Kissinger: Europeans Do Not Want to Understand...[National Review Online]

Kissinger: 'Europeans Do Not Want to Understand...' [J. Peter Pham]


In a hard-hitting interview published yesterday by the online edition of the German magazine Spiegel, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger takes Europeans to task for not wanting to understand the nature of the current conflict in the Middle East, characterizing an American withdrawal from Iraq without a political settlement as "catastrophic."

There would be a high possibility of killing fields. Radical Islam won't stop because we withdraw. A rapid withdrawal would be a demonstration in the region of the impotence of Western power. Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaida would achieve a more dominant role, and the ability of Western nations to shape events would be sharply reduced. The virus would have huge consequences for all countries with large Muslim populations: India, Indonesia, and large parts of Europe.

Some Europeans do not want to understand that this is not an American problem alone. The consequences of such an outcome would be at least as serious for Europe as for the Americans...We are in a war against radical Islam that is trying to overthrow the moderate elements in the Islamic world and which is fundamentally challenging the secular structures of Western societies.

While he notes that the Bush administration has made a number of mistakes — he lists going into Iraq with insufficient troops, disbanding the Iraqi army, and poor handling of relations with allies — Dr. Kissinger argues that the President will be treated well by history:

I do believe that George W. Bush has correctly understood the global challenge we are facing, the threat of radical Islam, and that he has fought that battle with great fortitude. He will be appreciated for that later.

Dr. Kissinger, who has endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain early in the race (in the interview he noted that "John and I have been friends for thirty years...I have great confidence in him"), also takes a swipe at Democratic hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's musings about going into Pakistan:

You can always say there is some other war I would rather want to fight than the one I am in. What does it mean to fight the war in Pakistan? Should we use military power to control the tribal regions in Pakistan and to conduct military operations in a region which Britain failed to pacify in over 100 years of colonization? Should we use military force to prevent a radical take-over of the Pakistani government? Should we prevent the Pakistani state from splitting up into three or four ethnically based groups? I don't think we have the capacity to do that.

The elder statesman concludes the transition next year would be quite telling, not just for the United States, but for the transatlantic relationship:

By this time next year, we will see the beginning of a new administration. We will then discover to what extent the Bush administration was the cause or the alibi for European-American disagreements. Right now, many Europeans hide behind the unpopularity of President Bush.


02/19 08:17 AM