Friday linkblog, war-criminal-obituary-roundup edition

Why yes, I am going to open with that Anthony Bourdain quote everyone else is using, because it’s perfect:

Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands.

The best headline goes to Rolling Stone: Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies. This, via jwz’s Now that is how you write a headline, from which I also obtained the header image, there.

Josh Marshall over at TPM asks an interesting question, though: Why Did So Many People Hate Henry Kissinger So Much?.

Why did Kissinger collect all the animus while the other guys that should have been in shackles in the Hague next to him—Nixon, McNamara, Ford, etc—didn’t so much.

I don’t think it’s that complicated: It’s because he took the credit! Kissenger made sure everyone knew he was the guy. All the other architects of the Vietnam catastrophe had the good sense to keep quiet or express remorse; Kissenger went to his grave acting like the Christmas Bombing was the greatest act of foreign policy of all time.

Look, it’s not like Nixon spent decades bitching that later presidents didn’t call for advice on how to win elections, you know?