PURPOSELY destroying the United States?

[Ozark-Baby]

The election was not carried out by the Constitution by any stretch of any imagination. The Supreme Court decided and not the people. But that is old news. Hell, Bush has shown what he thinks of the Constitution or the people of this country and that is nothing at all.

[yakijy]

To paraphrase Kissinger, one of the original neo-cons, 'soldiers are dumb animals to be used for our plans' (of global domination). A bankrupt society provides a more fertile picking ground than a prosperous middle class.

[Greatday]

Originally Posted by yakijy

To paraphrase Kissinger, one of the original neo-cons, 'soldiers are dumb animals to be used for our plans' (of global domination). A bankrupt society provides a more fertile picking ground than a prosperous middle class.

Link to Kissinger saying this please?

[saganista]

It's from Chapter 14 of Woodward & Bernstein's The Final Days, which was published in 1976.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by saganista

It's from Chapter 14 of Woodward & Bernstein's The Final Days, which was published in 1976.

Not sure the quote was accurate though. Quote from Joe Cannon:

7. Kissinger quote: “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”

Russo implies in his film that this was said at a meeting of the CFR.

Misleading and partially false.

This case is a bit complicated. Basically, the alleged quote has nothing to do with the CFR. The quotation marks are in the wrong place. And the words were not Kissinger’s, but Alexander Haig’s. Haig was characterizing what he felt was Kissinger’s attitude.

The first thing you have to understand is that in the Nixon years, a group of high-ranking military men -- including Haig and Admiral Thomas Moorer -- HATED Kissinger. They didn’t trust him because he was Jewish, because he sought détente, and because the CIA’s James Jesus Angleton believed Kissinger to be a Soviet spy. (Angleton believed that about pretty much everyone. He probably mistrusted the neighbor's dog.)

The words derive from this passage in Woodward and Bernstein’s The Final Days:
In Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy. Kissinger often took up a post outside the doorway to Haig's office and dressed him down in front of the secretaries for alleged acts of incompetence with which Haig was not even remotely involved. Once when the Air Force was authorized to resume bombing of North Vietnam, the planes did not fly on certain days because of bad weather. Kissinger assailed Haig. He complained bitterly that the generals had been screaming for the limits to be taken off but that now their pilots were afraid to go up in a little fog. The country needed generals who could win battles, Kissinger said, not good briefers like Haig.
So we don’t know that Kissinger actually said these words, only that Haig offered this characterization when speaking to Woodward. Haig, as we know, is an emotional guy.

I have no idea what actual words Kissinger may have used during one of their stupid spats, nor do I much care. I do know this: I wouldn’t trust anything said by Alexander Haig about Kissinger, I wouldn’t trust anything Kissinger says about Haig, and Aaron Russo should place within quotation marks only the words that can actually be attributed to the person quoted.

Cannonfire

[saganista]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Not sure the quote was accurate though. Quote from Joe Cannon:

7. Kissinger quote: “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”

Russo implies in his film that this was said at a meeting of the CFR.
Misleading and partially false.

I've seen it as being from the minutes of a Trilateral Commission meeting, and also as from a secretly recorded meeting of the Bilderberger Group. Oddly, the Kissinger quote seems to be the only portion of that secret tape that has ever been transcribed. Perhaps the rest of the meeting was really boring. But the quote does appear as you've cited it in Woodward & Bernstein. It also shows up in Kiss the Boys Goodbye by Monika and William Stevenson. They aren't to be dismissed as lightweights, but the book was basically a latter-day paean to the idea that the USG deliberately left hundreds of POW/MIA's in SE Asia to die. The book has not been immune to criticism.

Bottom line is, Al Haig, Schmal Haig, I don't think the case comes very close to having been made beyond a reasonable doubt.

[GregW]

A couple of decades ago a folk singer named Bruce "Utah" Phillips said it best, “The Republicans and the Democrats are the right and left wings of the American Property Party.” He did not mean physical property he meant financial property.

The big money and the militarists have bought American political parties. I just try to survive on the margin of this economic depredation.