I realized as I read this (although I plan to give the whole thing a listen too) that I felt like HERE was an adult in the room. Secretary Rice is a qualified, educated, experienced, measured, intelligent, cultured American. No wonder you are no longer in politics, Madam Secretary. I am now bereft having finished reading the interview and returned to real life. It was a pleasure however brief to feel like someone out there knows what she is doing.
Rice had, simultaneously, the privilege of serving her country in two of its highest positions, and the misfortune of working for a flawed administration. But hers is a towering intellect, a well-balanced world view, and a calm, deliberative nature. Listen to this woman!
I've read responses here that reject Ms. Rice as worth listening to because they lump her in with all the faults - real or imagined - of the Bush administration. This calls to mind the T. Roosevelt 'Man in the Arena' speech (in Paris, 1910). I have a copy of the part that speaks to me hanging on my wall. I include it here to save anyone interested the trouble of looking it up. It is important to read and absorb which I do with some regularity.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I found Ms. Rice here to be a bit overly defensive in speaking of the overreach of the Bush administration relative to domestic civil rights post-9/11, and namby-pamby in speaking of Stanford's delayed and weak public response to 10/7. Nonetheless, that she is a woman of strong intellect, immense experience, and calm presentation of her perspectives is undeniable, and therefore is well worth listening to.
My wish, that Trump would have a Road to Damascus moment and realize that his best service to the country at this time would be to step aside, that DeSantis would bring Rice in as his VP, and that the country would turn its back on the destructive course that the current administration has put us on. (No, I know. But a girl can have her dreams.)
"If you really think it was a better Afghanistan when women were beaten in stadiums, given to the Taliban by the UN, when girls and women couldn’t go to school, well be my guest."
Ms. Rice seems to have forgotten that Afghanistan is as horrible a place for women today as it was in 2001. We accomplished NOTHING in our occupation there except giving the Taliban a bunch of high-quality weaponry they didn't have before. The reality is that most of the Afghan people are willing to be ruled by the Taliban.
If Israel is as restrained as we were in Afghanistan, they cannot expect any different outcome than we got.
I am Jewish and support Israel, but I am sorry Bari, getting Condoleezza Rice or any one else from Bush Jr administration is not helping to build trust for anything.
Bush administration has lied us into Iraq war, we have wasted trillions of $$$, 1000s of Americans died and over 1 million of Iraqis, all based on a lie. By destroying Iraq we have, destroyed Iran's biggest regional enemy.
We shouldn't under any case rehabilitate Condoleezza Rice or anyone who supported war in Iraq.
Some people judge national leaders like former Secretary Rice based on what they are doing and saying advising today. We like what she is saying, what she believes and what she thinks about Hamas, Putin and Xi.
Some people judge Rice based on partisan biases and jealousy.
Some people don't like Rice because she's a woman, a black and an academic who proved she had and has what it takes to be a successful national leader and Secretary of State.
Honest and fair people credit Rice for her accomplishments recognizing that presidents, not members of presidential cabinets make final decisions.
President George W. Bush was right to go into Iraq based on the information and opinions he heard from intelligence agencies from around the world.
The problem was that on the advice of Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, W. refused to do what had to be done to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan quickly. W. let the wars run long enough to build domestic opposition to those wars, which were ultimately lost by Obama and Biden.
After the horrible Hamas terror attack on Israelis last Saturday, many people support Israel’s right to defend itself in its aggression against Gaza and other terrorist groups or states that attack Israel. But the same people don’t want Israel to go too far, especially the American President and the MSM. They worry about public opinion and the Western world’s reputation as the “good guys.”
I was shocked by what Hamas did; it was pure evil, precisely what Iran and Hamas wanted to create. The Biden Administration will work behind the scenes to restrain Israeli military actions, as if restraint will change the goal of Iran and its terrorist groups and lead to peace in the region. Artciles are starting to appear in the MSM that applaud our leaders as the good guys working for peace.
Iran and its regional terror groups have clearly stated for decades that their goal is to kill all Jews and destroy Israel and America. Maybe it’s time to believe them and stop thinking we can appease them into becoming a normal state that wants peace and prosperity with its neighbors.
