Russian Crisis Reveals Condi Rice as Worst Secretary of State Ever

Condi Rice might have had an oil tanker named after her by Chevron but she was a terrible National Security Advisor and is even worse as Secretary of State. As President George W. Bush's foreign policy tutor she botched all the warnings leading up to the September 11th attacks. She lied to the American people about "smoking guns" and "mushroom clouds," and she lied to Congress about the administration's goals and motives for the Iraq war. She should never have been confirmed as Secretary of State but the Bidens and the Clintons and the Lugars of the Senate voted for her despite her many failings and basic intellectual dishonesty.

But the worst was yet to come.

As Secretary of State, Condi Rice never really employed what we might call "diplomacy" toward Russia. She is supposed to be an "expert" on Russia. But her Cold War mentality and extreme hawkishness was really what allowed her to rise through the ranks within the U.S. foreign policy establishment in the first place. When Reaganites were calling for more nuclear missiles aimed at the Soviet Union, Condi wanted even more overkill; when the hawks called for arming "freedom fighters" in Central America to stave off "Soviet expansionism," Condi wanted to commit even more American resources and military personnel to the cause. Whatever the Right wanted during the Cold War, Condi wanted more. She caught the attention of the Republican hawks and the rest is history.

But as Secretary of State all she did vis-à-vis the Russians was needlessly antagonize them. The entire Bush policy toward Russia can be summed up in two words: "NATO Expansion." Condi pushed hard for the Czech "missile defense" system, and for the breakaway independence of Kosovo, initiatives that make little sense unless viewed through an outmoded Cold War prism. Calling for expanding NATO into Ukraine and Georgia was unnecessarily provocative.

Now, with the Russian military action in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, all the United States can do is make hollow threats. Unless George Bush and John McCain want to initiate a military draft in this country they should put to rest their blustering and posturing toward their old Cold War enemy.

The United States cannot do anything. Especially after eight years of Bush's repeated and routine violations of international law. Bush recently lectured the Chinese on "human rights" when he tortures prisoners and holds people without due process (and executed 152 people in Texas). Now we hear him tongue-wag Vladimir Putin for his incursion into Georgia. This belated moral rectitude regarding the sanctity of international borders comes from the Conqueror of Baghdad who lied to the world via the United Nations, invaded a nation of 27 million far from any U.S. border, and continues an illegal military occupation.

Those of us who opposed the Iraq war before it was launched argued that violating international law would undermine future efforts by the United States to hold other powers accountable for similarly lawless behavior. Well, here we are.

Comments

[GHENT007]

sure could use colin powell right now huh!!!

[Harod]

This article is pretty damning toward Hawks but in thier defense Hawks like Reagan that brought the Iron Curtain down to begin with. And when everyone was watching Russian soldiers pan handing in Moscow Hawks noticed the Russians were upgrading thier nuclear missile systems. Hawks noticed the Russians were building a bunker in the Urals and wondered why. When Putin came to power we noticed he was former KGB and that struck Hawks as odd..

Putin and Bush became freinds but good fences make good nieghbors and Bush thinking ahead of the game deployed the 1st missile defence shield. But now the Europeans who are more advanced than us are thinking the US is "tied down" and see a chance to butcher each other all over again. So we are starting to notice there is something going wrong in Russia so im glad we have a hawkish Condi, expert on the former Soviet Union maybe she can shed some lite on the new Soviet Union. So if the Russians done back down remember the age old question "Better dead than Red, Red than dead?" something like that..

[realpolitic]

The missile defense shield is a joke that wastes billions. It can not even hit a slow moving missile that it has the exact coordinates and trajectory of.

[Nooneyouknow]

Actually, the Soviets brought the Iron Curtain down. The Soviet economy was collapsing due to its massive incompetence and imbalance towards military spending (sound familiar?). Gorbachev's few reforms in the direction of openness were enough to collapse the inertia and rigidity that was holding up the whole fragile edifice. The Solidarity movement in Poland went much farther to collapsing the SU than anything Reagan ever did; Reagan happened to be in power when the wall came down. For rightwingers, this means Reagan destroyed the Soviet Union.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, I just caught Freddy Kagan at AEI on CSPAN lamenting the fact that Russia "violated international law." This from a Iraq invasion booster neo-con.

