Posted on 09/13/2006 12:49:39 PM PDT by Kaslin
"Victory Would be a Fata Morgana"
Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski discusses the errors committed by the Bush administration in its war on terror, the disastrous campaign in Iraq, and the risks of a global uprising against inequality.
SPIEGEL: Dr. Brzezinski, President Bush compares the dangers of terrorism with the dangers of the Cold War. He has even spoken repeatedly of a "nation at war" and will only accept "complete victory." Is he right or is he using exaggerated rhetoric?
Brzezinski: He is fundamentally wrong. Whether that is deliberate demagoguery or simply historical ignorance, I do not know. For four years I was responsible for coordinating the U.S. response in the event of a nuclear attack. And I can assure you that a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union on a comprehensive scale would have killed 160 to 180 million people within 24 hours.
No terrorist threat is comparable to that in the foreseeable future. Moreover, terrorism is essentially a technique of killing people and not the enemy as such. If one wages war on an invisible, unidentifiable phantom, one gets into a state of mind that virtually promotes dangerous exaggerations and distortions of reality.
SPIEGEL: What are these distortions?
(Excerpt) Read more at service.spiegel.de ...
Z'biggy not only knew nothing, he suspected nothing. Niether did Cahtah.
Poor little Zbig ... the epitome of the old adage "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Designer pestilences a la "12 Monkeys" but for real this time are a distinct possibility. Thecnology has certainly moved on but has Zbig? Remember, his formative years predated the PC. Things have changed a bit since then. And it doesn't even have to be terrorism. Imagine the researcher who engineers "the bacteria that will solve the world's oil spill problem." Of course, 10 years after the first use on a spill, OPEC wonders why production has dropped by 50% and continues to fall. No, Zbig had the MAD doctrine between two nations that valued life (at least their own life, that is) to keep things simple for him. But how does MAD work when your advesary embraces death?
And what's so ironic about this is that while Carter rightly gets much of the blame for the rise of Islam because of his failures in Iran, it Zbigniew Brzezinski who was the original architect for many of these policies. These same people who regularily blame Reagan for supporting the Mujahedin (and thus the creation of UBL) ignore that this policy had its genesis with Brzezinski...who even admits this.
From hanging the Shah out to dry to his Arc of Crisis...to even support for the "secular" Saddam over Iran in the Iraq/Iran War, Brzezinski was the leading proponent and originator for many of these policies. He was the architect for the use of supporting and arming so-called moderate Muslims against the USSR.
The left will tell you he set Carter up. Ziggy was all about killing Ruskies. He was settling scores from the old country when he sicced the Islamist on the USSR.
When a Carter-ite wants to complain they go to a non-U.S. publication.
I wish they would just stay there after the interview.
"The Big News" from Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzeziñski bump
If Carter was bright enough to realize what a disaster his presidency was, he might have used the likes of Brzezinski as scapegoats. Instead, the peanut farmer and the dolts he surrounded himself with continue to reside in a surreal fog.
If Zbig had remained in power in the *80s the Wall would be intact and Eastern Europe enjoying the benefits of Socialism. The Democrats would be crowing how Zbig contained the Soviet Union and only saw Nicaragua and El Salvador, and Eastern Africa added to the Communist Bloc.
Maybe Pravda, the Chinese Daily and the Daily Commie can interview Zbiggy next.
Disagree. Zbiggy was all about "malaise" and we just have to hang on as long as we can while the Russians take over the world. Doom and Gloom a**ho*e that he is.
I'll read the interview later and play the Zbig Drinking Game. Every time Zbig says "geopolitical", you take a drink. He loves that word.
Gosh they were a depressing defeatist bunch. I still think he was free lancing under Carter and letting his personal hate get in the way of logic.
Yup. The key assumption of assured destruction (i.e., the fact that we could, even after a Soviet first strike, inflict destruction on the USSR that would make Genghis Khan look like Gandhi, only less violent, and all in about 10-12 hours), was the idea that both sides were rational, and sought to maximize their gains and minimize their losses.
We didn't reckon with the idea of people who make Charlie Manson look sane having nukes.
Liver transplants required for all participants after 2.5 hours of playing.
Everyone really needs to get down on their knees and thank the dear just Lord for Ronald Wilson Reagan (Dutch, Gipper, The Big Boss Man) who restored our self confidence and remionded us of just who we really are and restored us to our greatest sense of self as a country.
Sorry for the rant, but without him, (President Ronald Wilson Reagan) there is no telling where we would be now (at least I cannot bear to think of it).
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