Ex-Rice speechwriter tells paper she doesn't have the 'vaguest notion' of Middle East history...

[kpete]

Ex-Rice speechwriter: She doesn't have 'vaguest notion' of Middle East history

Michael Roston
Published: Friday January 19, 2007

An ex-State Department speechwriter today told the Wall Street Journal that his former boss Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lacked a clear understanding of modern Middle Eastern history.

"The reason that I cite some of these other times, like Europe, is that it is so clear in everybody's mind that the United States and its allies came out victorious at the end of the Cold War," she said in Kuwait. "But if you...look at the events that ultimately lead to that, you would have thought that this was failing every single day between 1945-1946 and probably 1987 or 1988."

Her contention is while things may look bad now in Iraq and elsewhere in the region, history is on the administration's side. She pushed a similar argument to reporters last month. The Middle East is "moving toward something that I am quite certain will not have a full resolution and that you will not be able to fully judge for decades," she said.

Critics dismiss Ms. Rice's references to the Cold War as both convenient and a sign of her limited frame of reference. The challenges facing Europe in 1946, they say, bear little similarity to those of the Middle East in the 21st century.

"The administration's reservoir of historical analogies seems limited to the 1914-1991 period. And it's all about Europe," said Adam Garfinkle, a former Rice speechwriter who edits the foreign-policy journal The American Interest. "No one in a senior position in this administration seems to have even the vaguest notion of modern Middle Eastern history."

more at:
http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB116917380100681116.html%3Fmod%3Dpolitics_first_element_hs
via:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/ExRice_speechwriter_She_doesnt__have_0119.html

[itsmesgd]

1. After all, they named an oil tanker after her and not a library at a college

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Really? You don't say

we proles did not notice

In her defense, most Americans have no clue about US History, let alone somebody else's. At least she has soemwhat of a handle on European history... oh wait, she IS the Secretary of State where that knowledge of the ME might be important, right?

Silly me...

[itsmesgd]

7. exactly, if we knew US history, we wouldn't be standing for what is going on today.

If we knew world history, WWII Germany to be more specific, we would see what is happening to the US in the name of "national security". Germany had the Reichstag fire and the follow-up "Enabling Acts". We have had our "terror attacks followed by the Patriot Acts. This is not even ancient history, there should still be those people around who remember from firsthand knowledge who can stand up and say, "Stop it".
But alas, we are damned to repeat our history, over and over again.

[NewJeffCT]

9. These days, however

if people stand up & say "stop it," they get swift-boated, threatened and who knows what else?

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Just as... drum roll

1930s Germany, and 1930s Russia and 1950 Russia.

Authoritarian governents, whether from the RIGHT or the LEFT have many things in common

[geardaddy]

19. And 1960s China...

Just to expand it outside of the Eurocentric view. ;)

[NNN0LHI]

29. 1950's USA

Can't forget the Red Scare.

Don

[The Wielding Truth]

28. They can't swift-boat everyone. We can all stand up and say "stop it."

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. I know some of those folks

even some who went on for the Hitler Travel Plan.

You'd be amazed since they fall in three groups

1.- Well they really don't care since it does not affect THEM or their family... and quite frankly I can understand that one... since ultimately they were left with ultimate game of survivor (My parents, they don't live in the states but it took my mon oh five years to get it that the boy who wanted to be king is a fascist, and she told me, once she realized what I have been up to... to be CAREFUL)

2.- Those who really do not have the strength of body or spirit to even have a mind for this... for god sakes these folks are mostly in their late seventies and early eighties.

3.- One lady I know who has written her fair share of letters to extant people in the government, and yep she got to dance with Doctor Mengele, as in try to survive the selections. She told me the best answer to this... denial among her contemporaries is deep... since they went through that song and dance and they really do not want to believe. There is also the fact that many of the survivors got stuck in the victim mentality... and have never been able to break out of it.

I hope that explanation gives you a fair insight

But then again, we DO NOT teach kids history any longer. My brother in law has three kids from a previous marriage that graduated from Cali HS, they NEVER read the US Constitution. Hell, they don't give a shit. One day I gave each one a copy... not that they have even cracked it open. And what is worst, they are proud of that. Perhaps the one who got in a little trouble with the law will now finally crack it open, to find out what his rights aer... if you get my drift.

[NewJeffCT]

14. according to our Attorney General

the constitution doesn't grant us the right of habeus corpus, just that the right cannot be taken away...

So, by inference, free speech is not a right - it just cannot be abridged... the right to keep & bear arms is not a right, it just means that right (if it existed) cannot be infringed...