Please listen to the interview before criticizing Secretary Rice. Evil will always be with us. The poor will always be with us. We can only do our best, and that is our duty as individuals and as a nation. America is real. Russia, China and Iran are ascendant yet we, bathed in the luxury of innumerable mental illnesses, and identity politics are cowering obsessed with our genders and our genitals. I assure you when tigers roam the streets no one will need Prozac. Hands and minds out of our pants America the world is upon us. We are called upon.
Oh heck no. While I have no problem with Dr. Rice doing her thing inside the academy, I want no part of the spin she's selling here.
No more "axis of evil" entangling nonsense leading to forever wars with zero idea of what success looks like and zero planning for an exit strategy.
We can be allies and we should. But this is the same type of discourse that brought us into two Gulf wars and over twenty years of war.
When Milley can't - or won't - say that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were "worth it," how can anyone advocate the type of slippery slope discourse seen here or by idiots like Lindsey Graham and his "holy war."
No, ma'am, the "axis of evil" rhetoric and your role in claiming Iraq had WMDs (when they didn't and you knew it and making the argument that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein to justify your sleight of hand) to draw us into a prolonged, unnecessary, and mission-distracting (from Afghanistan) conflict were on your watch, along with some other unsavories (e.g., use of torture).
Together, this is a hard no for me and U.S. support for Israel and opposition to Hamas will be absolutely muddied if these swamp creatures are invited out of whatever rocks they've crawled under in the past few years.
We need fresh perspectives, across the political spectrum, not failed policy makers and enablers who repeatedly put us into losing positions based on poor judgement and questionable motives.
Please don't pretend that Rice is a credible voice. She served as an extremist in the George W. Bush administration and her first response is always to take us to war. Remember the incredibly destructive "one percent doctrine" that she and Cheney cooked up to create their war on terror. Saying an attack on Israel is an attack on the United States is worse than irresponsible. It is potentially catastrophic.
I realized as I read this (although I plan to give the whole thing a listen too) that I felt like HERE was an adult in the room. Secretary Rice is a qualified, educated, experienced, measured, intelligent, cultured American. No wonder you are no longer in politics, Madam Secretary. I am now bereft having finished reading the interview and returned to real life. It was a pleasure however brief to feel like someone out there knows what she is doing.
Rice had, simultaneously, the privilege of serving her country in two of its highest positions, and the misfortune of working for a flawed administration. But hers is a towering intellect, a well-balanced world view, and a calm, deliberative nature. Listen to this woman!
I've read responses here that reject Ms. Rice as worth listening to because they lump her in with all the faults - real or imagined - of the Bush administration. This calls to mind the T. Roosevelt 'Man in the Arena' speech (in Paris, 1910). I have a copy of the part that speaks to me hanging on my wall. I include it here to save anyone interested the trouble of looking it up. It is important to read and absorb which I do with some regularity.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I found Ms. Rice here to be a bit overly defensive in speaking of the overreach of the Bush administration relative to domestic civil rights post-9/11, and namby-pamby in speaking of Stanford's delayed and weak public response to 10/7. Nonetheless, that she is a woman of strong intellect, immense experience, and calm presentation of her perspectives is undeniable, and therefore is well worth listening to.
My wish, that Trump would have a Road to Damascus moment and realize that his best service to the country at this time would be to step aside, that DeSantis would bring Rice in as his VP, and that the country would turn its back on the destructive course that the current administration has put us on. (No, I know. But a girl can have her dreams.)
I miss Secretary Rice. I don’t always agree with her, but I trust her intelligence, competence, and willingness to do the right thing.
"If you really think it was a better Afghanistan when women were beaten in stadiums, given to the Taliban by the UN, when girls and women couldn’t go to school, well be my guest."
Ms. Rice seems to have forgotten that Afghanistan is as horrible a place for women today as it was in 2001. We accomplished NOTHING in our occupation there except giving the Taliban a bunch of high-quality weaponry they didn't have before. The reality is that most of the Afghan people are willing to be ruled by the Taliban.
If Israel is as restrained as we were in Afghanistan, they cannot expect any different outcome than we got.
It's a shame she isn'r running for President in 2024
"Universities are complex organisms." Was the beginning of losing interest. With the Atlantic article, not a good day for The Free Press.
