The American Spectator

Seymour Kleerly| 2.23.09 @ 5:13PM

No matter how she spins it Ms. Rice was a collasal failure . She was picked to put an honest face on our foreign policy and she, unwittingly or not, did our nation a great disservice. Her "Mushroom Cloud, Wake-up Call" statement will live in infamy.

J David| 2.23.09 @ 5:51PM

It would be amusing(or really enlightening, at any rate)to know how many people in the entire country, especially people of her own race, know who she is, and what she did(and didn't )do, or even what a Sec. of State is and does.
She helped her boss bring a turn AGAINST Israel to our foreign policy, and the resulting curse upon them and the US. Thanx, Condi!

J David| 2.23.09 @ 5:54PM

I'm wondering who she thinks she is going to sell books to, or if maybe this is some kind of payola.

Dan| 2.23.09 @ 8:19PM

Now you guys be nice.

You can't say anything about Condi, don't you recall, "she's the little girl from Birmingham who made good, and her rise shows how far America has come in race relations." Which means who cares if she was a tremendous screw-up, who cares if she was even more of a fraud than the guy she took over for, Colin Powell, -------------------------------------------- the only thing that matters is that they're both black, and that their "success" shows how far America has come.

Think of them as the little pets of the establishment, which they both served.

Just remember Annapolis, where the Jews came in one door, and the rest of the diplomatic delegations entered through another, separate from the Jews, so they wouldn't be made unclean by proximity to the Jews. Just remember that despicable, squalid coda to her tenure in office.

If that had happened during the Clinton years, we Republican would have gone absolutely ape. But since Condi devised it, since that twit GW signed off on it, --------------------- we were silent as the tomb. So OUR OWN GOVERNMENT VALIDATED AND RATIFIED the monstrous abominations of islam, and did so wounding a Western ally.

Shame!

ETERNAL shame!

Disgrace!

Eternal disgrace!!!!!!!!

section9| 2.24.09 @ 12:09AM

What a barroom full of clowns.
This blog full of jackalopes was in full throated roar behind Donald Rumsfeld and his hapless Generals as he drove our expeditionary forces into the ground in Mesopotamia. Rice was one of the few people around the President who convinced him that things had to change, but this gaggle of cheerleaders was patting Rummy on the back and calling him "The Big Dog". You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Rice convinced her friend, Bob Gates, to come along and help save the DOD from Rummy's chaotic mismanagement, and she backed the President up 100%. I have read enough hit pieces from Conservatives against her to know that most of them were b.s. published by people who lost policy fights.

You were all upset because we didn't fight a war in Iran while we were tied down in Afghanistan AND Iran. Rice was shrewd enough to understand that there was no political support at home for a third war, and so opposed it. This is something that none of you here ever understood. She was wise enough to understand that if someone like Obama wanted to run on negotiations with the Iranians, he should accept the consequences of his beliefs.

Lastly, virtually all of you here blamed Rice for the actions of the hapless Israeli government and Army in Lebanon in 2006. In truth, it was the other way around. The Israelis basically lied to everyone and ended up losing the war. Fortunately, Olmert and his supporters (including you folks here) won't be spared in her memoirs. Because of their galactic incompetence in warfighting, the Israelis got what they deserved at Annapolis: humiliation. An Israel that knew how to win wars would have been treated with respect.
Remember that. While Israel was losing in Lebanon, we were winning in Iraq.

Nobody cares if you're Israeli. People only care that you win. It's a tough world. Get used to it.

Condi Rice's job was to pursue the larger strategic interests of the United States. Those were not to be served by starting wars with North Korea and Iran while we had ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and a huge budget deficit. These are considerations that appear to have passed over the more committed AmSpec crowd here. Fortunately, none of the staff here, nor the posters, have any responsibility for what really goes on in Government. Nor should they.

dfp21| 2.24.09 @ 1:51AM

It makes sense that a Condi Rice fan would have to believe that it was the State Dept that won Iraq, not DOD, and DOD didn't have to come in and clean out the country after 3 year of State incompetence. Same thing in Afghanistan, I suppose, right? DOD is flooding the place now because they're bored, not because of State incompetence. Yeah that's it, genius.

J David| 2.24.09 @ 9:29AM

Discussion of Condi wouldn't be complete without mention of the unmitigated policy disaster of recognizing Kosovo independence, or placing an Islamic state in the very heart of Eastern Europe next Russia's good little buddy Serbia (actually stealing from Serbia to exist).

Alan Brooks| 2.24.09 @ 10:08AM

so why is it competent conservative blacks like Thomas Sowell don't get appointed to posts such as secstate, but Colin and Condi do?

JP| 2.24.09 @ 10:14AM

Section9,

Are you out of your mind? Isreal dispatched Hezbollah in 2006. I suppose not hearing much from them these last 2.5 years, esp in light of Hamas's defeat last month wouldn't wake you up. You read too much of your own propoganda. You get too much of your info from Reuters and Koz. Hezbollah was dealt a defeat in 2006; if they did in fact win, they would have followed up with even more attacks.

BTW, the nation of Iraq is not called Mesopotamia by anyone outside the NYTs editor's offices. By your own logic, we should refer to Germany as Franconia, and the Czech Republic as Moravia, or maybe even Sudentland.

Rice was a an unsuccessful and weak National Security Advisor, and an even worse Secretary of State. Foggy Bottom's bureaucracy ran circles around her, and every diplomatic initiative she attempted petered out. She spent more time flying around the world accomplishing nothing than any Sec of State in recent memory -which says alot when you consider Sec Albright.

Her books will quickly find themselves in the bargin bins of Borders.