Condoleezza Rice's memoir reveals clashes over Iraq

Just days after President Obama declared an end to the Iraq war, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is releasing a memoir providing insight into the turmoil over the war within the Bush administration.

From the beginning, Rice wrote in her new book "No Higher Honor," she had concerns about the United States' post-war plans for Iraq. Her attempts to broach the subject before the 2003 invasion "always led to uninformative slides and a rather dismissive handling of the question," she wrote, according to a preview of her book in Newsweek magazine.

"When I finally arranged a briefing on the issue before the President in early February, he started the meeting in a way that completely destroyed any chance of getting an answer," Rice wrote. "'This is something Condi has wanted to talk about,' he said. I could immediately see that the generals no longer thought it to be a serious question."

That incident, Rice wrote, revealed the weakness of her position at the time, as the president's national security adviser. "Authority comes from the President," she wrote. "If he wasn't interested in this issue, why should they care?"

By 2006, when Rice served as secretary of state, she was concerned the U.S. would become mired in Iraq's civil war. According to a review of the memoir in the New York Times, Rice told Mr. Bush she opposed a plan to increase troops there to protect Iraqi civilians.

"So what's your plan, Condi?" the president retorted, Rice wrote. "We'll just let them kill each other, and we'll stand by and try to pick up the pieces?"

She responded, "if they want to have a civil war we're going to have to let them."

Rice recounts her clashes with other members of the Bush administration, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Both Cheney and Rumsfeld have criticized Rice in their own respective memoirs.

On CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, CBS News political analyst John Dickerson said Rice's memoir reveals that "actually the most important things that the president does have a direct control over happens in small room with a small group of national security advisers."

"And so the ability to have a team that works well together, that doesn't get involved in group-think, that's what a president really-- that's an important attribute for a president," he said. "And that's the kind of thing that doesn't get talked about much on the campaign trail."

Rice's memoir touches on a range of issues from the Bush era, including the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She recounts making the "tone-deaf" decision to go to the theater and go shopping in New York City as the hurricane was hitting New Orleans.

"I wasn't just the secretary of state with responsibility for foreign affairs; I was the highest-ranking black in the administration and a key advisor to the President," she wrote. "What had I been thinking?"

[Peter_Dow]

Watch "Condoleezza Rice's Iraq foresight dismissed by Bush's generals."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt2kgDu4Vwc

Condoleezza Rice is too modest to wonder if Steve had been right to suggest she should resign.

Least of all has Condoleezza Rice any reason to doubt the value of her continuing service to President Bush, the United States of America, the people of Iraq and of the world, of all religions and of none.

To come to the question of whether Condoleezza Rice should have resigned as National Security Advisor as it seems Stephen Hadley may have suggested.

NO absolutely Condoleezza Rice should not have resigned.

Did Jesus resign?
Do angels resign?
Does God resign?

Condi CAN'T resign from being Condoleezza Rice - it is her job for life!

Condi was right not to quit even though her wisdom was overlooked at the time.

Instead, Steve Hadley should have suggested that the Generals might consider resigning so long as they continued to dismiss Condi's advice.

Instead Steve should have given Condi full support like a truly loyal number 2 ought to have done.

Steve should not have sought to advance his own career at Condi's expense. This was a disloyal motive perhaps.


Rice for President Yahoo Group

"Condoleezza Rice for President in 2012. Join this group of supporters from everywhere on the world wide web."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rice-for-president/

All Peter Dow's Condi videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/DrCondiRice#g/f

[expatriate2]

Take a break. I don't want you to be late for your next shock treatment.

[noloyalisti]

Rice and the rest of the Bush Crime Family should all be discussing this from the inside of a jail cell.

People forget really quickly the depth of the horror promulgated by these war criminals during their 8 year Reign of Terror.

[bradkt1]

It sounds like what Condi Rice is saying is just another way of saying Secretary of State Colin Powell's famous line "If you break it, you own it." They didn't listen to Secretary Powell and they didn't listen to her.

The result was the costly mess in Iraq...both financially and in American lives. There was no doubt that we were going to run over the Iraqi armed forces militarily. They just melted away and waged a guerilla war against us that killed and maimed thousands of Americans. "Shock and awe"
has neither a meaning nor a place in a guerilla war or a civil war. We got bogged down in both.

The Bush Administration never had an end game strategy. They only had a domestic political strategy to use against the Democrats...courtesy of Karl Rove. That borders on criminal negligence.

Our soldiers deserved better leadership than that.

[PatriotPaul]

I appreciate the fact that Condi is being honest about her feelings regarding Hurricane Katrina in her book. Still it points to the fact of how very removed the wealthy and elite in society are from the average white or black American. Most of them simply cannot relate to what the other 95% have to endure on a daily basis.

Paul Harris
Author, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina"

[dagrandma]

Finally, a book from someone in the Bush administration who has a brain. In fact, I suspect she's the only one who had a brain.

[redbeachvn]

Monday Morning Quarter Backing. If she was so concerned, she could have resigned.