The Real Henry Kissinger

If anybody else has been really, really wanting to read what Henry Kissinger actually wrote in his syndicated column, August 11, which ran in the Washington Post the next day — rather than what the New York Times would have us think he had written — here it is in the Manila Times:

.... To find our way through this thicket, the administration needs to establish a comprehensive strategy for itself and a clear declaratory policy for the rest of the world. Nor can a conflict of such import be sustained as an expression of executive power alone. A way must be found to obtain adequate congressional and public support for the chosen course.

The administration should be prepared to undertake a national debate because the case for removing Iraq’s capacity of mass destruction is extremely strong. The international regimen follo­wing the Treaty of Westphalia was based on the concept of an imper­meable nation-state and a limited military technology which gene­rally permitted a nation to run the risk of awaiting an unambiguous challenge.

But the terrorist threat transcends the nation-state; it derives in large part from the transnational groups that, if they acquire weapons of mass destruction, could inflict catastrophic, even irretrievable, damage. That threat is compounded when these weapons are being built in direct violation of UN resolu­tions by a ruthless autocrat who sought to annex one of his neigh­bors and attacked another, with a demonstrated record of hostility toward America and the existing international system. The case is all the stronger because Saddam expelled UN inspectors installed as part of the settlement of the Gulf War and has used these weapons both against his own population and against a foreign adversary....

(Thanks James.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/05/02 09:49:11 AM
Categorized as Classic.