Hmm, maybe we should rename the Bill of Rights to "The Bill of Certain Things that cannot be Taken Away if They were Rights."

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Tep but here is the critical question

how many peiple watched gonzo make the statement?

We have state run media and things like that don't get on the evening news

[NewJeffCT]

26. That is the difference between our side and their side

It took us weeks & months of effort to get the Downing Street Memo into the mainstream news - I can't even count how many letters to the editor I wrote, how many emails to people in the media & government, etc... The RW can just press a button and it's instant outrage.

[NewJeffCT]

3. That doesn't damn just Rice - it's everybody on top there

Is there anything remotely competent about these people?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. Newjeff wins the kewpie doll! DING DING DING! Absolutely right.

they don't know and don't care that they don't know.

That is why advice from Richard Clarke was ignored.
That is why advice from State was burried.
That is why the Office of Special Projects was created, in order to mold bad info and intel (by their bizarre measurements) into something they could use.

[NewJeffCT]

10. It is from the Wall Street Journal

And, as we all know, the Journal is the vanguard for the liberal media.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

24. but you assume they read, and we are beginning to know better.

WSJ - a librul rag
heh, heh

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. So glad he cleared that up for us.

:eyes: No shit Sherlock!

[calimary]

6. I'm glad this goes to the Greatest page now! We have to start focusing on

this pitiful, hapless, mutton-headed creature whose main claim to fame is how she "Monica's" george.

Especially since, bewilderingly enough, she's the most popular person in the bush viper pit. That means after this whole sordid period is over, she COULD still make a comeback farther down the road, in some capacity. She's still mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in some quarters, astounding as that seems. That crap REALLY needs to be nipped in the bud. contradicta needs to be thoroughly discredited and marginalized for her track record of literally EPIC bad judgment and horrendous incompetence. Do we REALLY want someone in that deep over her head to be a political survivor? It's bad enough we've got her, and her "husband" fucking everything up as is.

This stuff - concerning the truth about contradicta - needs to be spread EVERYWHERE. The ONE round of buyer's remorse we've already got rolling here now is MORE THAN ENOUGH!!! Let's help other voters learn from their mistakes, and/or help them avoid making more!

on edit - since I posted this, it went up to six votes! YES!!!

[npincus]

8. yes...

the best part is the source is the WSJ- the RW media can't blame the "lefty" NYT.

[Sapere aude]

11. They are not concerned with history or anything else. It is a ruse to cover their lust for oil

profits.

Someone should please remind everyone about that 1000lb gorilla in the room.

[WinkyDink]

17. Exactly. These WWII comments are for 2 reasons: to pander to American

voters; and to make Bush feel like he's Churchill.

Cynical. Manipulative. Repulsive.

[indepat]

15. Senior administration officials are eaten up in their zealous RW ideology and don't ned to know/

give a shit about anything else.

[Clinton_Co_Regulator]

16. ConDUHleesa?

Who knew?

:kick:

[Lugnut]

20. Well duh

It's not that hard to see how incompetent she is. It's nice too see it in print though.

[Bozita]

21. That's frontpage material, kpete! ... Good post!

[robertpaulsen]

22. "History is on the administration's side"? BULLSHIT.

I call major bullshit on this ex-speechwriter. He's trying to have his cake and eat it too, pandering to the current political climate where everyone KNOWS the Boosh administration is dumb as dirt, yet at the same time claiming history will prove them right.

Please, Mr. Garfinkle, show me one time in the last 1000 years when foreign invaders successfully invaded a country, occupied it and then created a democracy. Cuz that's what the people you used to work for think they are going to accomplish. Show me one time in modern Middle Eastern history when that actually worked.

Nice red herring.

[skypilot]

23. From the article

"The Middle East is "moving toward something that I am quite certain will not have a full resolution and that you will not be able to fully judge for decades", she said.

Or, put another way, we all just have to suck it up "for decades". Loathsome.

[gratefultobelib]

25. Oh, baloney, baloney, baloney! She uses a mouthful of pretty words,

turns phrases nicely, good diction, you must agree, but oh my lord, it is pure torture for me to listen to her! Bleahhhhhh. And that's how I REALLY feel!

[mwb970]

27. I find I can't listen to any of them any more.

I am sick to death of seeing Bush, Cheney, Rice, Gonzales and all the others on TV. I'm sick of the lies and the bad decisions. 2008 cannot come fast enough for me. This is the absolute worst crowd ever to stain the White House.