Posted on 05/14/2004 8:30:52 PM PDT by blam
Rice turns on the charm to keep US allies loyal
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 15/05/2004)
Condoleezza Rice, America's national security adviser, is appealing to Washington's allies not to panic over Iraq.
She said the prisoner abuse scandal was being dealt with and that there was no alternative to backing America in its war against terrorism.
Speaking ahead of her trip to Europe to bolster support for America's plans for Iraq's transition to self-rule, she said the scandal had been "a real shock, I think, to all of us to the American people, to members of the armed forces".
But she said the perpetrators did not reflect the behaviour of the armed forces and would be punished after an investigation.
She also urged America's allies not to follow Spain's decision to withdraw its troops from Iraq, saying that would not immunise them from terrorist attacks.
"They [al-Qa'eda] are not attacking countries because they are participating in Iraq, they're attacking countries because they intend to take down the civilised free world and impose their own political views on the world."
She was speaking to The Telegraph and other European newspapers as part of a concerted public relations drive by the White House to repair America's image after the prisoner abuse scandal.
In the next week it is expected to lay out more details of its plans for the handover of sovereignty on June 30.
With opinion polls showing President George W Bush's approval ratings at a new low of 46 per cent, Donald Rumsfeld, his secretary of defence, has faced heated calls from Democrats and some Republicans to resign over the scandal.
But the White House is standing by him, arguing that it would be a mistake to lose him in the middle of a war and calculating that it would be a sign of weakness to the electorate ahead of November's election.
Miss Rice said: "He has taken this country through two wars. He is respected by his colleagues and supported now by his colleagues, by me and by others. Most especially, he has the confidence of the president."
As an accomplished figure-skater and concert pianist Miss Rice has long been known for her poise and self-control.
Even as Mr Rumsfeld endured a second grilling by Congress, only the pneumatic drills of the workmen outside the White House could put her off her stride. "Well, nothing is business as usual after the photographs that we all saw," she said. "Someone asked me the other day, how do you get to the place that you're not having to talk about this anymore?
"I said, 'We're going to be talking about it. Let's not deceive ourselves that this is a story that can, sort of, go away. We have to talk about it.' "
But, she went on - as ever, careful to avoid leaving misunderstandings - that the abuses were not emblematic of the military and that, by punishing the guilty, America would show how a true democracy behaves.
All week, Washington has hummed with speculation that the administration is in turmoil. Senior conservative columnists, the traditional flag-wavers of Republican values, have broken ranks.
Rumblings have even been heard from within the Pentagon about Mr Rumsfeld's apparent determination to weather the storm.
But after a flurry of divisive leaks, the White House is putting on a united front. Buoyed by the support of Republicans in Congress, it is projecting an image of concern but control, and dispatching its star performers to shore up its allies. Few are as on message as Mr Bush's close confidante, Miss Rice.
Peppered with questions over why Europe should support America in Iraq, she drew on her own upbringing in the racially-divided Deep South.
"I say this to American audiences all the time. When the founding fathers said, 'We the People', they didn't mean me. This country went through almost 200 years before we finally made multi-ethnic democracy work.
"What if we had given up, people like me, who came from segregated Birmingham [Alabama], supposedly had given up on the promise of American democracy?
"When the Iraqis were writing their transitional administrative law, I heard people say, 'but they made compromises about this or that'. Not a single compromise that the Iraqi people have made is as bad as the compromise that was made in 1789 that made my ancestors three-fifths of a man and solidified slavery."
Miss Rice, speaking in the Executive Office Building, the White House annex, was adamant that there was no alternative to supporting America in Iraq. She said: "The implication that some have drawn is that if you just withdraw from Iraq, you won't be subject to attacks.
"These are not people with whom one can negotiate or whom you can appease."
Make that religious views Condi.
As if only by her charming personality this alliance is held together.
Condi '08
What a lady!
WE'RE NOT WORTHY! WE'RE NOT WORTHY! (I've always wanted to get a group of fellow admirers of Condi to join with me in that Wayne's World chant while bowing appropriately. She, of all women, deserves the worship...she's an absolute goddess.)
Not among African Americans. She is dismissed as an Aunt Jemima by most of them, just as Colin Powell is just another Uncle Tom. Remember, although the aforementioed pair are the highest ranking blacks ever in any administration, they don't count because they are serving a Republican president. This is true even though neither is particularly conservative.
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