"D. Spencer Hines" <panther@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:rJAbk.34$AB3.34@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----------------------------------------
>
> 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 sup****t for the Sudanese
leader****p
> 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 s****ting event and he's going to
go
> to it as a s****ting 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 ****ite 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 re****t that al-Qaeda, since the U.S. invasion of
> Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has successfully
****fted
> 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.''
>
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