Rice: Stabilizing Iraq 'long process'

[rodeodance]

Source: ap




Rice: Stabilizing Iraq 'long process'

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - Stabilizing Iraq will be a lengthy process that won't end when violence in that country — and U.S. troop strength — are reduced, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday.


"We're at the beginning of a transition in the Middle East, we're at the beginning of a long process of dealing with what the president called a long time ago a generational challenge to our security brought on by extremism coming principally out of the Middle East," Rice said.

A day before President Bush was expected to announce that he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by as many as 30,000 by next summer, Rice said the U.S. views the task of stabilizing Iraq as not simply improving security within its borders but "to begin to have American forces in lower numbers turn to other responsibilities." Among those, she said, is "the territorial security of Iraq" with respect to its Mideast neighbors, especially Iran.

...............

"That is what is at stake here," Rice said. "What we are prepared to do is to complete the security gains that we've been making, to create circumstances in which an Iraqi government and local officials can find political accommodation, as they are doing in Anbar, and to be able then, from Iraq, with allies in the war on terror, to resist both terrorism and Iranian aggression."
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Absent any significant changes in the political landscape, Democrats are where they were before the August recess: without the 60 Senate votes needed to pass anti-war legislation unless they soften their demands.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070912/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq;_ylt=AsZAeKQUOStdoFRTJ4x6i.qs0NUE

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Bush is thinking of his legacy again (with Condi's help)

[Danieljay]

1. I can't stand this woman nor listen to a thing shes says. n/t

[0007]

3. I have many aversions and Condoleezza is one that is intensely

disliked and avoided.

[unhappycamper]

2. .

[0007]

4. I hear that she flosses with a jump rope. nt

[gratuitous]

5. Gee, destabilizing Iraq didn't take hardly any time at all

I wonder why they didn't think of this beforehand? Well, I guess nobody could have foreseen the chaos and carnage that would ensue when a brutal, repressive dictatorship was suddenly decapitated by a foreign military force.

And what is this "we're at the beginning" nonsense? The Iraq invasion has already taken longer than World War II did. And we whupped three nations all over the globe in that time; here we are mired in a country smaller than the size of Texas, and we're only "at the beginning" of this? So whaddya figure, Dr. Rice? Another 40 or 50 years? I don't seem to recall that as being part of the sales pitch when this new product was being rolled out in the fall of 2002. Anything else you haven't vouchsafed to tell us peons about? I mean, we're just the ones paying the bills and supplying the military and all that; hardly our place to question our great leaders, but some of us are a mite curious, you blood-thirsty harridan.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. Excellent response! Sums up my thoughts exactly!

[Roland99]

6. Rice? Who's that?

Haven't heard that name in quite a while.

Isn't she some fashion diva? Something about shoes??

[colorado_ufo]

10. Actually, she's a very, very, very, very, very close friend

of pResident Bush, who was rewarded for her simply outstanding performance (possibly in her job) by being elevated to Secretary of State. After all, one good elevation deserves another. This had the additional benefit of removing her from the media, except when it was convenient to use her, and also removing her from the pResident's need to give her time and attention. As her education and experience actually could be construed to justify her new position, this was truly a win-win-win decision all around.

And she can still come back to visit at Camp David, a favorite meeting place of - diplomats.

[Javaman]

7. In a slipe of the tongue, the SOS said...

"the stabilization of iraq will take many many shoes".

[colorado_ufo]

9. It will take as long as they want it to take.