Rice Cool to Idea of Talks with Iran About Iraq (first comments on Iraq Study Group report)

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/Reuters: Rice Cool to Idea of Talks with Iran About Iraq
By REUTERS
Published: December 8, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday all but rejected the idea of talks with Iran about quelling the violence in Iraq unless Tehran first acts to rein in its suspected nuclear weapons program.

In her first comment about the Iraq Study Group report, Rice was cool to its recommendation that the United States actively engage with Iran and Syria to try to stabilize Iraq, a key proposal from the bipartisan advisory panel.

The United States accuses Iraq and Syria of fomenting the raging insurgency nearly four years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Rice defended President George W. Bush's push to bring democracy to the Middle East -- an idea conspicuously absent from the panel's recommendations -- saying it would remain a ''centerpiece'' of U.S. foreign policy.

While saying she saw "an opening'' for progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Rice did not endorse the panel's call for new diplomatic push for a "comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.''...

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-usa-iran.html

[Erika]

1. Was she interrupted on another shopping tour?

She would defend W if he ate babies.

[ninkasi]

2. She can dismiss talks all she wants

she can also state

<snip>
"Rice defended President George W. Bush's push to bring democracy to the Middle East -- an idea conspicuously absent from the panel's recommendations -- saying it would remain a ''centerpiece'' of U.S. foreign policy."

The fact remains that our priority now must be in getting our troops out of Iraq as quickly as possible, and then trying to help resolve the enormous disaster her "husband" set into motion by his insistence on lying his way to war. We can't keep asking more American troops, or Iraqi innocent citizens, to die for what Bush thinks should be his legacy as a "war president".

Whether or not Iraq will be a democracy, or another form of government should be up to them, not subject to the whims of Dubya. He is in way, way over his head. Unfortunately, he is pulling down the country with him, to drown in his mistakes.