Charlie Rose

JasonCarlosCardona  02/03/2013 09:27 PM Report

Good interview, I wrote up my thoughts at my blog:

http://jasoncarloscardona.blogspot.com/2012/08/henry-kissinger-talks-syria-with.html

marxthegreat2  08/19/2012 11:05 PM Report

pearl harbor attack is right

marxthegreat2  08/19/2012 11:04 PM Report

it is completely wrong that United States was involved in two world wars.

Ellen_Dibble  08/08/2012 10:44 AM Report

After listening to King Abdullah on Tuesday after this, I try to splice that onto Kissinger's view. It seems to me Kissinger's view has the vestiges of the old domino strategies. Iran loses an ally, which is like pulling Vietnam away from China; something like that. That's what I recall of the conversation, a laying out of the various vectors, which way things could go, where the USA and the UN take their stand. To listen to King Abdullah, there are huge new dimensions. One, the USA no longer looks at 50,000 nuclear warheads against us if we make a misstep; the Cold War upped the ante on any move. And the USA and Europe aren't so rich right now. Two, we're not talking about strong man A versus strong man B any more, your dictator versus my dictator. Democracy has reared its multi-headed visage. How did that happen in the old Yugoslavia, with ethnic rivalries suddenly not managed with an iron fist? Not good. How about Syria? I thought I heard that Syrians speak the same Arabic as Jordanians, not the same language as Turkey. I thought I heard reference to Assyria, apparently the region at large, yet I thought I heard that national identity is broader than ethnic identity. Or that was what was said. Kurds, Alawites, if they aren't integrated into the planning for what comes next, they could split. And I agree with Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN, who a few weeks back told Charlie just what Abdullah had to say: that the Syrian system doesn't go away by evacuating the current office holders. And the system is the problem. And actually the system in Jordan needs to be maneuvered forward, to evolve, and there you have an apparently highly educated populace who nonetheless have blank faces when you ask them about, say, their view on taxes. Powerful leadership is needed, in the region. And committed organizational efforts are needed where in the past it has never existed. Take a deep breath!

ShalomFreedman  08/08/2012 09:01 AM Report

There is a lot to object to in this conversation. Let us start with Charlie Rose's total failure to understand what is happening now in the Middle East. He continues to look for a democratic 'Muslim Brotherhood' a cooperating peace- loving Iran and a world in which everyone lives happily ever after. Wake up, sir. The Muslim Brotherhood on all fronts is a narrow- minded Islamist ideology driven to impose its own narrow vision on on everything and everyone it comes in contact with. Why not ask how the Copts in Egypt feel about the Muslim Brotherhood? Why not ask how various minorities in Iran under the domination of the theocracy there?

As for Syria no one knows how it will turn out. It is good if Iran loses an ally in Syria, and if Hizbollah has to stew in its own fanaticism without direct Syrian backing. But what comes in its place is possibly an Islamist Sunni regime which of course would be backed by the Saudis. As for Turkey they are in trouble now because of what is happening with the Kurds who they have long suppressed. The two democrats Charlie Rose and Henry Kissinger never make one positive remark about the Kurds and their own struggle for some kind of independence and freedom. They are over forty million people and they have long been suppressed by the Turks, the Syrians, the central government in Iraq. Now it is opening up for them somewhat.

Kissinger was right to stress that the U.S. public is fed up with the two long and less than successful involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan. It does not want another. But this should not preclude certain kinds of operations which would prevent the Iranian Islamist regime from attaining nuclear weapons. There is also the question of Pakistan and its double- crossing government and nuclear weapons. Also Syria's non- conventional weapons are a problem especially should they fall into Al- Quaeda or Hizbollah or other terrorist hands.

The whole area is now a bigger mess than the huge mess it was before. There is no sign of 'democratic governments' coming out of the Arab spring.

As for Israel it is surrounded by regimes which are corrupt non- democratic and threatening. It can hope to change nothing in these regimes and should concentrate on having military means to deter any threats from these societies.

chawlydoodahdolly  08/07/2012 06:44 PM Report

Well it didn't take look take long at all, before we start supporting Al Quieda, and on the same side again. It's like a big circle, how the allegiances change and the powerfool so stupid to do it again. Well here we are fighting on the same side as Al Qieda, maybe only in Syria, but nor anywhere else, I'll buy that, Works for me! Alrighty

If it works for Billary Clinton, it sure works for me. I think she should be Empereress.

tabs  08/07/2012 05:30 PM Report

The lid on the old Status Que system in the ME is now being blown off with the Arab Spring etc. Dr Kissinger states that the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria is a net benefit for the US as it eliminates Syria as an ally of Iran and makes supplying Hezbollah in Lebanon more difficult. However this benefit maybe mitigated by a general destabilization in the region brought on by an on going conflict in Syria. One can say that there is no free lunch in the ME.

Gelles  08/07/2012 02:32 PM Report

We in the WEST have agreed there are INTERESTS, PURPOSES, and VALUES to be protected by WAR, WEALTH and WISDOM -- in the course of national governance by CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY.

To articulate what to do and how and why to do it, we turn to Henry Kissinger for REALISM, among others -- to assure PLURALISM and avoid the snares of ROMANTICISM, OLIGARCHY, TYRANNY and ANARCHY.

So much for words. What about people and profit? Who's side are you on? Obama, Romney or Putin? Where have you got your money? In DOLLARS, GOLD, REAL ESTATE or GUNS?

REMant  08/07/2012 11:41 AM Report

The talk is of a govt retreat to the Alawite enclave around Tartous. The Kurds will no doubt look for independence, provoking Turkey, as well as Iraq, and similar problems may ensnare Lebanon and Jordan. If the Sunnis come to dominate the country it will certainly change relations with its eastern neighbor. The latest rebel gambit is that we should help to prevent them from looking to al-Qaeda for support, or, realizing how that sounds, that we should help them block al-Qaeda from making inroads.

A big power conference might somehow prevent all this, tho I seriously doubt it, and it certainly isn't a situation any foreigners should want to step into the middle of. However, I would rather not see a reassertion of cosmopolitan nationalism, because I think peace has a stronger chance once ethnic groups get themselves sorted out, tho we do have the example of Pakistan and India suggesting such a process wouldn't be pretty. The world seems to be de-leveraging generally in the direction of subsidiarity and I'm inclined to embrace it for the same reasons I support it here.

I would hope incidentally, that a Pres Romney would listen to Dr Kissinger, whom, I understand, is among his advisors, but I'm afraid he may experience the same fate as Paul Volcker.