[realpolitic]

Ambassador Khalilzaid hilariously said: “The days of overthrowing leaders by military means in Europe — those days are gone.” ... Fortunately, he remembered to add "in Europe" to his statement. Bush policies of torture and dismantling civil liberties makes it difficult for us to take the moral highground with anyone anymore.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Condi botched US-Russian relations. James Traub I caught on NPR, terrible "analysis," he said that advanced industrialized countries just don't invade their neighbors anymore -- by implying neighbors is the standard against invasions, Traub gives the US a green light in Iraq, which he supported. Just as The Daily Show had last night Kalilhizad saying "in Europe" these kinds of actions are illegal, again, letting the US off the hook on Iraq -- but the United Nations Charter is clear that what the US did in Iraq was/is just as "illegal" as what Russia is doing now. The only difference is that Russia has a legitimate security issue it can raise since it shares a border with Georgia -- it's like Reagan's actions in Central America, except, again, no border to defend. Bottom line, the US has not a leg to stand on -- the world just laughs when Condi and Bush and McCain try to posture about how "outraged" they are about Russia using the same tactics they used in Iraq -- only Russia didn't lie to the UN to get it done. Like I said in my post: If Bush and McCain want to "deter" Russia they better get Congress to pass a military draft in this country.

[realpolitic]

Yes, saying that industrial countries do not invade one another (I guess that gives the green light to invade the rare agrarian country) is much the same as saying democracies do not invade one another as former Russian dissident Anton Sharansky said in his book The Case For Democracy. Bush said the book provided a glimpse of how he thought about foreign policy, in the rare moments the president gives the subject any thought at all. Supposedly the tome provided some simplistic views that democracies do not fight wars and provided an easy narrative to remember so Bush bought the premise hook, line , and sinker. It influenced his thinking to invade Iraq. If only Bush occasionally read more than one book.

[Harod]

I love Condi she is a sweetheart but you compare Georgia to Iraq and i feel there is no comparison. UN resolution 1441 well documents Iraq was in violation of the cease fire agreement. I think we all agree Iraq had to be expelled from Kuwait and Bush Sr left Saddam in place by his good graces and that cease fire agreement. And the UN was so corrupt with oil for food money became compromised and thier decision making capabilties broke down. Fortunatly presidents decide if we use military force not the UN so today we have one less mad man to worry about.

On the other hand I fear the Russians are trying to rebuild the Iron Curtain with the same excuses the Soviets used to invade Afghanistan and cease fire agreements are just a diplomatic ploy...

[realpolitic]

Actually, Congress is susposed to decide when we use military force. It is a small thing called the constitution.

When you speak of diplimatic ploys- do you mean of the same kind the Bush administration used to doctor the intelligence to get us into Iraq?

[Nooneyouknow]

Well, I guess you could consider Condi a sweetheart if you ignore her shoeshopping while New Orleans was drowning. Or her lying before Congress and the American people about the WMDs that Saddam no longer had.
Iraq had to be expelled from Kuwait after Bush Sr. gave Saddam a de facto go-ahead to invade; remember poor April Glaspie, another fall guy for the Bush family? Bush Sr. wasn't willing to invade Iraq because he knew it would become another Vietnam; instead, he urged Shiites in Iraq to rebel. Sadly, when they did, he let them be massacred by Saddam. Maybe he was just thinking ahead to another invasion down the road, and he wanted to get rid of future military opponents.
But I'll agree with you that the UN's decision-making was flawed when they gave an okay to Bushco's invasion plan.
And technically, Congress decides when the U.S. goes to war, not the president. But Congress surrendered that responsibility to Bush when he promised that Saddam had WMDs.
Finally, your analogy to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan would be okay if Afghanistan had attacked the Soviet Union first, as Georgia attacked Russian troops in South Ossetia. But Afghanistan didn't attack the Soviet Union, while Georgia, the U.S.'s ally and proxy in the region, began this war with an unprovoked attack.
What's your point again?

[kjdwyer]

Dead-on analysis.

Yesterday, Harry Shearer wrote about Putin's agression in Georgia, referring to the first meeting between Bush and Putin and how everyone wanted to know what Bush thought of Putin. I commented that no one bothered to ask what Putin thought of Bush. I imagine that he took stock of Bush and his famous "team" (including Rice) very quickly and realized he was dealing with some seriously deficient mediocrities.

I'm sure Putin recognized that the extreme military over-extension by the U.S., in conjunction with this administration's lack of foreign policy acumen, could provide him with a golden opportunity to take advantage of an incredibly weak position in which Bush could ultimately leave the U.S.

And, as you rightly say, "here we are."

Republicans have engaged in demonizing the "Intellectual Elite" for going on 30 years now. In addition to figuratively cutting public education funding for the last 30-odd years, they have also glommed on to extreme Christian Fundamentalism, further exacerbating the problem of an already dwindling American mindset.

The shocking thing is that this level of ignorance is no longer tied simply to socio-economic factors (as was the common belief). Now you have people rising into the ranks of high finance and high political office who are remarkably deficient and leaving us vulnerable to some of the most spectacular errors in judgment that this country has ever seen.

