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Condoleezza Rice: ‘I Am Proud Of The Decision’ To Invade Iraq

By Faiz Shakir on Jul 4, 2008 at 2:45 pm

In an interview last March with Bloomberg’s Judy Woodruff, the late conservative scholar William F. Buckley said President Bush’s legacy would be judged purely on Iraq. He stressed, “It’s important that we acknowledge in the inner councils of state that it (the war) has failed, so that we should look for opportunities to cope with that failure.”

In an interview with Bloomberg TV yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was unable to acknowledge the failure of Iraq. Woodruff presented Buckley’s argument to Rice that Bush’s legacy will be Iraq. “That’s just fine,” said Rice.

“We tend to forget very quickly what Saddam Hussein meant. … In the post 9/11 environment, you couldn’t let a threat to international peace and stability like that remain.” She added:

Yes, it’s been very, very tough. But I know that great historical events go through difficult phases and often emerge with the world left for the better. And I am proud of the decision of this administration to overthrow Saddam Hussein. I am proud of the liberation of 25 million Iraqis.

Watch it:

Rice tends to forget what she thought of Iraq prior to 9/11. In July 2001, Rice said on CNN: “In terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let’s remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.” (See the video.)

Digg It!

Update

John Amato has more.

Yglesias

Part IV

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Part IV of the Brooks/Ambinder/Douthat/Yglesias Aspen Panel:

You’re in good hands with Allstate. And, yes, I kind of wish this hadn’t been sliced up into so many separate segments.

Politics

John Edwards to debate Karl Rove in Buffalo.

By Faiz Shakir on Jul 4, 2008 at 1:30 pm

The Buffalo News reports that former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards will debate Karl Rove on Sept. 26 on the campus of the University of Buffalo as part of the school’s Distinguished Speakers Series. In the midst of the U.S. attorney scandal, Edwards called on President Bush to “fire Karl Rove.” When Rove announced he was resigning from the White House, Edwards released a statement that simply read “Goodbye, good riddance.”

johnedwards2.jpg

Update

Paul Krugman writes today of “Karl Rove’s Third Term.”

Yglesias

Part III

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 1:04 pm

In which David Brooks explains that Ross & Reihan’s book is so good that no further books need ever be written:

I don’t think I would go that far.

Climate Progress

Polluter appeasement — should we question the patriotism of deniers?

By Joe Romm on Jul 4, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Independence Day may be the best day to ask ourselves — what is the greatest, preventable threat to Americans’ life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (LLPH). The answer is simple — human-caused global warming. Certainly there are other major threats to LLPH, the gravest of which is probably terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapon, in this country.

Between Homeland Security and the Pentagon, we spend billions of dollars every month to try to prevent terrorism. Indeed, President Bush and John McCain say Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. If so, the government spends more than $20 billion a month just to fight terrorism — of which more than half is new money we were’nt spending before 9/11 (and we spend more than $50 billion a month total on military and homeland security). And those who oppose such spending are routinely labeled unpatriotic or even appeasers.

But unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions are by far the greatest preventable threat to Americans’ LLPH (see “Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 0: The alternative is humanity’s self-destruction and Part 2: The Solution“). Yet the government spends virtually nothing to fight global warming — certainly no significant amount of new money has been allocated for this major threat (the Clinton Administration tried, but the Gingrich Congress reversed that effort, reducing or zeroing out every program aimed at climate mitigation or even adaptation).

Indeed most conservatives, including John McCain, oppose merely continuing existing incentives for carbon-mitigating strategies like solar and wind power. Conservatives in Congress seem likely to strongly oppose any major effort at a legislative solution (see “Anti-science conservatives must be stopped“).

Hmm. What should we call people who actively oppose efforts to save America from the horrors posed by the greatest threat to Americans’ LLPH? Deniers? Delayers? Worse? The main reason I am bringing this up today is that conservative columnist Tony Blankley, Newt Gingrich’s former press secretary, questioned the patriotism of environmentalists on the Diane Rehm show yesterday:

Read more

Yglesias

Part II

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 12:31 pm

Here’s Part II of “The Future of Party Politics” with Ross Douthat, Marc Ambinder, David Brooks, and yours truly (remember: you’re in good hands with Allstate). Official description: “In this installment, Matt talks about the notion of an enduring Democratic majority, and David Brooks speculates on whether Hispanics are Jews or Italians. There’s also an interesting discussion about whether parties have better ideas when they’re out of office than when they’re busy running the country.”

As the world’s premiere Jewish/Hispanic political pundit, I feel like I really should form a firmer opinion on the “are Hispanics like Jews” issue.

Yglesias

The Dead

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 11:45 am

I’ve never been 100 percent clear on why you’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but suffice it to say that while there were many more vile politicians in the world than the now-dead Jesse Helms they were pretty much all brutal dictators and the like. For a late 20th century United States Senator, Helms was just awful — a bigot who’s incredibly retrograde foreign policy views managed to do a surprising amount of harm for a non-president and he’s probably responsible for all manner of ills I don’t even know about. Good riddance.

Yglesias

Brian Beutler Recovery Fund

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 11:36 am

As best anyone can tell, Brian Beutler’s post-shooting surgery was a complete success and he’s going to be totally fine. Fine, that is, but saddled with medical bills (and, yes, we should have better health care policy in the United States and also fewer criminals roaming the streets shooting people and getting away with it — consider those points made) for which Spencer Ackerman has set up a BeutlerAid fund in case you’re interested in supporting progressive media (who’s got the goods on FISA? Brian Beutler!) and humanitarian goodness and helping out.

Yglesias

The Difference

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 11:24 am

If conservatives want to argue that Barack Obama’s been flip-flopping on Iraq, I’ll disagree but I could see what they mean. Charles Krauthammer, however, can’t seriously believe that Obama’s been “assiduously obliterat[ing] all differences with McCain on national security and social issues” since the end of the primaries.

Consider such non-obscure points as John McCain is pro-life and has said he wants to appoint judges who will restrict abortion rights, whereas Barack Obama is pro-choice. John McCain favors an amendment to California’s constitution that would take back gay and lesbian couples’ newfound marriage rights whereas Barack Obama opposes such an amendment. Barack Obama opposes a permanent American military presence in Iraq whereas John McCain favors it. Barack Obama thinks torture is wrong even when the CIA does it, whereas John McCain thinks it’s great for the CIA to torture people. Barack Obama favors good-faith high-level negotiations with Iran, whereas John McCain wants to “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” One could go on, but it hardly seems necessary — the only question is why The Washington Post thinks it’s a good idea to publish columns that are designed to mislead its audience rather than to inform its audience, or why they think customers would want to pay money for a publication that behaves that way.

Culture

Mixed Feelings

By ThinkProgress on Jul 4, 2008 at 11:15 am

My sense every July 4 is that I could get more jazzed up about independence if it were more plausible for Americans to work ourselves up into a fury of anti-British sentiment. In the real world, however, America’s two closest allies are the former colonial power and the segments of British North America that didn’t join in our rebellion. Ultimately, I think the United States is a pretty awesome country but it very plausibly would have been even awesomer had English and American political leaders in the late 18th century been farsighted enough to find compromises that would have held the empire together.

Nevertheless, we live in the world that is. Happy birthday, America! These lines from the Declaration of Independence still ring out as incredible wisdom hundreds of years later:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Fireworks!

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