Kissinger: 'Obama Is Like a Chess Player'

presstv.ir ^ | July 6, 2009 | Jan Fleischhauer and Gabor Steingart

[ckilmer]

I know there a lot of folks here who are no fans of kissinger. I’m not really one myself.

However, I thought he did a good job here of explaining the problem posed by the treaty of versailles.

[GOP Poet]

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[OldDeckHand]

It's interesting that the used a quote that, especially in it's truncated form, seems very flattering of Obama.

A quote more reflective of Kissenger's premise would have bee taken from this paragraph...

"If it were to be continued on the belief that every crisis can be managed by a philosophical speech, then he will run into Wilsonian problems."

People will just read the headline and assume that Kissinger is heaping fawning praise on Obama, he's not.

[meyer]

"Obama is like a chess player..."

Yeah, like a pawn. But whose pawn?

[Terpfen]

Anyone with half a brain can figure out why Versailles failed. Big deal.

What this interview does is reveal some of Kissinger’s major failings. One, he doesn’t seem to realize that free states do not attack each other, so when he sets out to create peace through a balance of power, he’s basically ensuring a future war, much like how the pre-WW1 system of alliances ensured that particular war. Two, when he says that there have to be certain conditions in place in order to conduct foreign policy, it never enters his head to influence those conditions, because again, he doesn’t realize that free states don’t attack each other. So to use his Iran example, he doesn’t seem to care whether or not the mullahs are overthrown, he just cares whether or not there’s a negotiating partner.

Good grief and good riddance.

[ltc8k6]

“Obama is like a chess player...”

They misspelled checkers...

[nathanbedford]

Iran is a relatively weak and small country that has inherent limits to its capabilities. The relationship of China with the rest of the world is a lot more important in historic terms than the Iranian issues by themselves.

This is true only because Kissinger puts the proposition in relative terms. Yes, China is more important in historic terms than Iran because China is bigger and economically more robust and has a bigger if not a brighter future. But, in contriving in American foreign policy one cannot the content with relative judgments if the harm caused crosses an absolute line.

In other words, Iran is now possessed of two of the most important assets in power-play politics and will soon be possessed of the third. Iran is already strategically located a place where it can control the Straits of Hormuz and a vast percentage of the world's flow of oil. Iran is possessed of perhaps the second-largest reserves of oil in the world and with the proper exploitation can become a major player. Third, Iran is very likely soon to have the bomb and with that bomb it can exploit its control over the Straits of Hormuz without much fear of retaliation; it can intimidate its neighbors like Saudi Arabia and vicariously control the world's largest producer of oil; possessed of the bomb, Iran can intimidate its Muslim neighbors into active opposition to America and the West.

These three factors make Iran an absolute problem even if it is, in historic terms, relatively less important that China. Obama's Cairo speech as an opening ploy, knight to King 4, is defensible. As a goal for policy it will be disastrous. There is nothing in Obama's personal history to justify Henry Kissinger's generous wait and see attitude.

[eclecticEel]

Certainly, from the headline you’d think that he was jumping on the Zero bandwagon; when in reality he only offered a measured appraisal of the situation. I have no real disagreements with anything he said.

[Names Ash Housewares]

“They misspelled checkers...”

Shell game is more like it.

[BossLady]

"I see two possibilities. We will either come to an understanding with Iran, or we will clash."

WOW! This is why he gets paid the big bux! ;)

[OldDeckHand]

"Certainly, from the headline you’d think that he was jumping on the Zero bandwagon; when in reality he only offered a measured appraisal of the situation. I have no real disagreements with anything he said."

Yes, I don't either. I meant to include in my original post, that the appropriate headline could have easily been written...

Obama's Wilsonian Problem

[ChiMark]

How can Kissinger imply this from Zer0?

This is Zer0’s first full time job.

My hunch is Kissinger knows we’re in deep doo-doo
with Zer0. To proclaim Zer0 as a moron is not productive
for our security. HK’s bluff may buy some time for Zer0.

[AZLiberty]

No, we’re the pawns, and he sacrificed us all. Now he’s turning the board around to play for the other side.

[myknowledge]

The world is the chessboard. We are the pawns. The Illuminati are the engineers of the global political chess game and they decide the winner.

[decal]

"Obama Is Like a Chess Player"

Obama-Putin, Russia, 2009: Final Position

[ckilmer]

SPIEGEL: But is what we have seen so far from him truly realpolitik?

Kissinger: It is also too early to say that. If what he wants to do is convey to the Islamic world that America has an open attitude to dialogue and is not determined on physical confrontation as its only strategy, then it can play a very useful role. If it were to be continued on the belief that every crisis can be managed by a philosophical speech, then he will run into Wilsonian problems.

[Lancey Howard]

Obama is like a chess player... Now he's got to play his hand....

Henry is mixing up his metaphors.

[Lancey Howard]

Not bad, except the colors should be reversed.

[rawcatslyentist]

I don’t remember, how does a teleprompter move?