Kissinger Speaks

… on Iraq and the Iraq War, NATO and the EU, Pakistan and Iran, radical Islam and pacifism, George Bush and Obama and McCain, objective reality and moral considerations, and plenty more.

The interview is short but the content is real—highly recommended reading (and the articles comes from Der Spiegel of all places). To quote a few choice morsels:

I do not know many Europeans who would deny that the victory of radical Islam in Baghdad, Beirut or Saudi Arabia would have huge consequences for the West. However, they are not willing to fight to prevent it… [this] is not a sustainable position. In the long run, we cannot have two categories of members in the NATO alliance: those that are willing to fight and others that are trying to be members à la carte. That cannot work for long.

With regards to this, check out this interview with Prince Harry of Great Britain, etc., who holds the rank of cornet in the Household Cavalry and who recently talked of his pride and excitement on serving on the front line in Afghanistan—a real anomoly in the European political sphere.

Nixon sat down with Mao three years after we had initial contact. I think a meeting with an Iranian president would be at the end of a process, not the very beginning.

Food for thought for those presidential candidates who say they would sit down and chat with Chavez, Kim and Ahmadinejad the moment they take office.

We face three challenges currently: The disappearance of the nation-state; the rise of India and China; and, thirdly, the emergence of problems and challenges that cannot be solved by a single power, such as energy and the environment. We do not have the luxury to focus on one problem; we have to deal with all three of them or we won’t succeed with any of them.