Posted on 08/11/2006 12:53:44 PM PDT by 2dogjoe
Rice is in way over her head Friday, August 11, 2006
By HELEN THOMAS HEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has flunked her first foreign policy crisis in the Middle East.
She went to the turbulent region last month in the early days of the war that began when Hezbollah forces in Lebanon crossed into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
Rice had orders from President Bush to oppose any immediate cease-fire, which was hardly the proper policy by the United States if it wanted to end the suffering among Israelis and Lebanese.
Rice apparently was dispatched to the Middle East to pass on to Israel the message that it has the green light from the White House to do whatever it wanted and could take more time to clobber the rocket-firing Hezbollah forces in Lebanon despite Lebanese and international pleas for a truce.
Israel has taken that message to heart, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seems bent on proving that he can be as tough as his predecessors.
During her trip, Rice was snubbed by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who told her she was not welcome in Beirut if the U.S. did not support an immediate cessation of hostilities.
She was later blindsided in her personal visit with Olmert and other Israeli officials. During the meeting, the Israelis failed to alert Rice of their bombing massacre that day of Lebanese civilians in the village of Qana. The attack evoked worldwide indignation.
Rice was notified of the attack later by e-mail from a State Department staffer. After learning the news of Qana, Rice appeared shaken and stressed out. Perhaps the human dimension of a threadbare foreign policy finally hit home.
Rice is out of her league and seems to have little knowledge about the Middle East. Rice's expertise was always on the now-defunct Soviet Union and the Cold War.
Nor does she seek the advice of her former boss, Brent Scowcroft, who served as President George H. W. Bush's national security adviser. Scowcroft is a pro in Middle East diplomacy.
Her style is to lecture the leaders of sovereign countries in the Middle East as though they were school boys. When asked why the U.S. won't talk to the Syrians who she blames for sponsoring Hezbollah, she said: "Syrians have known for a long time what they need to do."
Insiders claim that after her return from her Middle Eastern swing, Rice began pushing for a quick cease-fire but that Bush refused -- apparently to accommodate the wishes of the Israeli leaders who wanted more time to rough up Hezbollah.
Former President Jimmy Carter has been critical of the Bush-Rice policies, which he said have fostered violence in the Middle East and "encourage the continuation of attacks on both sides."
Rice says she is working for a lasting and sustainable peace, but I'm sure the people in the war zone would be happy if the U.S. would just take steps now to stop the guns of August.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom recently zeroed in on a fundamental truth about the Hezbollah-Israel war when he said U.S. policies in Iraq "opened the door for Iran and Syria to support Hezbollah." The U.S. presence in Iraq has had a "radicalizing impact" in the region, Odom recently wrote.
It will be a long time before the U.S. regains the great respect and reverence it once enjoyed among the peoples of the Middle East before Bush's aggressive policies took hold, starting with his unprovoked invasion of Iraq.
The Iraq war -- which Rice helped to pump up when she was Bush's national security adviser -- is one of her foreign policy failures. The failure of the U.S. to take steps to halt the current Israel-Hezbollah war is merely another sign that she's in over her head.
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Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com. Copyright 2006 Hearst Newspapers.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Helen Thomas is not fit to lick the shoe soles of Condi Rice, and she's been in over her head as a White House reporter for approximately 75 years.
Helen who?
You are correct! Most humble apologies to all, except to Helen.
Thank God you posted that.
The perverts are posting Helen Thomas pictures again.
They must be perverts, who else would want to look at a Helen Thomas picture?
For "Helen the Troll", nearly everything is over her head.
Hezzy Hell?
That's right, Hellen, you old hag. Condi is just a poor little colored gal who has not learnd her place. /sarc.
And Thomas' style is to lecture the leader of OUR sovereign country like he is a school boy.
How would Helen Thomas know anything about head? There is more in the one she sits on than the one that sits on the top of her shoulders.
But no sure definition of "over her head" was made in this piece. The Israelis and the Lebonese are going to suffer for as long as Hezbollah thinks they can practice drive-by hit-and-run target practice on Israeli cities.
Has the world forgotten the Holocaust that burned across Europe nearly seven decades ago, taking some 12 million people in its wake, 6 million of them Jewish citizens once in good standing in the land where they were born? And this pales in comparison with the countless Russian Jews taken by the purge of some 20 million individuals who perished under the benevolent guidance of good old Uncle Joe Stalin.
No, Helen, Dr. Condoleezza Rice is doing a most excellent job of keeping the opposition off balance, and using her talent to navigate a sure course through some pretty tricky waters. Whatever had been attempted throughout the past sixty years or so in the Middle East never seemed to accomplish much of lasting nature, so it may have been time for different strategy.
This has been patch-and-hope for WAY too long, and every time it fails, the Islamic fascists see the failure as THEIR victory.
Some day the world will run out of petroleum, and when that time comes, the Islamic fascists that have depended on oil revenues to fund their dreams of establishing a world-wide caliphate shall be left to hang out and dry.
There is a two-pronged approach going on here - one to defang the Islamic fascists, and a second to soften the impact of other purely technical reasons why the current situation cannot continue indefinitely.
There are signs that the more astute Middle East heads of government have taken some of Dr. Rice's recommendations to heart, and they are diversifying their position as regards their dependence on the extraction and export of petroleum.
America does not have a military presence in the Middle East only to assure our SUV's have plenty of fuel, but to assure the WHOLE WORLD has access on a fairly equal basis to the petroleum resources on the short term.
On the long term, the remaking of the face of the Middle East has to be of the greatest importance of all, in assuring the continued reciprocity of equitable exchanges with a continuing basis for conflict resolution, WITHOUT resorting to inflamed rhetoric first.
easy now...
I read the same from many Freepers. They're wrong too.
"In before Helen Thomas photo"? LOL.
Rice is in way over her head
Don't you wish you had one Helen.
2 words for hellllllllen. SHUT UP!
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