Bismarck created the German state in the late 19th century. His Realpolitik, his ability to accrue power by playing various actors off against each other, this won him a lot of admirers – even among his enemies. It was all about 19th century great power games. Unfortunately, the system he built was unstable, ephemeral and inefficient, leading to its total collapse in November 1918.
That should have been the end of it. Instead Kissinger resurrected Realpolitik in the 1970s. He got a lot of admirers, this being the cold war. For some reason, none of Kissinger’s advocates thought to question the ultimate disaster of Bismarck’s system, thereby ushering in fifty years of solid failure in US foreign policy.
Even after Kissinger (sort of) retired, he had disciples to continue his good work, such as John Bolton.
Bolton is currently experiencing the displeasure of a dictator. They kicked his door in last week and ransacked his house. Whether this is due to his criticisms of the current madness, or part of the ongoing purge of the State Department and intelligence service is not clear. It hardly matters.
Sure, I think of the Niemöller poem when I see the machine chewing up the next target on its list. On the other hand, Bolton has dedicated his entire career to sitting behind a desk, blithely ruining people’s lives. It’s really hard to watch what is happening to this thoroughly horrible man and not think he deserves everything he’s getting.