‘If I Had to Do It Over Again’

Condi Rice admits the U.S. should have understood Iraq better.

By Michael Hirsh | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Nov 8, 2007 | Updated: 6:14  p.m. ET Nov 8, 2007

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  • Posted By: bradb @ 11/08/2007 11:18:11 PM

    The problem I am looking at here is repetitious; it is that those who disagree condemn others with whom they disagree, have little insight into the problem as a whole and display their own ignorance through their hatred and bigotry (defined as a prejudiced (an attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence) person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities that differ from his or her own). In hindsight, all have 20/20 vision. The problem is that our government is made up of many opinions. Decisions are made based upon the majority belief. Obviously, when someone is wrong it is easy to accuse someone of deliberately lying to them. It is so much easier than taking responsibility for the diligence they should have taken in making the decision in the first place (Democrats come to mind). Everyone is so hung up on someone saying they made a mistake that the focus on solutions has been exchanged for a focus on blame. I understand that for many, the killing of 3,000 Americans and the attempted destruction of our financial system is no big deal, and in fact, they say we deserved it. Well, my suggestion is to move to the land of your friends, because you obviously believe America is certainly your enemy. Ms. Rice is being as direct as she can be, but no matter how direct she is, for many it will never be enough. Fools have a multitude of opinions and are eternally clamoring to be heard??? yes, even above the voice of reason, for to them, reason is a lie. Instead of trashing and hating all with whom you disagree, try finding a solution to the problem instead of blame. As for me, I will firmly believe that you will have what you deserve when you have given everyone their way and find yourself mired in socialism and wondering where your freedom went. That is the price of your failed insight.

    brdbndt

    • Posted By: popmanifesto @ 11/09/2007 10:30:10 AM

      Brad: you Conservatives have become quite good at reducing everything to "opinion," in an effort to minimize the effect of facts that work against you, in the same way that whenever the truth is told about Republican failures and scandal, you try to deflect attention by declaring "liberal bias" in the media . The facts of what has been done to this country look very bad for Republicans and people are catching on and getting angry. I suggest that it's the people who are trying to change our basic American rights and values be the ones to leave and start their own country if they don't like the country this has been for 230 years..

      • Posted By: brdbndt @ 11/14/2007 10:45:22 AM

        Pop,
        A small correction here. I am reducing everything to behavior, based upon peoples opinions and beliefs. Whenever the truth is told about republican scandals I become dissatisfied with the behavior and values of the individual involved, not the party. I do not blame the problem on the obvious (and self proclaimed by the Times) liberal bias in the media, I blame the problem on corrupted values and behavior. You are right of course, the Liberal bias is trying to change our American rights and values and make us more like Europe and the UK. If we wanted to be like them, we would have never left. If you have read the posts here, they are mostly hatred and bigotry spewing forth from malcontents. What ever happened to all the Liberals who were so angry they were going o move to Canada after Pres Bush was elected. Did they move? no, me thinks not. They showed up here with their never ending epitaphs of disillusionment. The sad truth is that there are people in the world that hate us. They always have and always will, no mattter who our president is. That doesn't mean that we have to join them by trashing America and her policies. What that means is we change our government by electing new people to replace the ones we disagree with. It's called being proactive rather than reactive, rational rather than emotional, and constructive rather than critical and destructive. The answer isn't to give this country away to everyone because they say they deserve it, the answer is to earn the right to manage it because you belong to it, not because it belongs to you. In disagreement with you, I am not angry at our government, it has become what we have allowed to to be. I am just sick and tired of hearing everyone complain and blame others because it isn't the way they want it to be. As for our President, I support him until there is another, and then I will give him respect too... until the next election. Then I will determine if I support him. As for the country this has been for 230 years, try not to forget that it was founded on conservative, Judaeo/Christian values and we ought not to get too far from them if we want to remain who we are, brdbndt

  • Posted By: Nikon @ 11/10/2007 1:58:44 PM

    Did the press understand Iraq? We get our news - filtered - by the press, not "Washington."
    If it was so glaringly obvious about the tribal makeup of Iraq since Saddam's days, why wasn't the press reporting the mistake since Gulf War 1.
    Maybe the press didn't have a clue either.

  • Posted By: DMVL @ 11/10/2007 11:44:10 AM

    Oh, NOW Condi admits she didn't understand Iraq? Come on. It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out that the Republicans in the White House didn't care to understand the people or the reality of Iraq. It also doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out that Condi's managed to con people into thinking she knows what she's doing. These are people who just didn't care and any amount of STUDY by these yahoos would have just resulted in them twisting the facts to justify their actions. Any contrition now is due to their fear of being scorned in the history books forever. In any case, it is too late for them.

