Tomgram: Greg Grandin, Henry of Arabia

Tomgram: Greg Grandin, Henry of Arabia.

Few serious scholars now believe that the Soviet Union would have proved any more durable had it not invaded Afghanistan. Nor did the allegiance of Afghanistan — whether it tilted toward Washington, Moscow, or Tehran — make any difference to the outcome of the Cold War, any more than did, say, that of Cuba, Iraq, Angola, or Vietnam.

For all of the celebration of him as a “grand strategist,” as someone who constantly advises presidents to think of the future, to base their actions today on where they want the country to be in five or 10 years’ time, Kissinger was absolutely blind to the fundamental feebleness and inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union. None of it was necessary; none of the lives Kissinger sacrificed in Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Mozambique, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, East Timor, and Bangladesh made one bit of difference in the outcome of the Cold War.

Similarly, each of Kissinger’s Middle East initiatives has been disastrous in the long run. Just think about them from the vantage point of 2015: banking on despots, inflating the Shah, providing massive amounts of aid to security forces that tortured and terrorized democrats, pumping up the U.S. defense industry with recycled petrodollars and so spurring a Middle East arms race financed by high gas prices, emboldening Pakistan’s intelligence service, nurturing Islamic fundamentalism, playing Iran and the Kurds off against Iraq, and then Iraq and Iran off against the Kurds, and committing Washington to defending Israel’s occupation of Arab lands.

Emphasis Mine

Grandin thinks that Kissinger's policies have been disasterous, but for whom? Certainly, for the poor, the world is a much more brutal place. But, for the millionaires and billionaires, the world is a much more wonderful place. Their wealth is unseen in the history of the world.

The USA is still number one. The only thing that can stop the USA is collapse from within. The cancers of racism, millitarism, fascism, sexism, and homophobia are eroding the strengths that the USA may have had if it truly lived up to its ideals.

But those ideals are fantasies in a Capitalist world in which money is everything. There is no place for honour, duty, or love in such a world. Yet, Capitalism is supposed to the final phase of human development.

It is now your choice: what type of world do you want?