Online Journal Editors' Blog

In The Imperial Rockefeller, the 1986 biography of Nelson A. Rockefeller, author and former Rockefeller speechwriter Joseph Persico wrote the following about a secret Rockefeller policy meeting, and Henry Kissinger:

“Kissinger, though known then [late 1960s] only within the foreign policy community, was already a legend in Rockefeller circles. As we waited, the conversation drifted to Vietnam. I remarked that the effect of the war was so pervasive that it influenced the most unexpected facets of American life. A major Rockefeller objective, for example, had been to end water pollution in New York State. But Vietnam had squeezed environmental concerns out of the defense budget. Thus two army facilities that were dumping wastes into the Hudson had scrapped their plans to build sewage treatment systems. My example failed to move Professor Kissinger, who observed, “We don't shape national defense policy with sewage.”

As Hurricane Rita threatens to bring about the end of the American empire, and America as we know it, I can think of no better crystallization of what brought us to this point of no return than these words of Kissinger.

Not even a token ecological gesture on part of the mighty Rockefellers could slow Kissinger, or his Vietnam War machine. Today, 37 years later, Bush's “war on terrorism” continues unabated. The Bush administration continues to deny global warming, scientific facts be damned, even while America's Gulf Coast is reduced to rubble, and a toxic cesspool, and the death toll rises all over the world.

The Bush administration, the modern extension of the Kissinger machine, “doesn't shape policy with sewage,” either, denying and lying to the final moment of the final hour.

Now, after decades of inaction, quiescence and waste, nature's most deadly bill collector is coming around, and we are paying dearly.