criticize what the man has managed to do given the situation he inherited fail to offer any argued and reasoned alternatives. I'd have to agree with tartufe we should avoid firing drone missiles into mud huts - certainly no way to win friends and influence people.

dj2008  04/09/2009 12:39 AM Report

At around 31:19, Rose asks Brezinski a question and Zbig answers regarding Russia, Iran, oil and natural gas. That snippet encapsulates the wider incentive behind why the US is reaching out to Iran right now -- namely, to encircle/alienate Russia (and maybe China?) when it comes to energy geopolitics. All else is just hot air.....

AdamKhan  04/08/2009 11:07 PM Report

Both praise Obama for a promising overture, while emphasizing that there are 5 acts to follow. But neither wondered whether the overture was worth making, or whether it might have been more useful to just get started already on Act 1. The fear is that with this Administration it will be all overture, no acts.

fjgajewski  04/07/2009 11:27 PM Report

You's never know from this conversation, would you, that the stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the United States and other countries are a present and real danger to humanity.

civildiss  04/07/2009 10:58 PM Report

freiwalds - I have to disagree with your assessment of Kissinger. The man looks more like an old toad than an old lizard. The inflated chin/neck is a dead giveaway.

tartufe  04/07/2009 10:49 PM Report

Review it. Henry had time to amplify - even after and despite Charlies long winded clarification re his query. The clarification, though initially irritating, was useful. Henry made a useful response.

freiwalds  04/07/2009 10:00 PM Report

Not one of Charlie's best moments.

Kissinger, sitting there like an old lizard, had the most to contribute to our understanding of global politics, but unfortunately the sly Brzezinski, and, even worse, Charlie playing the world statesman (which he is not, despite his many talents), cut him off every time he started saying something substantial. I'm not sure if it was deliberate or just unprofessional, but this was a missed opportunity to get a deeper view than the pap that media serve us constantly.

I'm afraid this was the worst political interview I watched on Charlie since Ahmadinejad.

tartufe  04/07/2009 05:30 PM Report

Coupla heavyweights.

Kissinger throwing up red herrings re differences vis-a-vis Bush vs Obama. Unhelpful and fell flat.

Ziggie was more poignant and strategically cogent. And rational re nuclear proliferation.

As stated elsewhere, the nuclear genii is out of the bottle. N. Korea cum Iran validates that. Paradoxically, the world will last (a little) longer if we restrain our arrogance to militarily remove any country’s quest for nuclear (parity?) capability. Notwithstanding the Jewish and Israeli desire to have the US do just that - Iran’s in particular. Ziggie pointed out that even if the Israeli’s did just that, the US will pay the price (as well).

The Af-Pak evolving quagmire is going to suck our moral, physical and financial well being down even further than our own financial wise-guys have managed to do. (They've made bin Laden proud.) Defense Secretary Gates budget request adds drone missile firing capability as a major factor in the on-going depravity in Pakistan. We are creating enemies (a la Iraq). The terror reined on mud-hut villagers could only be devised by a CS, arrogant bunch of M-I profiteers and lobbyists hell-bent on recruiting (thus sustaining) a never-ending conflict.

Pakistan’s India and internal conflicts will occupy them. N. Korea is an equal-opportunity powder keg - if not more so - so why Pakistan? Other than we’re already committed and too puerile and vain to change course.

It’s Obama’s war now. And he will fail miserably on this point as well as the financial mess. [He will attempt to bail out the big banks - which is exactly what should NOT happen.] Rewarding the CEOs of Citibank et al is as perverse as giving Charles Manson equivalent accoutrements. It's sick and perpetuates the systemic greed for gluttony and serotonin release for the wise-guys ad nauseum - at the world's expense.

Anarchists arise! (Why in London? NY's where it's needed.)

P.S.: Posting after REMant is always a bit dicey. Comparisons are deadly. So I'll join him by lifting a quotable, to wit: "What the jihadists hate about us is the threat we pose to decency, virtue and faith, directly and through our agents, the sort the president is trying to recruit in Turkey. In Baghdad, where the president is today, such peace as there is, is being maintained only by bribing Sunnis and because they have been forced to flee the city, and yet he proposes a worldwide policy of recruiting Sunnis to confront Shiites. Speaking of failure, I think we can consider this presidency failed as of this moment."

Drone missile firing into mud huts will help mightily in making REMant a prophet.

civildiss  04/07/2009 03:27 PM Report

REMant - I'm guessing you've read Chomsky?

REMant  04/07/2009 03:13 PM Report

An hour of complete nonsense. Yesterday the president stood before the Turkish legislature, just as George Bush might have done, and told them in essence that Islam is just another religious "value" like a hundred others, and that as long as that is understood, the US would never be at war with it, all other religious ideas being not only "extreme," but deserving of elimination, like some latter-day Indians, by the rest, including non- "extreme" Muslims. How stupid and offensive is that? In other words, he divided the world into so-called "free" and totalitarian as we always have since the triumph early in the last century of sentimental Whig evangelicalism in Britain and America with its idea of purely contractual social relationships, as these two armchair warriors reiterated. Some Sunnis might buy that, but I doubt many Shiites will, and frankly I think the world should probably be glad if they don't. Whiggism = Christianity = capitalism as we have come to know it, but it has no relation to the scientific and technology-based capitalism and Socian (or Arian) religion (which Islam is, btw,) which it has largely replaced with a service-based, neo-feudal economy of vapid dependency. Nothing could be more "failed" than we have become, and if we persist in sticking our noses into other ppl's business, Europe, Russia, and Asia are going to have to think twice about which side they want to be on this time around. Unless provoked or squeezed few ppl nowadays, even Germany and Japan a century ago, just attack others to subjugate them. But you say they hate us all anyway... What the jihadists hate about us is the threat we pose to decency, virtue and faith, directly and through our agents, the sort the president is trying to recruit in Turkey. In Baghdad, where the president is today, such peace as there is, is being maintained only by bribing Sunnis and because they have been forced to flee the city, and yet he proposes a worldwide policy of recruiting Sunnis to confront Shiites. Speaking of failure, I think we can consider this presidency failed as of this moment. This is no contest about political rhetoric now, it is a matter of mature judgement and practical experience, and this president does not have either. What he has is a gift of gab. He doesn't even have the sense not to play favorites in the NCAA tournament. Mr Kissinger, too, needs to reflect on the history of policemen.