I am Jewish and support Israel, but I am sorry Bari, getting Condoleezza Rice or any one else from Bush Jr administration is not helping to build trust for anything.
Bush administration has lied us into Iraq war, we have wasted trillions of $$$, 1000s of Americans died and over 1 million of Iraqis, all based on a lie. By destroying Iraq we have, destroyed Iran's biggest regional enemy.
We shouldn't under any case rehabilitate Condoleezza Rice or anyone who supported war in Iraq.
Some people judge national leaders like former Secretary Rice based on what they are doing and saying advising today. We like what she is saying, what she believes and what she thinks about Hamas, Putin and Xi.
Some people judge Rice based on partisan biases and jealousy.
Some people don't like Rice because she's a woman, a black and an academic who proved she had and has what it takes to be a successful national leader and Secretary of State.
Honest and fair people credit Rice for her accomplishments recognizing that presidents, not members of presidential cabinets make final decisions.
President George W. Bush was right to go into Iraq based on the information and opinions he heard from intelligence agencies from around the world.
The problem was that on the advice of Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, W. refused to do what had to be done to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan quickly. W. let the wars run long enough to build domestic opposition to those wars, which were ultimately lost by Obama and Biden.
After the horrible Hamas terror attack on Israelis last Saturday, many people support Israel’s right to defend itself in its aggression against Gaza and other terrorist groups or states that attack Israel. But the same people don’t want Israel to go too far, especially the American President and the MSM. They worry about public opinion and the Western world’s reputation as the “good guys.”
I was shocked by what Hamas did; it was pure evil, precisely what Iran and Hamas wanted to create. The Biden Administration will work behind the scenes to restrain Israeli military actions, as if restraint will change the goal of Iran and its terrorist groups and lead to peace in the region. Artciles are starting to appear in the MSM that applaud our leaders as the good guys working for peace.
Iran and its regional terror groups have clearly stated for decades that their goal is to kill all Jews and destroy Israel and America. Maybe it’s time to believe them and stop thinking we can appease them into becoming a normal state that wants peace and prosperity with its neighbors.
Please listen to the interview before criticizing Secretary Rice. Evil will always be with us. The poor will always be with us. We can only do our best, and that is our duty as individuals and as a nation. America is real. Russia, China and Iran are ascendant yet we, bathed in the luxury of innumerable mental illnesses, and identity politics are cowering obsessed with our genders and our genitals. I assure you when tigers roam the streets no one will need Prozac. Hands and minds out of our pants America the world is upon us. We are called upon.
A stark contrast to the knowledge base of that vast majority of those now in control.
No, an attack on Israel is not an attack on the US. The US should not get directly in involved in any way.
Let Israel do what it needs to do against Hamas, but this is their fight.
Oh heck no. While I have no problem with Dr. Rice doing her thing inside the academy, I want no part of the spin she's selling here.
No more "axis of evil" entangling nonsense leading to forever wars with zero idea of what success looks like and zero planning for an exit strategy.
We can be allies and we should. But this is the same type of discourse that brought us into two Gulf wars and over twenty years of war.
When Milley can't - or won't - say that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were "worth it," how can anyone advocate the type of slippery slope discourse seen here or by idiots like Lindsey Graham and his "holy war."
No, ma'am, the "axis of evil" rhetoric and your role in claiming Iraq had WMDs (when they didn't and you knew it and making the argument that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein to justify your sleight of hand) to draw us into a prolonged, unnecessary, and mission-distracting (from Afghanistan) conflict were on your watch, along with some other unsavories (e.g., use of torture).
Together, this is a hard no for me and U.S. support for Israel and opposition to Hamas will be absolutely muddied if these swamp creatures are invited out of whatever rocks they've crawled under in the past few years.
We need fresh perspectives, across the political spectrum, not failed policy makers and enablers who repeatedly put us into losing positions based on poor judgement and questionable motives.
Please don't pretend that Rice is a credible voice. She served as an extremist in the George W. Bush administration and her first response is always to take us to war. Remember the incredibly destructive "one percent doctrine" that she and Cheney cooked up to create their war on terror. Saying an attack on Israel is an attack on the United States is worse than irresponsible. It is potentially catastrophic.
She's wrong about virtually everything she ever said or did. She is still wrong.