[Orion]

Sure and they got was appropriate.

Was it appropriate for the President of the mightiest nation in history to grovel and have terms dictated by a thrid-rate basket-case power? You would have thought Clinton was still president.

[The Westerner]

It was that very incident that made me queasy on Condi. In an interview she gave shortly thereafter, she smiled and almost giggled as though she had made a triumph of it.

Packing the pieces of the plane in boxes, sending a bill for the mess (which was paid if not in full) and keeping Americans hostage were acts of thuggery. I don't see how Bush and Co. came across as strong throughout that debacle. Certainly not Condolezza Rice. She is a compromiser, whatever postures she takes for Chinese dictators or Palestinian terrorists.