DETROIT -- Rice pudding: Equal measures of glibness, obfuscation and self-righteousness stirred around the only interests she recognizes -- whatever President George W. Bush is thinking or wants.
Condoleezza Rice served up her favorite recipe to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at her confirmation hearing and, sadly, all but two were able to stomach the intellectual slop.
In an administration where the transparently disingenuous thrive, where sticking to the company line brings rewards and sucking up to the boss is the supreme virtue, Dr. Condoleezza Rice has no equal.
Stamped into her character is this simple truth: The truth doesn't matter. Her job, as she sees it, is blindly to carry out the will of George W. Bush.
Thus, the worst national security adviser in history -- with a record of failures, poor judgment, miscalculations and refusal to admit mistakes in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary -- is set for Senate confirmation to become Secretary of State.
A few courageous Democrats are willing to take on Rice, stand up against her defense of the will of George W. and, casting her adoring worshipers in the Senate and media aside, question the competence, effectiveness, truthfulness and integrity of the "accomplished" Dr. Rice.
We've been told ad nauseam that she grew up in the segregated South, was an exceptional student, learned to play Brahms on the piano, got up early in the morning to practice figure skating, likes pro football, got a Ph.D., wrote a book about the Soviet Union, learned to speak Russian, became provost of Stanford University, did a few chores in the Bush I White House and, in a revealing tribute, Chevron named an oil tanker after her.
Mind you, all these great accomplishments occurred before she became candidate George W. Bush's foreign affairs tutor and, upon his selection as president, his national security adviser.
Rice's record and accomplishments in that office should be the measure of her fitness to become Secretary of State, and her fingerprints are all over some of the worst decisions and policies of our times. In a just world, she would have been fired in disgrace long ago. In Bushworld, she gets promoted and can look forward to a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a multi-million dollar book contract, seats on corporate boards, a fancy title back at Stanford, and a life of comfort, privilege and undeserved respectability.
Her failed policies and decisions have cost thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, encouraged terrorism, and made our nation less secure, distrusted and despised around the world. It's a tribute to her cunning that she usually escapes responsibility for her horrible negligence and the willful deeds that have resulted in violence and suffering.
On three important counts, Dr. Rice failed her nation as she covered for the man she serves. She ignored specific warnings about bin Laden's evil intentions and the threat of al-Qaeda terrorist attacks. She was a leading fabricator of the phony reasons for war in Iraq, helping shift attention from the real threat. She is responsible for overseeing the stabilization of Iraq and the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
Failure on any one of those counts would be career-enders for just about anyone, but Dr. Rice is not judged by conventional standards. Condi has George W.'s ear, and advancing and defending their shared failures assures her longevity in office.
Many Democrats are caught up in judging Rice more by the color of her skin than the content of her character. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced Rice to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with fawning praise more suitable for a Junior League tea than the serious business of Cabinet confirmation. A "remarkable woman," Feinstein gushed as she read off a list of Rice's achievements, all mentioned in the context of her race and gender. Not a single word about Iraq, but Feinstein assured her colleagues that "the problems we face abroad are complex and sizable. If Dr. Rice's past performance is any indication, though, we can rest easy." Rice's past performance is precisely why every thoughtful person shudders and the civilized world cannot rest easy with her hands in important matters.
Fortunately, not all Californians are enamored with Rice's "charm," Gatling-gun responses and incessant rationales. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) served our nation well and did what senators are supposed to when they offer "advice and consent" on presidential nominees. Eschewing the nauseating niceties of others on the panel, Boxer ripped off Rice's thin veil of respectability and pointed out what a deceptive, duplicitous and manipulative political operator Queen Condi truly is.
Rice's inconsistencies, exaggerations, misrepresentations, distortions and flat-out lies about Iraq and Saddam's Hussein's "threat" are voluminous. There should be a book out there, "Condi's Canards." Boxer was prepared to document the long litany of Rice's twisting of the truth.