  • Posted By: JudiYoo @ 11/10/2007 10:00:07 AM

    Where are the rest of the comments?

  • Posted By: JudiYoo @ 11/10/2007 9:59:22 AM

    I would like to post a comment.

  • Posted By: Tomfortruth @ 11/10/2007 2:06:32 AM

    The Bush/Rice Administration has been a disaster not just for the USA but for the whole World. The final irony will be the arrival of the Islamic Republic of Iraq within one year of the departure of the Coalition forces. The invasion (not a war, a walkover) of Iraq, the massacre of its civilians and the destruction of a country will have been for nought. Instead of allowing the Zionist neo-con lobby to dictate foreign policy in the interest solely of Israel rather than the USA - yes, Israel, fearing Iraq's Scud missile developments was the only country feeling threatened by Iraq- the Administration would have better served the national interest and the World's by concentrating on the War on Terror. The brutal Israeli oppression of the Palestinians is the root cause of most terrorism throughout the World and continues to give rise to the creation of fundamentalist Islamic groups everywhere. The first step should have been to curb the Zionists' excesses, perpetrated in order to achieve their vision of a Greater Israel, end the bloody occupation and impose a State of Palestine. Bush and Rice talk sanctimoniously of their belief in 'freedom for all peoples', oh, except for the Palestinians who they must view as sub-human to merit such contempt for their appalling plight.

  • Posted By: okie_magic @ 11/10/2007 1:19:54 AM

    What Condi won't say is that we never should have invaded Iraq to begin with. We should have sent 150,000 US troops to Afghanistan and captured or killed Bin Laden instead. Bush hired Condi because he knew she would fall into step with the rest of his neocons.

  • Posted By: jeanincolorado @ 11/09/2007 11:57:37 PM

    That this administration has taken billions each week for over 4 years to pursue an arrogant and possibly unlawful policy is a tragedy and has been fiscally, psychologically and morally repugnant to the majority of our nation. For Condaleezza Rice to now say she should have known more is a slap in the face for our style of governing. How did this administration get away with such a tragedy?

  • Posted By: Globalano @ 11/09/2007 9:56:14 PM

    I don't think there would ever have been populur support to enable US to go to war with an army of 400,000 that might have been needed to produce that kind of ideal transition, especially given Saddam's overtures of using wpms. The actions of nations that cringe at casualties aren't going to remain at war too long against a nation that threw away a million of its soldiers in its war with Iran and whose despotic leader remained defiant after the entire region put him back in his place. Given all the barbarous ninny's dicing up the country from inside and out, its almost a miracle we've brought Iraq through to a place of some hope. Buts let's abandon everything NOW! There are still plenty of suicide bombers and Mahdi wannabes trying to take us out..

  • Posted By: dabunn @ 11/09/2007 6:32:51 PM

    Comment: PaulieG. Its good to see that someone thinks the same as I do. The word I use to discribe this, "Bush Administration is, "arrigance". That covers, ignorence, Stupidity, ect. ect. Which all apply. "T.E. Lawrence, should be required reading for anyone having anything to do with arabs. He discribes our situation by," Eating soup with a knife." His seven pillars of wisdom," and, " revolt in the desert," should be on the list as well. I can't believe that our C.I.A. and F.B.I didn't know what we we're getting into, if they didn't, we have big problems. Time will tell. Being an old vet from WW II, I say, "GOD BLESS AMERICA.".........D.A.B.

  • Posted By: jimnews @ 11/09/2007 4:06:18 PM

    Another Bush insider trying to distance herself from Bush, and trying to salvage any credibility that she may still have in the community.

  • Posted By: roasterx @ 11/09/2007 3:53:50 PM

    Stop with the negative comments. Ms. Rice is as close to perfect as a Sec of State as any in my lifetime. Democrats only know one thing and that's how to complain. I look forward to a new administration so Democrats can see they are also imperfect. I don't hear anyone complimenting the successes of Rice.

  • Posted By: Kloran @ 11/09/2007 3:44:01 PM

    Talking to Condoleezza Rice is a waste of time. She didn't do her job before 911 and instead went on vacatio. She has not done her job since 911. She rubber stamps everything george bush wants and offers no insight or logical analysis to what is really happening in Iraq. She is a joke.

  • Posted By: cmorrow @ 11/09/2007 3:34:20 PM

    I am sick right up to my gills with all your liberal criticism. Bill Clinton had a chance to get Bin Ladin when he was in office and he was too busy playing with all the skirts around him.
    I am also sick of hearing that there were no "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq - weren't you paying attention when Sadam Hussein used them against his own people? I remember seeing in Life magazine the women and children and old people laying dead in the streets after being gassed by him. He also used it against Iran.
    You people are all full of criticism but your Democrat leaders did no better! It was a democrat that got us into WWII and a democrat that got us into Vietnam.
    I suppose you would rather be fighting them in our own streets which is where the fighting would be if the terrorist were not so preoccupied in Iraq.
    You all make me sick!!!!!!!

