tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post6361630820602969816..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Henry Kissinger on the Middle EastStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-42824233623494376582015-10-17T14:25:05.416-07:002015-10-17T14:25:05.416-07:00Stuart: The situation in the Middle East is diffic...Stuart: The situation in the Middle East is difficult and extremely complex. Only a president who understands the region in depth will be able to deal with it effectively. Such an understanding requires a lifetime of study and hard work. It cannot be required through a crash course in history.<br /><br />This statement sounds sensible, but rather hopeless. Obviously a president IS NOT and CAN NOT be an expert on everything he (or she) makes decisions on, rather a president has to be wise enough to choose experts who have spent a lifetime of work in a certain domain to offer expert advice. Well, someone like Kissinger we presume.<br /><br />On the other hand, even experts have their biases. And we can imagine many people BECOME experts on a given field of study because they have a personal connection to it, and perhaps a personal tragedy from their past that they want to resolve through their access to power. <br /><br />Or perhaps like Bush calling Saddam as "The guy who tried to kill my dad." A leader should NOT be making political decisions based on personal grudges. And as soon as a leader (or expert advising a leader) "makes it personal", we all should take heed that this is not an unbiased person capable of objective awareness of reality on this subject.<br /><br />Kissinger himself might have biases in his assessments for being born in Germany after World War I, and having to escape Germany with the rise of the Nazi's. So those experiences can be a point of experience and wisdom, but it might also be a point of vulnerability.<br /><br />It is interesting that the U.S. has not had a Jewish president in our history (not Lutheran either), but of course Jews have wide access to power, and including strong representation currently on the Supreme Court.<br /><br />Would America "trust" a Jewish president? Ben Carson said we shouldn't trust a Muslim president, unless he foreswore allegiance to the Constitution over the Koran, but Jews also have their Israel to protect. Can we trust a Jewish president to put his allegiance to the United States even at the cost of Israel's survival, if at some point Israel's interests diverged from ours?<br /><br />Well, John Kennedy had the same predicament as the first Catholic president, and we decided to trust the pope wasn't pulling his strings. Maybe a Jewish president is possible too?Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com