The 3% Female: Condi Rice

Those of us who watched the Condoleezza Rice confirmation hearing last week were literally astounded at the incredible disagreement over whether the actual number of trained Iraqis was 120,000 or 4000(3%). When Rice was asked for the truth she claimed she had to rely on the number she was given: 120,000. Sen. Biden said he was sure of his number based on first hand conversations with commanders in the field. If Sen Biden is right, and certainly his intelligence methodology seems 100% legitimate while Ms Rice takes no responsibility whatsoever for her intelligence but rather relies on plausible deniability, it means the administration probably has been lying to us on a monumental scale, and that the war is probably unwinable. If fact, General Casey, the Pentagon's top man in Iraq, said last night, "we may never be able to train enough Iraqis."

Not only are the lies familiar to those of us who lived through the Vietnam horror but they seem to be, incredibly, worse, when all swore at the time that they would never be stupid enough to let that nightmare repeat itself. For those who don't remember Vietnam, we were promised that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, that the Vietnamization of the war was going successfully, that American troops could withdraw very soon while turning the fight for freedom over to South Vietnamese Regulars. In 1973 American troops did leave and the South Vietnamese did promptly lose the war in 1975, but mostly because America did not honor its commitment to resupply the South Vietnamese Army and/or to bomb North Vietnam if they became too aggressive.

In Iraq there seemingly are no troops who want to be resupplied and no targets to bomb; so getting out with victory seems almost impossible. Unfortunately, victory is the only option short of turning the world's oil supply over to Muslim madmen and calling that victory. Ms Rice knows that, so despite her heartfelt protestations to the contrary, she simply lies, big time, but perhaps this is forgivable? After all, she works directly for the Commander-In-Chief who she has to mirror to a large extent, if not to a complete extent. She has to be positive, like any coach, and there is nothing too positive or encouraging to our troops in the field or citizens at home about telling them that we haven't trained anybody despite 2 years of trying. We are all asked to, and do, support the lies because we too have no other choice. The short term tactical truth is left to Sen Biden, the defeated, impotent, but loyal opposition, who closed one flurry by dramatically and violently admonishing Rice: "for God's sake don't listen to Rumsfeld, he doesn't know anything!" But , without a plan for victory; without a choice, everyone knew Biden's short term tactical truth was quite hypocritical and meaningless, save for whatever short term political advantage he may have squeezed out of it.

But then again, there are always other choices: from Senator Kennedy's insane choice to just withdraw, to more reasonable choices like bringing Saddam back for the blessed secular stability he brought to the region, getting out of the Sunni triangle to let them fester on their own while Kurd and Shia regions victoriously prosper economically and democratically, hire the Sunni Bathist Army to take over security, support a bicameral legislature so minority Sunni rights are fully protected and so they will want to a part of the new Iraq, promise the Sunni population transition assistance as they go from 90% majority dictators in the Arab world to a 20%, but legitimate, minority in Iraq.

These would be bold choices of course, some of which might reflect very badly on the 3% female and her Commander-In-Chief, but then again it seems the lies or the Sunni insurgents or both will eventually reflect badly on her anyway; so what has she really got to loose? Isn't it better to change course now rather than later when the 2006 and 2008 elections may well become a referendum on Republican Party lies?