The official Rice: "WE HAD NO IDEA THAT. . . ." thread:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

We had no idea that they would hijack planes and fly them into buildings.
We had no idea that an insurgency would develop in Iraq
We had no idea that the Israelis would have a long term war on their hands after their invasion
We had no idea that the Taliban would retake so much of Afghanistan
We had no idea that the Russians believed my CV about my language skills
We had no idea that our missiles would be used by US supplied planes to bomb kids

[MH1]

1. Wait...isn't it Democrats who supposedly have "no ideas"?

:eyes:

[salin]

2. We had no idea that the american public might have wanted us

to actually have coherent and sane foreign policy.

[Toots]

3. They also had no idea a hurricane would strike the US

or that water sources would dry up as the world temperatures rise. Remember when Enron tried to lock up all the water souces in America so they could sell water at a higher price? :shrug: No Idea at all.

[davhill]

4. I missed the Language Skills part

What was that all about?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. bushistas claimed she was bilingual in Russian

Hah. Hahahahahahaha!
she was repeatedly portrayed as a fluent russian speaker who knew Russia and USSR intimately. Turned out to be all bogus and false.

[knitter4democracy]

20. Yeah, her Russian's not that great.

I studied there for a semester in college, and I heard her once underneath the translator's voice. Her accent was awful! She obviously hasn't used her Russian in years and lost most of it.

[struggle4progress]

30. " ... SECRETARY RICE: ... I have very deep experience about Russia and ..

.. Europe because I speak the Russian language ..."
Rice Outlines Agenda for Upcoming Visit to Mexico
Secretary of state interviewed by Univision television
Created: 09 Mar 2005 Updated: 09 Mar 2005
http://usinfo.state.gov/wh/Archive/2005/Mar/09-105607.html

"... As for Rice, she had a very tense meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this Wednesday in Moscow. She said there would be more orange revolutions in Russia's back yard, she told Putin not to try getting re-elected, and she stopped short of labeling Russia a terrorist state - according to Russian journalists from, among other sources, Kommersant and Pravda. Then she went for an interview at the popular radio Echo Moskvy. Rice - sold by the White House as a Russian expert and fluent Russian speaker, although she never lived in the country - couldn't understand her interviewer "even when discussing the only non-political question", according to Kommersant. She was asked whether she was going to run for US president in 2008. She answered da (yes) in Russian. Then a mental "ooops!" intervened, she realized she didn't get it, and hastened to say nyet! (no) seven times. It's possible as well that Rice may not have really understood what the NTCT is trying to say ... "
Apr 23, 2005
It's terror when we say so
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD23Aa01.html

"... Asked whether she would run for President at the next election on Ekho Moskvy Radio programme, Condoleezza Rice answered Da! Nyet! Nyet! Nyet! Nyet! Nyet! Nyet! Nyet! Not bad for someone who is quoted frequently by the Western press as being a fluent Russian speaker and a Russian expert, although she has never lived in the country ..."
21.04.2005
Is Condoleezza Rice a Russian expert? Yes! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/15326_condy.html

"... A state department official said Ms Rice, who as an academic specialised in Soviet affairs, had a two-and-a-half hour working dinner with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at her hotel in the Turkish capital Ankara. Although Ms Rice speaks fluent Russian, the two spoke only in English, the US official said ..."
Sunday, 6 February, 2005, 03:33 GMT
Rice presses Russia on democracy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4239445.stm

[badgerpup]

32. Not making fun of the Russian language, but...

...are we absolutely certain it wasn't Duh...Nyet! Nyet! Nyet!....

[Hubert Flottz]

5. We had no idea that

anyone would find out about half the crimes we've been caught up in...

[rosesaylavee]

7. We had no idea that

actually taking the time to listen to concerns stated by my employee Richard Clarke about increasing terrorist chatter would save lives and possibly prevent 9/11.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. RW - No ideas and no clue................

about anything.

