Condoleezza Rice Still Doesn’t Get It On Iraq

By Charles S. Mombo

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

George Orwell wrote that “Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

While speaking at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush's former Secretary of State said she would "many times over liberate" Iraq again, but regretted that the Bush administration failed to work closer with Iraqis to rebuild the war-torn country.

Condi, as she was affectionately called by George, also added that history would eventually vindicate many of the decisions made during the presidency of George W. Bush. "I would many times over liberate Iraq again from Saddam Hussein," Rice said. "I think he was a danger to the Middle East."

She also suggested the U.S. government {George W. Bush} failed to understand "how broken Iraq was as a society" and should have focused its rebuilding efforts outside of Baghdad, the capital.

Condi still doesn't get it on Iraq or could it be that she, Cheney and the rest are still in denial? The entire world including the Iraqis themselves knew that Saddam was never a danger to the Middle East. If anything, Saddam should be credited for containing the REAL danger to the Middle East – Iran.

Comments such as this one by Cheney, “I think Iraq is much better off than it was before we went in in ’03 and got rid of Saddam Hussein,” is pure craziness. Would Cheney or Rice, live in today's “much better” Iraq without the escort of U.S. paid security forces? I don't think so!

The reality is Saddam was not a saint. He was among some of the worst human rights abusers around the world. The killing during the al-Anfal Campaign by Saddam government was clearly a genocide – in which he ordered the extermination of every living thing – including human and animal in the Kurdish north.

Without a doubt, Saddam should have been brought to justice, but not at the expense of killing thousands of innocent men, women and children, demolishing and destroying infrastructural or putting back an entire country into the pre-21st-century just to get rid of an individual.

So, when Condi said, "I would many times over liberate Iraq again from Saddam Hussein," I couldn't help but think about George Orwell's quote:

“Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”