Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 82, talks about the risks of the war in Iraq, clashes with Europe and China's future role in global politics. Kissinger when asked what Europe and the US should do about Iraq said: "We should talk about that as soon as Iraq has gone to the polls and Germany has a new government. Looking at America first, the neo-conservatives developed a great distrust of Europe. In the past, such points of view were cleared up by talking to each other. But the German elections in 2002 exacerbated the problem still further. Chancellor Schröder made Iraq, along with a type of anti-Americanism, the central aspects of his campaign. As a result, German foreign policy lost all flexibility in its relations with America." Kissinger also noted: "The very core of Europe has changed drastically. After all, the nation state has its roots in Europe. The state saw the sacrifice of its citizens as a legitimate way of achieving a global foreign policy objective. In the period after the Second World War, there were still leaders in Europe who represented weak countries, but possessed a sense of global foreign policy. Nowadays, on the other hand, there are politicians who represent pretty powerful countries, but whose citizens are not prepared to sacrifice themselves for the state. Europe is allowing the classic nation state to be sacrificed without having a community logistically and emotionally organized enough, such as a United States of Europe, to take its place. America on the other hand is still a traditional nation state.
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