[LibDemAlways]

9. We had no idea that a big hurricane would

hit while I was shopping for shoes. I mean what's more important anyway, Jimmy Choo or some dead poor people? Priorities, you know. :sarcasm:

[Sal Minella]

10. Isn't it "No one could have foreseen that....." meaning not just US,

not just "we didn't see it coming" but "NOBODY could possibly have seen it coming -- I remember the "No one could have foreseen that airplanes would be flown into buildings" line after the intelligence had already told us exactly what was going to happen.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. oops. correct

but she says so many silly and inane things, it is hard to keep track, honestly. Must be all the mushroom clouds

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. That's the one that especially makes me crazy.

"No one could have foreseen that airplanes would be flown into buildings." Even if you don't count the PDB that she and Bush chose to ignore, a lot of people considered exactly that possibility, including novelists like Tom Clancy, and a couple of guys that actually tried to do it. A disgruntled FedEx pilot named Auburn Calloway tried to take over a DC-10 and crash it into FeEx's headquarters in MEM and was stopped only when the other crew members subdued him; and back in the '70s another crazy dude tried to hijack a Delta DC-9 with the intent to crash it into the White House and kill Nixon. So it's not like nobody ever had that idea before. What happened is that the whole sorry lot of them dropped the ball and then tried use the "novelty" of the concept as an excuse -- "Oh, well, nobody ever could have imagined they would do THAT!"

Of course, there's also LIHOP and MIHOP, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Sometimes I wonder

if Condi isn't some kind of cyborg? She is one of the emptiest people on earth.

[UTUSN]

13. K&R n/t

[Skidmore]

14. * and Condi: Failures of imagination personified.

[Olney Blue]

15. We had no idea that an immediate cease fire would save lives.

[90-percent]

16. The 9/11 commission

The 9/11 Commission stated that 9/11 happened due to a "lack of imagination" by government officials. Condi epitomizes that lack of imagination magnificently. History will heap high praise on her glorious lack of imagination. And her really nice shoes.

-85% Jimmy

[Burried News]

17. Sounds Like Oh I don't know ...Rumsfeld

Only Saddam Hussein matches them in their arrogance. When all is said and done they may yet match him in the 'death and destruction' aspect as well.

[longship]

19. Face it!

This Bush regime has no ideas

[Bretttido]

21. We had no idea that the levees would break

[ginnyinWI]

22. "We had no idea Kim Jong Il

...would take that axis of evil speech so seriously, and use it as an excuse to build several nukes and fire test missles. We thought saber-rattling and then totally ignoring him would make him tear all his stuff down and fall into line like a good little dictator!"

[grannylib]

23. We had no idea the Iraqis would loot museums and businesses

We had no idea the levees would be breached in New Orleans

[EstimatedProphet]

24. We had no idea that the Iraqis would resent us...

just because we bombed their cities, killed their children, and locked them up in torture camps.

[Bucky]

25. Rumsfeld is as a big an idiot as Rice, but he's more eloquent. Sorta

They all fall back on that "no one could have possibly forseen that..." defense. Rice gets pinged for it more because she's not as good talking on her feet as Rummy is. Partly it's cause she's an academic and he's lived his life in the business world and in high profile government offices. But also he's just older and us old folks are better at BSing our way thru ignorance than yall whippersnappers.

[Miss Chybil]

26. Face it, they have no ideas - only short-sighted ideologies. nt

[ComerPerro]

27. And yet she is apparently qualified to be not only Nat' Security Advisor

and Sec' of State, but also President of the US?

This woman is supposedly so intelligent, but she doesn't know a God damned thing.

[riona]

28. Didn't I read

that she used to be in some sort of "republican think tank"? Jeez, those 3 words don't really go together, do they?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

29. PNAC is precisely that.

unfortunately, the only thing that they excel at is at domestic spin and control over news media.

[Cocoa]

31. No one ever imagined that our war would strengthen Iran

[insane_cratic_gal]

33. Can they finally admit ....

they're an administration with NO IDEAS, least of all good ones

[LuckyLib]

34. No one could have foreseen that the American people would

have to suffer through a completely idiotic administration with the combined brainpower of a hamster. Oh -- right. The voters did imagine that. They were just overruled by the junta.