An Evaluation of Condi Rice

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... tion=false

[Sandy]

It's a little bit too soon right now, but it won't be much longer before the Iraq war becomes a political albatross of monumental proportions and anyone who was favorable toward it, or associated with it or the Bush administration in any way will become pariahs. It will gradually come to light as a monumental waste of human life and the tax dollars of the American working class. The pretext of "weapons of mass destruction", carefully crafted to coincide with the fear surrounding the 9-11 attacks played right into Bush's hands and he exploited it. Iraq had nothing to do with either Al Qaida or 9-11, and not only had no weapons of mass destruction, but had been impoverished and rendered militarily impotent by no-fly zones and the first American invasion when Kuwait was freed.

Although there are those who have found ways to completely twist the truth around because it was Bush and they are going to support him no matter what, the majority of Americans, at least, those who are literate and can think for themselves, will realize the enormity of what happened, the cost to the American people and to the Iraqi people, and demand an accounting for one of the biggest blunders ever made in the history of American foreign policy. The sad justification of "Well, at least we got rid of Saddam," simply confirms the size and scope of this mistake. The pretexts used by the Bush administration to justify this war sound eerily similar to Hitler's justifications for running over Czechoslovakia and Poland, and later the Soviet Union in WWII. It is certainly not clear at this point that Iraq's political future will be better than its past has been.

There was a time when I thought Dr. Rice might be presidential material, and might indeed be a running mate for one of the current GOP candidates, and not just to pick off a few African American votes. But her association with the Iraq war would make a nice target for the President's campaign, and it would sink the Republican presidential boat faster than the Titanic went down.

Bush surrounded himself with some real brains, with Dr. Rice being among the brightest and best. Associated with the Bush administration, however, only accents how disconnected she is from average Americans, and from the African American community, which would not turn out in large numbers to support her.