The best conclusion I can draw from the Iraq Study Group is that Condoleeza Rice should resign. She is no more than a syncophant and cheerleader to the cheerleader-in-chief. Democrats in the House and
Senate should use threat of impeachment as leverage to demand her
resignation. Since Rumsfeld resigned there is no other senior cabinet level appointee who is so closely associated with the failed imperialist foreign policy of Iraq than Rice. Rice blew it before 9/11 and she blew it again in the post-blitzkreig phase when she didn't stand up to Rumsfeld and back Powell. She blew it again as Secretary of State after the Iraqi leadership played her for fool. She is weak, and she is compromised. Yes, it is time to forget about being politically correct: Condi must go!
Jim Baker's much ballyhooed Iraq Study Group says we need to concentrate on training the Iraqi military and police before getting the hell out of there. Yes the Iraq invasion and occupation have been a colossal mistake, but do we really need Jim Baker to tell us this? Isn't this what General Abizaid and before him Sec. of State Powell and Gen. Shinsaki have been telling us all along? Any administration that gets rid of a Powell only to keep a Rumsfeld has got to be suspect, but to put any faith in the idea that the Bush Administration will seriously implement any of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group is an insult to all intelligence. What Democrats need to do is to demand the resignation of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. This is the only logical response to the findings of Baker et al.: Yes Condi must go! And if she does there is hope that Bush will appoint someone with a little credibility in the Middle East. Like maybe Jimmy Carter can save us from WWIII breaking out when the Shiites and Kurds finish slaughtering Sunnis outright and the entire region blow up.
Condoleeza Rice, as it turns out is what many on the left have been calling her, and even those of us who have kept our mouths shut for the sake of political correctness have to face facts. Dr. Rice is a sellout! A brilliant sellout perhaps, but clearly she has been ineffectual both as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. She has played the game of being the loyalist and staunch defender of the POTUS, but let's look at her real performance.
Did she grandstand and point the finger after 9/11 or did she take responsibility for ignoring credible intel that Osama bin Laden planned to attack the USA? Did she inflate the claims that Saddam Hussein had or would soon get nuclear weapons or did she carefully heed the skepticism of Joe Wilson and others over the yellow cake uranium fraud? Did she go with the flow and let Donald Rumsfeld and Jerry Bremer push de-Baathification to extremes leading to the disintegration of all social and military organization in Iraq or did she stand up insert herself between the POTUS and Defense to moderate the reckless aftermath of "Mission Accomplished." Did she let it be known to the Shiite clerics that insurgencies would not be tolerated and would be totally and mercilessly crushed or did she let let the likes of Moqtada al-Sadr and Jawad Al Maliki make a fool of her and of the entire US occupation? Finally did she prance around kissing up to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as they good-ole-boyed their way into this mess, or did she ask the tough questions? I think the answers are clear, and Condoleeza Rice must go.