Wolf D. Fuhrig

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Rice, The Waffling Diplomat

"Ms. Rice acted as if things were going according to plan in Iraq and everywhere else, and the senators acted as if she were not part of the serial disasters of the administration's foreign policy."

This is how the New York Times summarized the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearings preceding her confirmation as the next secretary of state. "With a few exceptions," the Times concluded, "the hearing was political theater."

Anybody who had hoped Rice would admit to at least a few of the crucial mistakes in the President's Middle East policies had to be badly disappointed. Stubbornly she gave as little ground as possible.

In spite of the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, that American troops were not received with open arms, and that the prolonged insurgency came as a big surprise to the administration, Rice insisted that the best advice had been taken and that sufficient troops had been deployed. U.S. policy "was always going to have ups and downs." "I'm sure that we have multiple, many decisions," she hedged, "some of which were good, some of which might not have been good."

When she asserted that the number of trained and reliable Iraqi troops had risen to above 120,000, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden flatly contradicted her. In Biden's own inquiries on the ground in Iraq, officials in charge estimated the total of minimally trained and dependable Iraqi soldiers as no more than 4,000. Ridiculing the administration's vastly inflated data, Biden suggested that Rice "pick up the phone or go see these folks."

California Senator Barbara Boxer was the most outspoken of the critics: "As you made your case, I personally believe that your loyalty to the mission you were given overwhelmed your respect for the truth." Stung by this charge, Rice accused Boxer of impugning her credibility. It was not in her character, she insisted that she could ever lie.

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd queried Rice about the abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison and Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, specifically about forced nudity and simulated drowning as interrogation techniques. Dodd wanted to know "whether or not you consider them to be torture." Rice, however, declined to characterize them. "Senator," she explained, "the determination of whether interrogation techniques are consistent with our international obligations and American law are made by the Justice Department." "I don't want to comment on any specific interrogation techniques."

Tired of her waffling answers, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold reminded her: "It's simply not okay to equivocate on torture."
Senator Biden also bemoaned the fact that despite America's great military might, this country is today more alone in the world than at any time in recent memory. He felt that the rapidity with which the United States squandered the international goodwill gained in the aftermath of 9/11 amounts to one of the government's greatest diplomatic failures of the past half-century.

Neither the thrust nor the tone of Rice's testimony could dispel the fears that the President and his new secretary of state may not venture into new, still riskier military escapades beyond Iraq, possibly into Iran and Syria. Rice still seemed unable or unwilling to understand that the longer American and Israeli troops occupy Muslim lands, the more difficult it becomes to reduce Muslim hostility and the spread of terrorism.

When asked about the need to reopen the dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, she avoided specifics and deflected a question as to whether there should be a new American Middle East envoy. She claimed the time had not yet come for that decision.

Speaking for his Illinois constituents, Senator Barack Obama urged Rice to listen to the people and give dissenting views the hearing to which they are entitled. Obama is right. Thoughtful listening to America's numerous experts on the Middle East is the least we ought to expect of an administration that wants to teach democracy to the rest of the world.