My Reasearch on Condi Rice pre-BushII admin. NEED MORE!

[mb7588a]

This woman is scary. Though I won't let her take the fall for 9/11, I thought it important to dig up this article I read as a freshman in college in my World Politics course. Interestingly enough, I first read it in early September, 2001.

"Promoting the National Interest" by Condi Rice in Foreign Affairs, Jan./Feb. 2000:

"As history marches toward markets and democracy, some states have been left by the side of the road. Iraq is the prototype. Saddam Hussein's regime is isolated, his conventional military power has been severely weakened, his people live in poverty and terror, and he has no useful place in international politics. He is therefore determined to develop WMD. Nothing will change until Saddam is gone, so the United States must mobilize whatever resources it can, including support from his opposition, to remove him."


She wrote this in January 2000... unbelievable. I didn't know she was on par with PNAC and the gang. :( It's absolutely a worthwhile read, if you can find the full version.


In "How to Pursue the National Interest" published and adapted shortly after the Foreign Affairs article, found at http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/digest/002/rice.html, she says:

"--American foreign policy in a new administration should refocus the United States on the national interest and the pursuit of key priorities. These tasks are to:
*Ensure that America's military can deter war, project power, and fight in defense of its interests if deterrence fails
*Promote economic growth and political openness by extending free trade and a stable international monetary system to all committed to these principles
*Renew strong and intimate relationships with allies who share American values and can thus share the burden of promoting peace, prosperity, and freedom
*Focus U.S. energies on comprehensive relationships with the big powers, particularly Russia and China, that can and will mold the character of the international political system
*Deal decisively with the threat of rogue regimes and hostile powers, which is increasingly taking the forms of the potential for terrorism and the development of weapons of mass destruction.

__Coping with Rogue Regimes__
As history marches toward markets and democracy, some states have been left by the side of the road. The United States must approach rogue regimes like North Korea and Iraq resolutely and decisively. The Clinton administration has failed here, sometimes threatening to use force and then backing down. These regimes are living on borrowed time, so there need be no sense of panic about them. Rather, the first line of defense should be a clear and classical statement of deterrence—if they do acquire weapons of mass destruction, their weapons will be unusable because any attempt to use them will bring national obliteration. Second, we should accelerate efforts to defend against these weapons. This is the most important reason to deploy national and theater missile defenses as soon as possible, to focus attention on U.S. homeland defenses against chemical and biological agents, and to expand intelligence capabilities against terrorism of all kinds."


And then there's this quote, found at http://www.issues2000.org/Cabinet/Condoleezza_Rice_Foreign_Policy.htm, on foreign policy in general, the first sentence is absolutely amazing (gives a great look at how she influeced the admin's handling of their agenda, how they sold it etc.):

__Redefine national interest, to avoid interest-based policy__
Constituency-based politics, interest based politics, is having mostly a negative effect on foreign policy. Part of the problem here is that of having a clear view of the national interest. It was so clear that when issues 1 through 10 all began and ended with the Soviet Union, it was a lot easier for the President to dominate foreign policy. Without a strong sense of what the national interest is, foreign policy becomes a patchwork of interest group politics, like every other issue.

The change was utterly predictable the Soviet Union was such an organizing principle. Americans saw every issue through the prism of Soviet Union. Today it is just not true. So now the centripetal forces are very powerful in the absence of that centralizing principle. Hence we need a much more powerful definition of national interest.
Source: TIES-Webzine interview at Hoover Institution, Stanford Univ. Jun 25, 2000


From her Stanford U. bio:
"Rice's professional activities since returning to Stanford have not been limited to the university. She cofounded the Center for a New Generation, an after-school academy in East Palo Alto, California, and is a corporate board member for Chevron, the Hewlett Foundation, and Charles Schwab. In addition, Rice is a member of J.P. Morgan's international advisory council.

Rice enrolled at the University of Denver at the age of 15, graduating at 19 with a bachelor's degree in political science (cum laude). She earned a master's degree at the University of Notre Dame and a doctorate from the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies. Both of her advanced degrees are also in political science."

Rice on War and Peace: http://www.issues2000.org/Cabinet/Condoleezza_Rice_War_+_Peace.htm#War_on_Terror


From these readings, I am starting to believe that she is the principle believer/creator of the WMD lie. Her style and swagger is all over the Bush admin. talking points pre-Iraq. Further, in all of her published work I can get ahold of, there is NO mention of terrorist organizations, ABSOUTELY NONE - NOTHING. She had to have been instrumental in how they crafted their talking points, defense of actions and everything. Unfortunately there's little to be found about national security/911/al quaeda, other than she wasn't really, imo, qualified for the job. She was paranoid in all the WRONG ways for the times in the summer and early fall of 2001

These last few weeks make me wonder how the hell I sleep at night. :( Please, folks, dig up more! Share here! We need to find out what this witch (for the witch look, see her pics in today's Washington Post) is/has been really up to.

[skeptic9]

1. kick