I don't see a solution in my lifetime. It's a very sad realization.

[johnie2xs]

It should be quite evident, to any one with a half a brain, that with the "Russian Bear's" stretching of its' new found muscularity, we have but one move. We have to repudiate anything and everything to do with the Bush administration, (i.e. No McCain). Our intervention in the Middle-East has been the single biggest reason for the destabilization of the world economy, visa vis, oil. Think not? Well think again!!
Obama is the only choice, whether you like it, or not.

[johnie2xs]

This is the most depressing time of our lives. To be represented by this cadre of buffoons, on the World stage, is almost too much to bear. Almost anyone of the multitudinous miscues, mistakes, or flat out illegal missteps having been done by any other past administration,, would and could have brought them down. Why not these guys? What is their magic? Where is the outrage?
They depend on the electorate being distracted and stupefied and we did not let them down.
Stunned cattle! Sheeple! Dead from the neck up! Hell with it! Let the missiles fly!

BEND OVER AND KISS YOUR ASSES GOODBYE!!!!

[Whinger]

The backlash to American interference in foreign lands has begun!

Major players like Russia and China will not tolerate another Iraq on their doorstep and will move to crush all attempts to promote and expand the American empire!

The so called experts must bear, at least partial responsibility for recent violent events, they were easily predictable and will happen again, the line has been drawn in the sand!

[ThePeacemakers]

Someone just said the Bush Administration is untouchable.
Absolutely false...and I'm not saying that to give you false hope.
Greed is always undone by greed. They won't stop being criminals once they leave the White House anymore than they turned into criminals once they got in.
They're made more bold by what they have gotten away with and they're getting sloppier.
Just a matter of time before payback time.

[DinkSinger]

Just as prior to the invasion of Iraq everyone in the MSS and most bloggers are drinking the administration's Kool-Aid. It was Georgia that invaded the South Ossetia, which has been a de facto independent area since 1991, where most of the residents are Russian citizens. The Georgian invaders quickly overcame a peace-keeping force, including 500 Russian troops and 500 additional troops from North Ossetia, which is part of the Russian Federation. Russia responded.

The Serbia - Kosovo situation was in many ways similar to Georgia - South Ossetia. There was no question that Kosovo was de jure part of Serbia, yet NATO intervened

[Raven]

You know, it's Condi's Russian expertise that is the most perplexing thing about her.

I mean, on the one hand, the whole thing of her acting tough to the Russians makes total sense. Russians do not like weakness and never did.

But they are not idiots.

And to think that any major world power would sit back and watch all the guns of the world basically aimed at them and do nothing about it, well who would possibly think that makes sense?

Especially anyone who knows anything about the Russians.

They like toughness because they are tough.

So figuring out what their reaction would be to being surrounded was not really that hard was it?

Not, that is, if there was any possibility that a single member of the Bush administration knew a single flippin' thing they're supposed to know.

Especially the Secretary of State.

Who seems to not have a single clue that the first thing diplomats must demonstrate is respect.

But then again, that assumes that the Bush administration wants to get along with the rest of the world. And as we've seen, that's an assumption that's not at all based on history.

[ofbbg]

Compared to Madeline Albright, she's an absolute foreign policy GENIUS! Hell, compared to Albright, I'M a foreign policy genius! And God help us no matter which Democratic B. Hussein might nominate (assuming he wins the election - NOT a done deal yet.) Joe Biden??!! Good Grief!

[Nooneyouknow]

Well, Condi helped lie us into the quagmire of Iraq. She's completely mishandled the situation in Georgia. She couldn't get rid of Cheney long enough for U.S. foreign policy, particularly around "the axis of evil" to be competent for the past seven years.
What exactly did Albright do that was so disastrous? Besides the war crime of the Iraq sanctions, which rightwingers applauded.

[mindact]

I specifically take offense at that characterization. Condi Rice might not be the most diplomatic SoS, however, she's still the little Island in a very flawed administration. I'll also add that there are several other major failures form SoS. Remember Rwanda? Who was the secetary of state at that time? How about Somalia? Backtrack to the Reagan and Carter years. The secetary of state is only as good as the latitude offered by the administration. Anyone heading foggy bottom in an administration like this has the thoughest job in the country. Stop second guessing the black lady

[rwt1138]

Of course, losing neither Somalia nor Rwanda put the European oil supply under the thumb of the Russians.

But you do have a point: Condi doesn't form the clueless, brain dead, self-defeating strategies or policies, she just implements them as designed.

[newpantaloons]

Absolutely right!

[aofh]

Who'd a thunk that the White House might ever have wished to have Colin Powel back at State. When he was there, they did everything they could to undermine his efforts. Now the good soldier is missing from the action.