Posted on 02/26/2007 6:44:54 PM PST by Sen Jack S. Fogbound
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Perle: Bush Failed by his Own People
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Monday, Feb. 26, 2007
Richard Perle tells NewsMax that key members of the Bush administration have failed the president – and Perle names names.
In a wide-ranging interview, the former assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan and chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2003 under President Bush calls former Secretary of State Colin Powell a "disaster" and says current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "was in way over her head from the beginning."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
She deserves it, and then some. She should have been fired with Tenet after 9/11. Not promoted.
I hope she can go back to Stanford, where an academic like her belongs.
You sure you're not thinking of Richard Clarke?
Yes, maybe I was unfair to Condi. Her worst failing has been to put pressure on Israel to negotiate, but maybe that was just what Sharon in his senility and his despicable successor Olmert asked her to do.
It's pretty hard for her to stand up for Israel when the Israeli government refuses to stand up for Israel.
Thank you, you nailed it. While nominally treating Israel as equal party to negotiations, she didn't call for any specific concessions and she's been putting the pressure on "Palestinian government" and is getting Arab states to join in that. She has a method of "politely ignoring" their occasional noisemaking antics and she raised this into an art form. She is a better friend to Israel than many in Israel's own government (at least current one).
BTW, I noticed that in the article there are really no facts or reasons given by Perle for this "conclusion" about Condi - that was just one statement in the entire interview, without apparently having to justify taking a gratuitous shot at her.
Given severe constraints of what can be said and done at State, I think she's done a phenomenal job so far, without pushing herself or trying to be in the spotlight
Here's a taste of her philosophy, knowledge of history and long-term thinking from September 30, 2005 in front of originally less than warm and fuzzy audience in Princeton, which I saw on C-SPAN :
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/54176.htm
(there is also a link to video)
I'd also recommend seeing a 2003 made-for-TV movie "DC 9/11: The Time of Crisis" and role of different people (Condi, Powell, Tenet, Rummy...) in decision-making right after 9/11. It's as close to real documentary as you can find.
Bless you for posting this.
Not only are Powell and Rice incompetent, but counterproductive.
When Rumsfeld left, Rice should've gone too.
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