Powell Forces Rice to Defend Iraq Planning

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060430/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq

WASHINGTON - Just back from Baghdad and eager to discuss promising developments, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice found herself knocked off message Sunday, forced to defend prewar planning and troop levels against an unlikely critic — Colin Powell, her predecessor at the State Department.

For the Bush administration, it was a rare instance of in-house dissenter going public.

On Rice's mind was the political breakthrough that had brought her and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to Iraq last week and cleared the way for formation of a national unity government.

Yet Powell sideswiped her by revisiting the question of whether the U.S. had a large enough force to oust Saddam Hussein and then secure the peace.

<snip>


Rice, Bush's national security adviser during the run-up to the war, neither confirmed nor denied Powell's assertion. But she spent a good part of her appearances on three Sunday talk shows reaching into the past to defend the White House, which is trying to highlight the positive to a public increasingly skeptical in this election year of the president's conduct of the war and concerned about the large U.S. military presence.

"I don't remember specifically what Secretary Powell may be referring to, but I'm quite certain that there were lots of discussions about how best to fulfill the mission that we went into Iraq," Rice said.

[goforit]

1. LOL!! Nothing like a bunch of Maffia boys arguing amongst themselves

[mdmc]

3. the powell doctrine and the rummy doctrine

are now at odds! love it!

[saltpoint]

2. Jesus, but it's annoying to listen to this woman. A shameless liar.

[cpousnret]

4. ,yes i can`t stand to listen to her,i`m not sure i

believe she has a phd.

[saltpoint]

7. She does have a PhD. In Malfeasance.

[cpousnret]

8. lol

[cliss]

5. Here's a little translation glossary,

just like the kind you take with you when you go to Paris.

"I don't remember" = I'm lying, right now. I most certainly remember, but I'm on TV right now and if I refute it, those little Google fanatics will look up the truth and have my ass in a sling, in about 5 minutes.

"I'm quite certain" = It's a fact, OR it's not a fact, depending on which way I'm lying here. By putting the word "quite" this protects me against any nerdy little creeps who would dispute my lies.

I have a reputation, after all.

[caledesi]

16. Or, "Who would have thought that airplanes would be used as missles?"

Translation: We knew it all along, but I am so used to lying.

I forgot the other "Who would have thought" remarks.

[dipsydoodle]

6. What's she saying in the picture ....

sit on that ?

[leftchick]

9. nope

"george's dick is half the length of my finger"

[dipsydoodle]

11. You rascal

you !:rofl:

[JDPriestly]

10. She is the only member of the Bush administration

who has decent poll ratings. Guess we will be seeing a lot of her in the coming days -- until people realize that she was the moving force behind the whole Iraq debacle and her polls start falling too.

[barb162]

12. Oh this is too weird; Powell went along with the crap in the end

and he knew what was going on

[rodeodance]

13. I saw her try to defend herself on Meet the Press today.

[rodeodance]

14. I am no fan of Powell, but if can get Condi off track--YEAH.

[rodeodance]

15. Average (860 votes) 3.8 stars

.....Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991
Gulf War and is known for his belief in deploying decisive force with a clear exit strategy in any conflict.

"The president's military advisers felt that the size of the force was adequate; they may still feel that years later. Some of us don't. I don't," Powell said. "In my perspective, I would have preferred more troops, but you know, this conflict is not over."

"At the time, the president was listening to those who were supposed to be providing him with military advice," Powell said. "They were anticipating a different kind of immediate aftermath of the fall of Baghdad; it turned out to be not exactly as they had anticipated."

Rumsfeld has rejected criticism that he sent too few U.S. troops to Iraq, saying that Franks and generals who oversaw the campaign's planning had determined the overall number of troops, and that he and Bush agreed with them. The recommendation of senior military commanders at the time was about 145,000 troops.


Average (860 votes)
3.8 stars

[bluedeminredstate]

17. Pants on fire!

"I don't remember specifically what Secretary Powell may be referring to, but I'm quite certain that there were lots of discussions about how best to fulfill the mission that we went into Iraq," Rice said.

It's not exactly a secret that Powell was not a syncophant like Condi and the rest - he questioned, even threw out some of the intelligence he was supposed to lie about at the UN and generally didn't play nice as was expected and demanded. He was left out of the loop and eventually fired for being a pain in their asses. Now how could a woman as "brilliant" as Rice is purported to be not "remember" what Powell had stuck in his craw? I'm sure Powell was the subject of many WH cabal discussions, WHIG meetings, and strategy sessions of how to deal with the uncooperative non-believer.

Then she goes on to say she's "quite certain" there were lots of discussions about going to WAR!! This falls ubder the No-Shit-Sherlock catergory of statements. If by saying that there were just too doggone many discussions to remember the Secretary of State recommnding far more troops than the previous Sec. of Defense, the VP and the nutjobs at the Pentagon, then she's too stupid to be in her current post or she's lying her ass off.

Guess which one it is?

[NNadir]

18. Powell, of course, going back to My Lai, usually covers up for the powers

that be, and takes no responsibility for his own actions.

The time for action was before the war. It is notable that he claims he knew it was being carried out incompetently, but he did his part.

[cpousnret]

19. people can always get things expunged,ex:powell,

bush,military records were cleaned and his abortion was cleaned.

[Miss Chybil]

20. I'm tired of the "we didn't have enough troops" mantra.

We should have never gone there, period. One troop would have been one too many.

[NNadir]

21. Good point.

[cpousnret]

22. how about this mantra

we where fucking incompetent.fighting for peace is like fucking for chastity.peace

[leftchick]

26. I agree, it is bullshit!

Even if we had 500,000 troops there still would have been a resistance. Vietnam anyone?? :(

[Tiggeroshii]

23. K&R

Wow...

[cliss]

24. I have a bit of news about the low number of troops.

This is something that has haunted the Bush administration, ever since we marched into Iraq in 2003. There were not enough troops to secure the country. General Shinseki said they would need "several hundred thousand troops", meaning maybe as many as 500,000 troops.

Rumsfailed and Wolfowitz disputed that, and said they would only need 100,000 troops. Well, we all know how that went.

I always wondered: why DID they send in so few troops? Some people have said that Rumsfailed was "cheap" and he was trying to use as few troops because he was trying to save money. **Now that the treasury is bankrupt, I don't think that argument holds up anymore.

I finally figured out the REAL reason, and this is why Shinseki was ousted. The US DID NOT HAVE 500,000 troops. It was either: go in with 100,000 troops or don't go in at all. They opted for a huge gamble, and lost.

[AndyTiedye]

25. They Named an Oil Tanker After Her

[WhiteTara]

27. too bad he didn't try that ploy 3 years ago

he knows he will rot in hell and he's trying to buy a pass. F*ck him :grr:

[mike_c]

28. "...trying to highlight the positive..."

:popcorn:

[JPZenger]

29. Neocons refused to listen to State Dept;. experts

When the war/occupation planning was underway, the neocons refused to listen to the advice of experts on Iraq in the State Dept. Those experts predicted everything that actually happened after the invasion. It was all detailed in articles by Knight-Ridder's Washington Bureau - THREE YEARS AGO. Those articles are still available on Knight-Ridder's website.

[TheCowsCameHome]

30. Planning? What planning? When did we have a plan in Iraq?

That's news to me.