  • Posted By: roasterx @ 11/09/2007 3:08:59 PM

    I'm so tired of people reporting only the mistakes Bush has made. Let us also count his successes which are to numerous to mention. We are fighting a war and will suffer losses and make mistakes. Was World War II fought without mistakes and losses? Americans who have nothing to offer but criticism to offer will not ever be satisfied until Bush is gone. Let us see how our next president fights a war with no casualties.

  • Posted By: who says we are free? @ 11/09/2007 3:07:26 PM

    what i can't understand is how so many young men could VOLUNTEER for this insanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they are the ones obeying immoral commands from an immoral, vapid, and disgraceful commander in chief...why don't they refuse ????????????? no soldiers, no war. have a conscience. refuse to participate.

  • Posted By: who says we are free? @ 11/09/2007 3:07:20 PM

    what i can't understand is how so many young men could VOLUNTEER for this insanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they are the ones obeying immoral commands from an immoral, vapid, and disgraceful commander in chief...why don't they refuse ????????????? no soldiers, no war. have a conscience. refuse to participate.

  • Posted By: notaknowitall @ 11/09/2007 10:58:21 AM

    So many smart people on this blog...nothing to do but quarterback on Monday morning after the game on Sunday night. That way they know what everyone on the team should have done, but didn't. I think Bush made some mis-calculations, but who hasn't during a war. That's the problem with this generation...we haven't won a war since WWII, because we don't have the stomach to see it to the end. We expect it to be over in 30 minutes to an hour like a TV show because well truthfully that's our attention span limit.







    with a

    • Posted By: Fatalbert @ 11/09/2007 3:04:31 PM

      What the heck are you talkin' 'bout boy??!! Everyone with even a minimal knowledge of the middle east knows this has been a tribal society for millenia. Why should anyone have beleived that the people would welcome us with open arms when they have never done that to foreigners? You study history before you go to war, when you start one you provide all the necessary equipment and protection (not make excuses like Rummy that you go to war with the equipment you have, ie, unarmored Humvees), you have a plan to fill the void when Saddam is gone, you don't remove all security, and you don't do it with ideologues, you run it with professionals, of whihc none of the Axis of Stupidity (Dubya, Rummy and Chaney qualifies).

    • Posted By: johnqpublic2004 @ 11/09/2007 11:49:29 AM

      Are you kidding me???? We haven't won a war since ww2 because none of the wars we entered into needed to be fought..the American public knew this..give me the reasons why any of the past "wars" we entered into were necessary at all? just one good reason. I'll give you millions of reasons why we didn't need to do a damn thing. We should be concentrating on our own country..the world can, and will police itself. For those of you that think the world cant' survive with out american intervention..wake up..your idiots.

    • Posted By: johnqpublic2004 @ 11/09/2007 11:42:58 AM

      Dude, please, if you voted for em..fine..you didn't do your homework, but don't cover your error with something like that statement..its...disingenuous to those of us that did our homework. For God's sake, turn off Faux News, and join the rest of us in reality. The administration got in way over its head, dragging us, and our loved ones with them. If anyone can truly say at this point, that it was a good idea to invade Iraq...welll, stop drinking the kool-aid

  • Posted By: Wisconsin Condista @ 11/09/2007 8:48:24 AM

    Condi Rice has and is taking the bulk of the critcism on anything that has gone wrong in Iraq, but she does not receive any credit for anything that has gone right. It is very convenient to make her the focal point for all the criticism and serves two purposes: First, it is a way to get at Bush. But second and more importantly, it is a way to discredit Rice and make sure she is not on the 2008 ticket, because that would really hurt Hillary.

    • Posted By: AmericanFirst @ 11/09/2007 3:04:16 PM

      Please, feel free to enlighten us all on what exactly, if anything, she has done right. She has proven herself to be an incompetent (in keeping with the remainder of the bush admin). The only possible threat she could pose to Hillary is that all americans would assume that female leaders would be as incompetent as Condi is - that's the only conceivable threat.

  • Posted By: roasterx @ 11/09/2007 3:01:28 PM

    I'm so tired of people counting only the mistakes and not the successes. Bush has made mistakes, he has also had too many successes to count. Let us bring the positives to light. We are fighting a war and we will suffer losses. Have we forgotten World War II, what would the news have looked like back then had we had the same negative reporting.

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