Susan Rice was terrific on Rachel's show

[Nancy Waterman]

explaining the Afghanistan policy and refuting Rachel's arguments. She made it very clear.

[hlthe2b]

1. So, Susan is in agreement with Obama's approach AND defended

it effectively? I missed the segment, unfortunately, but I really respect Susan Rice...

[Nancy Waterman]

2. She made it very clear what the goals are

explaining Obama's reasoning.

[ShortnFiery]

8. She kept morphing al Qaeda into the Taliban. It was gross. eom

[Cha]

5. September 11, 2009..Susan Rice defended Obama's Afghanistan

Troop increase.

"As Democrats in Congress get queasier over President Obama's decision to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defended the plan at a meeting with reporters this morning. "What the American people and members of Congress need to understand is that we have a very crucial stake in Afghanistan, and if you need any reminder of that it comes today, on the anniversary of 9/11," says Rice. "This is a place in which the 9/11 attacks were planned and hatched, and those that committed those atrocities remain active in this very region."

While awaiting more information about on-the-ground conditions, congressional Democrats in recent days have urged the White House to produce a plan for winning the war in Afghanistan. Rice didn't give war-winning details; instead, she urged patience. "It is frankly premature to make judgments about the portion of the strategy that we are now embarking on, as we are just in the process of implementing it." And she reiterated that the United States needs to be in the region because al Qaeda remains there. "We don't believe the al Qaeda leadership is elsewhere in the world, we believe them to be there," Rice says."

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/09/11/susan-rice-defends-obamas-afghanistan-troop-increase.html

[ginnyinWI]

26. I really respect her too.

First time I saw her speak on some show in 2004. She's bright and knows her stuff. She did argue very effectively. I'm sure it will be posted somewhere soon--it was good.

[MissMarple]

3. Good to know. Thanks.

[Cha]

4. Rec'd~ And, on Rachel's show too!

I disagreed with Rachel's take last night on Pres Obama's policy being like the bush doctrine but I respect her and this is one reason why..she'll debate Susan Rice on her show the next night.

Thanks for the headsup, Nancy.

[Clio the Leo]

6. I wish everyone would watch that....

... not only for WHAT Susan Rice said, but how she and Rachel conducted the discussion. We could all borrow from their example.

[Cha]

9. I will watch when up..thanks..but, this OP is getting Unrec'd

as we type.

[hlthe2b]

11. why the unrec'd (or are you saying others are doing so?)

[Cha]

14. I'm not unrecing..I just noticed that it was

and it bugged me 'cause it's good viable information.

[Clio the Leo]

13. It matters not.....

.... we have a strong, intelligent woman representing us at the UN and another strong, intelligent woman hosting a major cable news program.

All of the positive they are responsible for outweight any message board negativity. ;)

[Cha]

16. I know..I just wanted this

to get out but now I see that Nancy Waterman and Sparkly both have OPs on this(started at the same time.)!

[Clio the Leo]

20. And I am going to post the video as soon as I can find it.....

.... unless someone beats me to it! lol

[Cha]

21. Can't wait..

:bounce:

[cliffordu]

19. NO kidding. Good catch.

[EffieBlack]

23. Yes - it was WONDERFUL watching too whip smart women discussing an important issue so intelligently

I loved that Rachel didn't try to prove how tough and cool she is by being an asshole and the Ambassador didn't try to skirt the issues or blow smoke at her interviewer. The obviously disagreed on some aspects but they treated each other with such respect and discussed the issue in such depth that their disagreement only provided greater enlightenment.

It was an absolute delight to watch.

[Avalux]

7. She did good job explaining the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan -

and why it isn't as easy as all that to maintain the border. It's mostly about Pakistan.

[ShortnFiery]

12. Did she explain well enough that Pakistan is a sovereign nation? What if they change their mind?

This will not end well. :(

[Cha]

15. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

[AllentownJake]

10. I agreed with Rachel

I respect the administration for sending Susan on the show to explain their point of view.

[nevergiveup]

17. Susan Rice did as good a job as possible

defending a mission that is likely doomed to failure. I would love to see more interviews like this one. A brilliant administration official not afraid to go up against someone with obvious opposing views who also happens to be brilliant. This was good stuff.

[IndianaGreen]

18. Susan Rice is better than Condi Rice, but her explanations were tortured at best

simply because it is difficult to defend a policy which is essentially a rehash of past failed policies, based on the wrong assumptions.

Here We Go Again

Robert Scheer.
Veteran Journalist and Editor of Truthdig.com
Posted: December 2, 2009 12:46 PM

It is already a 30-year war begun by one Democratic president, and thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose. President Barack Obama's own top national security adviser has stated that there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida members in Afghanistan and that they are not capable of launching attacks. What superheroes they must be, then, to require 100,000 U.S. troops to contain them.

The president handled that absurdity by conflating al-Qaida, which he admitted is holed up in Pakistan, with the Taliban and denying the McChrystal report's basic assumption that the enemy in Afghanistan is local in both origin and focus. Obama stated Tuesday in a speech announcing a major escalation of the war, "It's important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place." But he then cut off any serious consideration of that question with the bald assertion that "we did not ask for this fight."

Of course we did. The Islamic fanatics who seized power in Afghanistan were previously backed by the U.S. as "freedom fighters" in what was once marketed as a bold adventure in Cold War one-upmanship against the Soviets. It was President Jimmy Carter, aided by a young liberal hawk named Richard Holbrooke, now Obama's civilian point man on Afghanistan, who decided to support Muslim fanatics there. Holbrooke began his government service as one of the "Best and the Brightest" in Vietnam and was involved with the rural pacification and Phoenix assassination program in that country, and he is now a big advocate of the counterinsurgency program proposed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to once again win the hearts and minds of locals who want none of it.

The current president's military point man, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, served in Carter's National Security Council and knows that Obama is speaking falsely when he asserts it was the Soviet occupation that gave rise to the Muslim insurgency that we abetted. Gates wrote a memoir in 1996 which, as his publisher proclaimed, exposed "Carter's never-before-revealed covert support to Afghan mujahedeen--six months before the Soviets invaded."

Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was asked in a 1998 interview with the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur if he regretted "having given arms and advice to future terrorists," and he answered, "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" Brzezinski made that statement three years before the 9/11 attack by those "stirred-up Muslims."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/here-we-go-again_b_377043.html

[ginnyinWI]

29. tortured?

She was confident and articulate! She knows what she's talking about and answered every question Rachael put to her. When Rachael wandered into Somalia and Yemen she knew all about those situations too.

[Clio the Leo]

30. lol that face she made when she said....

"you want to talk about Somalia? I can talk about Somalia!" lol

[vaberella]

22. video please! when you get it let me know. By the way I adore Susan Rice. n/t

[AnnieBW]

24. She kept repeating the same line over and over

Dana Perino did much the same thing.

[ShortnFiery]

25. Yes, That al Qaeda and the Taliban were "symbiotic." What a CROCK!

:thumbsdown:

[IndianaGreen]

27. and Dana Perino now works for the Obama Administration

[ShortnFiery]

28. Yes! And yet there are people here who can explain that appointment.

Just astounding <pinching myself>. :crazy:

[Cha]

31. I just saw it and you're right, Nancy..

Susan Rice knows her stuff and made it clear what's going to be done.