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How about when we installed and supported Saddam to stabilize Iraq. Supporting a minority dictator to keep Shiites out of power. We pursued stability at the expense of democracy since they struck oil over there. Her admission was not hypocritical, it was truthful. Even the presidents father, a president I voted for, and respected greatly, stopped short of toppling Saddam....in the interests of stability.
Aftermath of desert storm showed us that dictatorships only bring quiet, never stability. 911 showed us that our "friends" over there were really only using us to maintain power, while they worked with radical islam to destroy us. We are now reaping what our policies have sown. That is not a blame America statement, it is an honest assessment of why we are now moving in a more honorable, and productive path. It also is an "in your face" expression that any ruler, dictator, sheik, shah, or mullah is not our friend, and will be looked at as impediments to democracy and freedom. Now if that sounds too pure, off-putting, and irritating, so be it. Welcome to the new world, post 911. It has also been pointed out that Ms. rice's most controversial part of her speech was the opening...."Ladies and Gentlemen" again morally superior, off-putting, and pretty damn irritating to a bunch of harem holding Muslims.

We are now reaping what our policies have sown.

No, we are now reaping what abandoning our policies have sown. Petty dictators, kept on a sufficiently short leash, are infinitely preferable to elected governments like the mullocracy in Iran. Or France, for that matter.

"How about when we installed and supported Saddam to stabilize Iraq"

Blame America First! Saddam gained power between 1968 and 1979, during those years Iraq and the US did not even have diplomatic relations. Do you also claim that we armed Iraq? What weapons did we arm him with? MiG-29's, T-72's, AK-47's?

"Supporting a minority dictator to keep Shiites out of power"

Hmmm, Shi'ites in Iran give us Khomeini, in Lebanon they gave us Hezbollah. I wonder why Reagan did not wish for a trifecta with Iraq? Al Sadr perhaps?

It seems to me that with Saddam the Iraqi people had the government they deserved.