• intrepid@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    The world would have been a better place if somebody had made a better decision 101 years ago.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Whilst I would love to think that all that it would have taken for the World to be a much better place since the later part of the XX century was but one coitus interruptus, I’m almost certain that in the US there was and always has been a long line of sociopaths willint to advise the for the deaths of millions of others for personal upside maximization whilst calling it just realpolitik, any of which would’ve taken the place of this one has his daddy chosen to pull out at the last minute.

      Had Kissinger raised to be the consiglieri of power in, say, Canada, he would’ve had quite a different impact in the World.

      • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        What gets me is this actually. This news of death of Henry Kissinger is nothing but a circlejerk of American’s absolving all their guilty conscious of the warmongering and general malevolent meddling in other people’s businesses and resources. As if they did anything until this asshole reached a very very generous age of 100, all while living in luxury.

        The public had done nothing about these unjust warmongering and coups and insurgencies and such, maybe except the hippy times during vietnam war, and their presidents will do nothing to change the American international affairs (while having fairly different internal policies). Both the presidents and the population will keep blaming figureheads like Kissinger, possibly Blinken in the next decade and such names, while complicit in enjoying the benefits of resources acquired at the expense of 3rd world nations and their populations.

        Hell after seeing how he lived till 100 in luxury despite the fact that he is such a piece of shit to a global degree, I would recommend aspiring to be such a piece of shit for luxury and power over billions of people.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          At the same time, this is one of the great tragedies of Democracy. More than half (when you don’t have an electoral college) need to agree on something for it to be done. If 50.1% didn’t want to prosecute him as a war criminal but 49.9% did, he goes scot free, and there’s no real recourse unless you break the law.

          This doesn’t suddenly absolve Americans. A majority still stopped justice from being done. I wouldn’t be so harsh on Americans today though for that 50.1% in the past, they didn’t have any choice in the matter.

          Be mad at us instead for what’s happening in the present with Israel. The current generation of Americans has plenty to criticize with just our actions than needing to go back in history. And it’s more poignant imo of an indictment.

          Generally speaking though I do agree, the West unfairly enriched itself, and plenty of people are content to clutch our pearls at the history but not to make any material amends.