4 ms·

Seeing as Kissinger is still alive and a free man, my money's on no. "Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death

Seeing as Kissinger is still alive and a free man, my money's on no. "Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević." ― Anthony Bourdain

sacnoradhq 4y ago
Cheney is still kicking too. And he did it directly for money. RIP AB
hayst4ck 4y ago
Phnom Penh is probably the most sobering cities to visit in all of Asia. Words can't really do it justice. I was neither expecting nor prepared for the history there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields
- boppo1 4y ago
  QRD on what Kissinger had to do with this? I've no doubt he's a bad guy, but my schooling left out his involvement in cambodia.
  - hayst4ck 4y ago
    I swear I heard Bourdain talk about this in an episode from one of his series. The laos episode hits on the topic, but the Cambodia episode is only available for pay. Laos (Start at 32:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1s8jntlpK0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1s8jntlpK0 Shamelessly stolen from reddit, quoted from a broken link from Yale: The still-incomplete database (it has several “dark” periods) reveals that from October 4, 1965, to August 15, 1973, the United States dropped far more ordnance on Cambodia than was previously believed: 2,756,941 tons’ worth, dropped in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites. Just over 10 percent of this bombing was indiscriminate, with 3,580 of the sites listed as having “unknown” targets and another 8,238 sites having no target listed at all. The database also shows that the bombing began four years earlier than is widely believed—not under Nixon, but under Lyndon Johnson. The impact of this bombing, the subject of much debate for the past three decades, is now clearer than ever. Civilian casualties in Cambodia drove an enraged populace into the arms of an insurgency that had enjoyed relatively little support until the bombing began, setting in motion the expansion of the Vietnam War deeper into Cambodia, a coup d’état in 1970, the rapid rise of the Khmer Rouge, and ultimately the Cambodian genocide. In video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZpKFBTutW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZpKFBTutW8
  - MengerSponge 4y ago
    [dead]
mimd 4y ago
And do you hold the same level of contempt for the PRC and Vietnamese for their greater part in the affair?
- MengerSponge 4y ago
  1) Unless you intended to argue in favor of boot-licking and international crimes in general, your whataboutism doesn't accomplish much. 2) I don't expect my elected officials to apply American laws abroad. Sovereignty and nuclear powers and etc etc. Soft power is easier and more effective if you aren't being a massive hypocrite. 3) Don't you worry a hair on your little head. There's plenty of contempt to go around.
  - mimd 4y ago
    Nah, the myopic focus on Kissinger means ignoring the other culprits in the room, meaning you don't care about the Cambodians beyond using them in political games. The PRC/Vietnamese would have still sponsored the Khmer Rouge into slaughtering them. But then they would be just another in a long list that you could ignore. That's the reason for the whatabotism, the cruelty of ignoring the rest of their plight. As long as it doesn't stain your hands, you'll ignore the slaughter. And from your second point, you admit you don't care about what war crimes Kissinger did abroad only that it hurt soft power. Sounds like a defense of Kissenger to me.

sacnoradhq 4y ago

Cheney is still kicking too. And he did it directly for money. RIP AB

hayst4ck 4y ago

Phnom Penh is probably the most sobering cities to visit in all of Asia. Words can't really do it justice. I was neither expecting nor prepared for the history there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields

boppo1 4y ago
QRD on what Kissinger had to do with this? I've no doubt he's a bad guy, but my schooling left out his involvement in cambodia.
- hayst4ck 4y ago
  I swear I heard Bourdain talk about this in an episode from one of his series. The laos episode hits on the topic, but the Cambodia episode is only available for pay. Laos (Start at 32:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1s8jntlpK0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1s8jntlpK0 Shamelessly stolen from reddit, quoted from a broken link from Yale: The still-incomplete database (it has several “dark” periods) reveals that from October 4, 1965, to August 15, 1973, the United States dropped far more ordnance on Cambodia than was previously believed: 2,756,941 tons’ worth, dropped in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites. Just over 10 percent of this bombing was indiscriminate, with 3,580 of the sites listed as having “unknown” targets and another 8,238 sites having no target listed at all. The database also shows that the bombing began four years earlier than is widely believed—not under Nixon, but under Lyndon Johnson. The impact of this bombing, the subject of much debate for the past three decades, is now clearer than ever. Civilian casualties in Cambodia drove an enraged populace into the arms of an insurgency that had enjoyed relatively little support until the bombing began, setting in motion the expansion of the Vietnam War deeper into Cambodia, a coup d’état in 1970, the rapid rise of the Khmer Rouge, and ultimately the Cambodian genocide. In video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZpKFBTutW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZpKFBTutW8
- MengerSponge 4y ago
  [dead]

mimd 4y ago

And do you hold the same level of contempt for the PRC and Vietnamese for their greater part in the affair?

MengerSponge 4y ago
1) Unless you intended to argue in favor of boot-licking and international crimes in general, your whataboutism doesn't accomplish much. 2) I don't expect my elected officials to apply American laws abroad. Sovereignty and nuclear powers and etc etc. Soft power is easier and more effective if you aren't being a massive hypocrite. 3) Don't you worry a hair on your little head. There's plenty of contempt to go around.
- mimd 4y ago
  Nah, the myopic focus on Kissinger means ignoring the other culprits in the room, meaning you don't care about the Cambodians beyond using them in political games. The PRC/Vietnamese would have still sponsored the Khmer Rouge into slaughtering them. But then they would be just another in a long list that you could ignore. That's the reason for the whatabotism, the cruelty of ignoring the rest of their plight. As long as it doesn't stain your hands, you'll ignore the slaughter. And from your second point, you admit you don't care about what war crimes Kissinger did abroad only that it hurt soft power. Sounds like a defense of Kissenger to me.