# Kissinger cometh **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 28, 2002, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309 "2002-11-28T06:03:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![barton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@barton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barton)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/1 "2002-11-28T06:03:18Z")
I think I like Tom Tomorrow’s reaction to this news best - “They’re just doing this to mess with our heads, right?” [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021128/ap\_on\_go\_pr\_wh/terror\_commission\_4](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021128/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terror_commission_4) Kissinger to head the 9/11 investigation. Comments? Wise elder impartial statesman, anyone? Going twice? Going thrice? Anybody buying? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/2 "2002-11-28T06:28:49Z")
Well, as I said in the Poindexter thread, who would know more about illegal bombing? ---
**Author:** ![starman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@starman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/3 "2002-11-28T12:17:11Z")
KISSINGER heading an inquiry ito TERRORISM!? How ironic. (Not to mention hypocritical.) -Oli ---
**Author:** ![Hemlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Hemlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hemlock)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/4 "2002-11-28T12:20:00Z")
Elder??? Geriatric, perhaps. Nothing against Henry, but there must be someone under the age of - oh, 70, let’s say - who can do this. Someone in their 50s perhaps? Whatever. It can’t be that hard to find someone. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/5 "2002-11-28T13:04:37Z")
Holy shit. “Nothing against Henry”? Are you _joking_??!? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/6 "2002-11-28T13:42:09Z")
Christopher Hitchins seems to be first out of the gate with the outrage appropriate to this farce. [http://slate.msn.com/?id=2074678](http://slate.msn.com/?id=2074678) _The Bush administration has been saying in public for several months that it does not desire an independent inquiry into the gross “failures of intelligence” that left U.S. society defenseless 14 months ago. By announcing that Henry Kissinger will be chairing the inquiry that it did not want, the president has now made the same point in a different way. But the cynicism of the decision and the gross insult to democracy and to the families of the victims that it represents has to be analyzed to be believed._ Kissinger’s blood stained fingerprints are all over some of the most shameful episodes in recent American history. Hitchen’s mentions some of the lower, but avoids mentioning the allegations that HK and The Nixon sabotaged the Paris peace talks over Viet Nam. I regard that as being largely proven, but not to legal standards of conviction. If its true, and I believe that it very probably is, HK is complicit in the deaths of thousands of American servicemen, and untold numbers of Vietnamese civilians. Is HK too old? Yes, in the sense that every day he lives he gets too much older. It should be noted, in the interest of fairness, that the appointment of Mr. Mitchell to the committee is both sensible and commendable. That he ranks second to a pustule like HK is an insult to our collective intelligence. Such as it were. The fix is in. The verdict will be “mistakes were made”, almost entirely due to failures in “intelligence sharing” and faults that can mostly be traced back to the Clinton Admin. It will be discovered that the recent Homeland Security Bill is precisely the right curative measure, and Bush will be praised for initiating and championing the idea from its inception. Nothing more to see here, move along, you looky-loos. (Yes, I know he didn’t. But by then we will have forgotten.) ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/7 "2002-11-28T17:42:59Z")
Eh? The man behind the violent overthrow of a democratically elected Chilean government? The bombing in Cambodia? This is unbelievable. Mr. “Realpolitik” himself, back in the saddle. Jesus. First Poindexter, now Kissenger… Who’s next? Joe McCarthy? Bob Taft? Checkers? The only good thing about this is that Garry Trudeau’s going to have a field day. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/8 "2002-11-28T21:49:28Z")
It’s hard to believe it’s not a joke, isn’t it? This article in the Nation does a good job of summing up Kissenger’s record: > [@](#): > > Asking Henry Kissinger to investigate government > malfeasance or nonfeasance is akin to asking Slobodan > Milosevic to investigate war crimes. Pretty damn akin, since > Kissinger has been accused, with cause, of engaging in war > crimes of his own. Moreover, he has been a poster-child for > the worst excesses of secret government and secret warfare. > Yet George W. Bush has named him to head a supposedly > independent commission to investigate the nightmarish > attacks of September 11, 2001, a commission intended to > tell the public what went wrong on and before that day. This > is a sick, black-is-white, war-is-peace joke–a cruel insult to > the memory of those killed on 9/11 and a screw-you affront to > any American who believes the public deserves a full > accounting of government actions or lack thereof. It’s as if > Bush instructed his advisers to come up with the name of the > person who literally would be the absolute worst choice for > the post and, once they had, said, “sign him up.” > > Hyperbole? Consider the record… [http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=176](http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=176) ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/9 "2002-11-28T21:51:22Z")
[A clickable link to the article.](http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=176) ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/10 "2002-11-29T15:05:03Z")
Well, I have no problem with Kissinger’s age, as I’ve heard him speak recently and his mind’s as sharp as it ever was, but it’s about the only aspect of this mess that I don’t have a problem with. If there’s another GD thread right now debating the wisdom of giving Pointdexter access to Americas’ computer records, this is far, far worse. At least Pointdexter wasn’t responsible for the kind of mass murders of civilians that Kissinger was. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissinger-cometh/139309/11 "2002-11-29T15:44:39Z")
Far beyond cynical and deep into insulting - not specifically to the Loyal Opposition, but to the entire citizenry. Credibility in history matters not to this bunch, does it? **elucidator** has the results properly predicted, assuming the bootlicking hypocrites of the Beltway media aren’t sufficiently insulted by this themselves - but even they have limits, I think.