History Forum / General / British History / July 2008

Hear!, Hear!

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas
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Condoleezza Rice Says She's `Proud' of Decision to Invade Iraq

By Janine Zacharia

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she's
``proud'' of the U.S. decision to wage the Iraq war and insisted that the
world is not more dangerous than it was when George W. Bush took office.

Bingo! -- DSH

``We're now beginning to see that perhaps it's not so popular to be a
suicide bomber. We're beginning to see that perhaps people are questioning
whether Osama Bin Laden ought to really be the face of Islam,'' Rice, 53,
said in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on Bloomberg Television's
``Conversations with Judy Woodruff.''

``And I am proud of the decision of this administration to overthrow Saddam
Hussein,'' said Rice, who was Bush's national security adviser at the time
of the March 2003 invasion. As of yesterday, 4,107 U.S. soldiers died in
Iraq and more than 30,000 were wounded. She said the Iraq war has been
``tougher than any of us really dreamed.''

Rice, who backs the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Arizona
Senator John McCain, said she ``thought it was great'' when the Democratic
race came down to a woman and a black man. ``I didn't think it was
surprising,'' she said.

People abroad are ``fascinated'' by Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the
presumptive Democratic nominee, Rice added when asked what effect Obama's
candidacy is having around the world.

``But I'll tell you something. Ultimately, whoever is elected president of
the United States will represent the United States, not as a black president
or as a woman president or as a black secretary of state or as a woman
secretary of state, but the United States of America,'' Rice said.

North Korea

Rice, with only seven months left as secretary of state, has a wide
diplomatic agenda, trying to make progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian
peace agreement and a North Korean nuclear disarmament deal while trying to
persuade Iran to accept incentives to abandon uranium enrichment, a process,
once mastered, that could lead to a nuclear bomb.

While Rice was in Asia last week, North Korea submitted an inventory of
nuclear plants and material to China, and the U.S. moved to remove North
Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Bush administration
was hammered by conservative critics, including House Republican Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, who called the deal ``cause for profound concern.''

In the interview, Rice cited as progress that the North Koreans were
``putting themselves out of the business of making plutonium'' even as many
U.S. sanctions remain in place.

``So with all due respect to those who look at this deal and say somehow
North Korea has gotten a great deal, I think one can say that this is a
really good step for non-proliferation,'' Rice added.

China

On China, Rice said the Chinese were being ``somewhat more helpful on
Darfur.'' Demonstrations over China's support for the Sudanese leadership in
Khartoum as it wages war with rebel groups in the Darfur region, as well as
China's rule in Tibet and its treatment of the Dalai Lama, could overshadow
the Olympic Games, which open in Beijing August 8.

Rice reiterated that Bush plans to attend the games, even as some human
rights activists have urged him to boycott the event. ``The president has
been very clear that the Olympics is a sporting event and he's going to go
to it as a sporting event,'' Rice said. In Beijing earlier this week, she
said she'd be keen to watch some Olympic basketball and track-and-field
competitions.

Iran, Pakistan

Asked if she thought it would be a mistake for Israel to launch a
pre-emptive strike against Iran over its nuclear program, Rice said the
Israelis have been willing to work with the U.S. on a diplomatic solution.

``They, too, believe that it's possible to deal with this diplomatically.
But we better have really robust diplomacy in order to deal with this threat
because the Iranians are making progress,'' she said.

Rice said she believed Iran, which the administration has accused of
funneling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, had ``vulnerabilities'' in
Iraq that the U.S. could exploit. She did not specify what they were.

Rice defended the Bush administration's policies when asked about a June 30
New York Times report that al-Qaeda, since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has successfully shifted its base of
operations from Afghanistan to Pakistan's tribal areas and has rebuilt much
of its ability to attack.

Rice, acknowledging there are policy debates within the administration on
how to confront al-Qaeda, said many of the terrorist group's leaders are
``either in custody or they're dead.''

`Certain Strengths'

``Yes, it has certain strengths and continues to have certain strengths in
this area that is very difficult for anyone to govern and very difficult for
anyone to operate in. But there have been successes there too,'' Rice said.

Rice, who has been suggested as a possible McCain running mate, has said
repeatedly that she has no plans to seek elected office and will return to
Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where she was provost, after
the end of the administration in January 2009.

She has said may write another book on foreign policy. And in the interview
she noted: ``I have been very active in educational causes before,
particularly for underprivileged kids. That's what I'll go back and do.''