Mary Ann Wright - Former Diplomat Heckles
Rice In Senate Hearing
Washington Post
Rice Declines to Give Senators Timeline for Iraq Withdrawal
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 20, 2005; A22
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced testy criticism yesterday from
both Republican and Democratic senators for what they called a vague and
troubled strategy in Iraq and for the administration's refusal to offer a
concrete timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Rice avoided answering questions about whether American troops would still
be in Iraq in five or 10 years, noting only that insurgents would continue to
kill innocents for "a long time." In a new effort to stabilize Iraq, she said,
the United States will deploy civilian-military teams throughout Iraq next
month to foster nation-building, from courts and social services to sewage
treatment.
The give-and-take underscored shifting opinion about the war on Capitol
Hill, where lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee appealed for
greater candor and more concrete information. "We have to level with the
American people," said George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio).
Voinovich read the letter from a father whose son died in Iraq. "In the
spirit of helping you gauge public opinion, it's important to tell you that we
do not consider the American mission in Iraq noble at all," the father wrote.
The father asked Congress to end funding for the "misguided effort that does
not speak well for America."
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told Rice that the American public is "sick at
heart at the spin and false expectations. They want the truth, and they deserve
it." Putting up a chart, Boxer cited Vice President Cheney's comment in May
that the Iraqi insurgency is in its "last throes," then showed the spike in
violent attacks since then.
Although Democrats have long challenged U.S. Iraq policy, Republican
senators were also expressing concern. Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar
(R-Ind.) said the administration can no longer assume that creating democratic
institutions in Iraq in the short term will diminish the insurgency, which
could have long-term implications.
"Permanent instability or civil war in Iraq could set back American
interests in the Middle East for a generation -- increasing anti-Americanism,
multiplying the threats from tyrants and terrorists and reducing our
credibility," he said.
Of the 14 senators in attendance, only two -- Republicans George Allen (Va.)
and Mel Martinez (Fla.) -- offered broad support of Iraq policy.
As Rice testified, former U.S. diplomat Mary Ann Wright
stood up and shouted from the audience, "Stop the killing in Iraq. You and
Congress have to be responsible." Wright, a senior envoy in the U.S. embassies
in Afghanistan and Mongolia, resigned in protest in 2003.
Except for budget testimony, it was Rice's first appearance before the panel
since her confirmation hearings in January. A congressional source said the
committee had been trying to organize the hearing since Labor Day, but the
State Department could not find time until now, four days after Iraqis voted on
a new constitution.
Rice told the panel that U.S. strategy was to "clear, hold and build,"
whereas insurgents' goals are to "infect, terrorize and pull down."
She compared the prognosis in Iraq to Colombia, another country where an
insurgency threatened to undermine a fragile government.
"The short-term goal is to make Iraqi forces capable enough of holding their
own territory against insurgents so that there is not, as I suggested in the
case of Colombia, a threat to the political stability of the Iraqi regime,"
Rice said. "In other words, there will be some level of insurgency, I'm quite
sure, for quite some time to come."
America's top diplomat insisted Washington cannot identify a general
timeline to leave Iraq. "The terrorists want us to get discouraged and quit,"
she told lawmakers. "They believe we do not have the will to see this
through."
On dealing with Syrian and Iranian involvement in Iraq, Rice said Washington
is taking new diplomatic steps to convey U.S. alarm, but she did not provide
specifics despite repeated questioning.
After the morning hearing, both Republicans and Democrats expressed
disappointment about her testimony. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) said the
committee had hoped for "more of a grip on reality. . . . The administration is
just determined to cast this as an exercise that is going according to plan,
and it isn't."
Illinois Democrat Barack Obama said Rice's answers were "entirely
unsatisfactory" due to the lack of information about an exit strategy. "What we
seem to continue to get is an open-ended, vague commitment without any clear
guideposts to whether we're succeeding or failing," said Obama, who said there
is a discrepancy in what Congress is told by Washington officials and by U.S.
generals in Iraq.
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