Boxer told Rice pointedly that "your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell the war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth." The California senator proceeded to show, in great detail, Rice getting caught up in her own lies. It was a priceless moment. Watching Condi seethe as she was exposed for the fraud she is was a moment of great delight.
Fuming under the fine tuning, Rice cried foul, saying, "I have never, ever, lost respect for the truth in service of anything. It's not my nature, it's not my character." Then she snarled at Boxer, "I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before, and what went on before, and what I said without impugning my credibility or my integrity." Such a conversation is impossible without impugning Dr. Rice's credibility and integrity. Those are the very issues that make her unfit for office.
We know that prior to 9/11, Rice never publicly mentioned the threat of al-Qaeda. Richard Clarke, former White House anti-terrorism chief, has provided us with substantial evidence that Rice ignored his warnings that bin Laden was planning a spectacular attack on U.S. soil. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill provided additional information that also points to Rice's negligence in not focusing on al-Qaeda and shifting the national focus to Saddam Hussein.
Rice was an earnest and unflinching supporter of Bush's connived plan to morph the war on al-Qaeda terrorism into an attack on Iraq -- which, of course, had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. While publicly stating that war was a "last resort" and the administration was striving for a peaceful solution, Rice knew that was a lie.
In July 2002, Richard Hasse, the former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, had a meeting with Rice to discuss policy toward Iraq. Hasse told The New York Times he was concerned that the administration's fixation on Saddam Hussein and Iraq was distracting it from countering al-Qaeda, the real threat to national security. Hasse says Rice didn't even want to hear about it.
He said, "Basically she cut me off and said, 'Save your breath -- the president has already decided what he's going to do on this.'"
For the next nine months, Rice used plenty of breath lying to the American people and the world about Bush's quest for peace and what a terrible threat Saddam was and how everything possible was being done to avoid the war that was already decided upon. She was a reckless and effective fear-monger.
Because of her rapid-fire delivery and willingness to say anything, Rice -- more than Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz combined -- spread the lies that led the nation to war.
Pressed at her confirmation hearing, Rice reluctantly had to acknowledge what has been clear for some time -- that there were "bad decisions in Iraq." But in true Rice form, she doesn't tell us who made the bum decisions and whether anyone should be help accountable. But certainly, under no circumstances did George W. Bush make any mistakes in the decision to invade Iraq to "defend freedom."
Rice does have a knack for distancing herself from the messes she helped create. Does anyone remember the Iraq Stabilization Group? That was the organization that Bush named in October 2003. The group was given "direct control" over the occupation of Iraq and the rebuilding of Afghanistan. And who did the president name to head the Iraq Stabilization Group? Why none other than Dr. Condoleezza Rice.
Afghanistan is far from rebuilt. Much of the nation is under the control of war lords in territory where bin Laden can stroll around for exercise. Our overstretched troops don't have the resources to do the job there.
Iraq is in turmoil. Violence shows no signs of ending. Knight-Ridder Newspapers, an organization that has avoided the shameless cheerleading of most of the corporate media, reports the United States is "in danger of losing the war." That troubling trend is based on analysis of the U.S. government's own statistics on combat deaths and wounded, insurgent attacks, bombings and other factors.
The report finds the U.S. military steadily losing ground to the predominately Sunni Muslim insurgency, and concludes that, "short of a new-found will by Iraqis to reject the insurgency or a large escalation of U.S. troop strength, the United States won't win the war."
The president is entitled to his choices for Cabinet positions, unless serious questions exist over the nominee's competence or issues of moral turpitude exist. Rice's record is fraught with competence failures. And what's more immoral than crafting the lies to lead a nation into an unnecessary war?
Condoleezza Rice helped provide us with the recipe for the worst foreign relations disaster in U.S. history. Now the man she serves wants her to have bigger responsibilities and the Senate will confirm that horrible choice. Tragically, for our nation and the world, that means more disasters are sure to come.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 25 2005 |