kissinger

-- did a q-and-a last night to an auditorium crammed half with policy majors and half with ancient republican stalwarts; WH and i being just about the only people without any deep intellectual understanding of what was being discussed. this was actually almost refreshing. a group of protesters had gathered outside the venue to chant the usual anti-war sentiments and give out flyers explaining in some detail why kissinger in particular and the nixon administration in general were mass murderers who ought to have been crucified on the nearest tree 30 years ago. "you should ask him about the indo-pakistan war," someone behind me suggested to his friend. "i should," she replied. "i should ask him what the fuck he was thinking. do you think i should phrase it like that? 'what the fuck were you thinking?'"

as one might expect, many of the questions were about iraq, variations on the theme of: is it the new vietnam? the answer to that was never going to be yes, but he did draw parallels, and admit that the democratic process was never going to establish itself as quickly as the bush administration hoped (or deluded itself into thinking) it would in such a sectarian state. he said a bit about nuclear proliferation as well, and how the m.a.d. argument doesn't readily extend into a multi-player situation. there was a question about his german heritage, and whether that was ever a conflict of interest while he was in government -- being a jew in germany in 1938, it seems, did not inspire particular loyalty in him to his country of birth.

and finally, someone asked him to ask himself a question that would show off his best attributes and answer it, to which he replied as diplomatically as he could in words to the effect of: "that's a really idiotic thing to ask me to do." how nice not to have to suffer fools.