If you enjoy dark, morbid humor, today’s New York Times piece on Condoleezza Rice’s “surprise” trip to Iraq yesterday was almost funny, in a dispiriting kind of way.
Wearing a helmet and a flak jacket and flanked by machine-gun-toting bodyguards to defend against insurgents, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came here Thursday, insisting that there were new signs of progress in Iraq and that the Bush administration had never sugarcoated its news about the American occupation.
But before anyone accepts Rice’s “new signs of progress” at face value, consider some of the context. Rice’s military transport plane was forced to circle Baghdad because of what a State Department spokesman later said was either mortar fire or rockets at the airport. Rice’s usual plane was inadequate; the trip required one equipped with antimissile technology. During a meeting between Rice and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the building they were in lost power. Reporters traveling with the Secretary of State were instructed not to share details with anyone, including their editors and families, until she had arrived safely. They were barred from reporting how long she would stay in Iraq until after she had left the country. During Rice’s visit, two car bombings in Baghdad left at least four Iraqi civilians dead.
Upon leaving, Rice boasted, however, that Iraq is “making progress.”
On CNN yesterday, Wolf Blitzer had a frank discussion with correspondent Michael Ware about conditions on the ground. It’s worth watching. Asked if Rice can really see what’s happening inside Iraq, given her tight restrictions, Ware said, “Of course not, Wolf…. Secretary Rice is so far divorced from that reality that she couldn’t possibly hope to understand it, certainly not from fleeting visits to an artificial bubble like the green zone.”
For a change, even some key Republicans are beginning to question the administration’s “sugarcoated” approach to the war. In fact, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) seems prepared to consider half a Friedman.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday offered a stark assessment of the situation in Iraq after a trip there this week, saying that parts of the country have taken “steps backwards” and that the United States is at risk of losing the campaign to control an increasingly violent Baghdad.
Sen. John W. Warner (Va.) told reporters on Capitol Hill that the Iraqi government is having trouble making strides and is incapable of providing even basic human necessities to people in certain areas of the country. Though Warner praised U.S. efforts to keep Iraq under control, he was far less optimistic about the situation there than he had been over the past three years.
Echoing the sentiments of several leading Democrats on his committee, Warner said he believes the United States may have to reevaluate its approach in Iraq if the situation does not improve dramatically over the next several months.
“I assure you, in two or three months, if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it’s a responsibility of our government internally to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take?” Warner said. “And I wouldn’t take off the table any option at this time.”
John Warner must be a cut-and-run defeatocrat, right Republicans?