CONDI Rice . . . crazy or just stupid?

Photo Credit: Reuters

By l.t. Dravis

SOMEWHERE IN CONDI-WORLD – Sunday, December 28, 2008 – I’m worried that Condoleezza Rice, the least effective Secretary of State in recent memory, has lost her mind or is just plain stupid.

Why am I worried?

Because the Secretary of State was interviewed by Rita Braver on yesterday’s edition of the CBS Sunday Morning show and said, “people will soon start to thank this President for what he’s done.”

What?

Why on earth would the Secretary of State say something like this?

What was she thinking?

Does any sane, reasonably intelligent person seriously believe that, except for leaving Washington on January 20, 2009, George W. Bush has done anything that people will ever thank him for?

The sanity or intellectual capacity of the Secretary of State of the United States of America is too important for even me to play politics, so I’ll simply compare the Secretary’s words to the George W. Bush record.

Rice said, “So we can sit here and talk about the long record, but what I would say to you is that this President has faced tougher circumstances than perhaps at any time since the end of World War II, and he has delivered policies that are going to stand the test of time.”

Secretary Rice failed to tell us, specifically, which George W. Bush policies will ‘stand the test of time’?

Was she saying that the Bush policies which alienated even long-time allies around the world will ‘stand the test of time’?

Was Secretary Rice saying that George W. Bush’s unnecessary, unprovoked invasion of Iraq predicated on a series of orchestrated lies . . . the ‘policy’ that killed thousands of precious Americans, maimed thousands more, caused the deaths of a half million or more Iraqi men, women, and children, and indebted U.S. taxpayers for billions of dollars for decades to come . . . is a policy that will ‘stand the test of time’?

Would the Secretary of State be willing to sit down with the families of dead and injured American troops and tell them that it was okay for their husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters to be killed or wounded because the Bush Iraq policy will ‘stand the test of time’?

Does Secretary Rice seriously believe that the Bush policies that created a $10 trillion dollar national debt and helped cause the near-collapse of our economic system, a system that was able to survive centuries of hot wars, cold wars, racial strife, political upheaval, depressions and recessions, but very nearly couldn’t (and still may not) survive eight years of Bush/Cheney will ‘stand the test of time’?

The Secretary of State praised George W. Bush for his ability to ‘change the conversation’ in the Middle East.

Rita Braver should have asked, What is Bush’s ‘new conversation’ and has it been worth the cost in lives and treasure?

But Rita didn’t ask.

So, Rice didn’t say.

Secretary Rice did say, “This isn’t a popularity contest. I’m sorry, it isn’t. What the administration is responsible to do is make good choices about American’s interests and values in the long run . . . not for today’s headlines, but for history’s judgment.”

I don’t know about you, but I was shocked to learn that the Secretary of State believes a President, Vice-President, and the Cabinet should invest its time and taxpayer money in making sure the administration looks good for ‘history’s judgment’.

If that wasn’t crazy enough or stupid enough, Rice went on to say, “And I am quite certain that when the final chapters are written and it’s clear that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq is gone in favor of an Iraq that is favorable to the future of the Middle East . . . when the history is written of a U.S.-China relationship that is better than it’s ever been . . . an India relationship that is deeper and better than it’s ever been . . . a relationship with Brazil and other countries of the left (sic) of Latin America, better than it’s ever been.”

How can Rice possibly know that today’s Iraq ‘is favorable to the future of the Middle East’ when Iraq is rife with corruption, is surrounded by hostile neighbors, and is divided by ethic and religious factions historically prone to violence.

The Secretary of State’s prediction seems to dismiss some troubling facts: Iran, a potential nuclear power, lies on Iraq’s eastern border while Syria, certainly not an ally, borders Iraq to the northwest. Rice seems also to have forgotten that Kurds, Shi'ites, and the Sunni are still in Iraq, will stay in Iraq, and are not likely to ever stop killing each other. The Secretary of State is either too crazy or too stupid to think beyond the day when U.S. troops are finally out of Iraq and Moqtada Sadr, his militia, other militias and ethnic, political, and religious factions, Al-Qaeda, and any other terrorist organization decide the time is right to start killing and maiming for oil, cash, and power.

Did Rice consider the possibility that when the history of the U.S.-China relationship in the early 21^st century is written that it may very well contain a chapter on how the Chinese foreclosed on America’s failure to repay the billions borrowed by George W. Bush, throwing us – not him - into bankruptcy?

Do you think Secretary Rice forgot that India always resented George W. Bush’s support and praise for former Pakistani strongman, General Pervez Musharraf, and that resentment has seriously, if not permanently damaged relations between India and the U.S.?

What has George W. Bush done to build a partnership with South America to develop sustainable, renewable, energy? What has George W. Bush done to help our South American neighbors fight climate change? What has George W. Bush done to manage immigration? What has George W. Bush done to promote the expansion of South American economies? What has George W. Bush done to protect the U.S., Mexico, Central America, and South America from drug traffickers and organized criminal activities?

Secretary Rice didn’t say.

Instead, she said, “I’m here to make tough choices, and this President is here to make tough choices, and we have. And, yes, I . . . there are some things that I would do very differently if I had it to do over again. You don’t have that luxury. You have to make the choices and take the positions that you do at the time.”

Wait a second, Madame Secretary!

When you say, “You have to make the choices and take the positions that you do at the time,” you make me wonder, what happened to your concern about ‘history’s judgment’?

Are you talking out of both sides of your mouth or are you crazy or stupid?

Or all three?

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