By
Dr.
Mahjabeen Islam
Toledo, Ohio
That’s
My Story and I’m Sticking to It
The grilling of arguably
the most powerful woman in the world
was riveting. Dr. Condoleeza Rice the
United States Secretary of State-designate
cheerfully sat through a continuous
eight hours of questioning, unperturbed
even as the viewer’s jaw might
have been grazing the floor.
That she has nerves of steel and an
elephant’s memory seem all the
flattery she ought to get. Senator Barbara
Boxer seemed to be enacting her last
name punch after punch, point after
point with at one stage index finger
extended berating Dr. Rice as a principal
might a grade-schooler.
To start out Senator Boxer scolded Dr.
Rice for calling the Asian tsunami a
“wonderful opportunity”,
a reference for the US government to
show its
humanitarian side. Annoyed by the insensitivity
towards one of the world’s greatest
tragedies Senator Boxer told her, “You
blew the opportunity”.
Barbara Boxer had only just begun. With
a staff working with seamless alacrity
she showed slide after slide and read
several quotes about the contradictions
of the Bush administration before the
war in Iraq. She relentlessly honed
in on the point that the reason that
Congress had voted unanimously for the
war in Iraq was because it had been
told that Saddam Hussain had WMDs. “This
is not a can opener that you were selling,
it was a war and people have died and
are still dying”. She went on
to say that the 1300 Americans that
have died fighting the war in Iraq have
not died in vain for there is no greater
sacrifice for one’s country than
to respond to the call of the Commander-in-Chief.
She stated flatly though again and again
that there were no WMDs and that the
war had been started on false pretenses
and that there was no exit strategy.
Many a male would have evaporated by
now. Rice stared back at Senator Boxer
and only slightly stumbled when she
requested her not to “impugn my
integrity”. Prevarication Rice
knows as well as she knows minutiae
about the world. Her defense for the
war in Iraq was faulty intelligence
and the whole polity was at fault for
that she said, rather matter-of-factly.
Senator Boxer appeared beyond exasperated.
She demanded to know why it was that
Rice could not admit that she and the
administration were wrong. She quoted
figures and articles proving that prior
to the war Iraq was a secular state
and Saddam quite the little island but
now it was a magnet for jihadists and
Islamists from all over the world. That
America had achieved what Osama had
only dreamed of.
Rice was not giving up. The world was
better rid of Saddam she insisted, even
using the magic word “Israel”
and the scud missiles that Saddam had
used and how he had invaded Kuwait and
bankrolled Palestinian suicide bombers.
Senator Boxer kept bringing her back
to the false pretext for war. But Rice
reminded me of that phrase “although
vanquished she would argue still”.
Senator Christopher Dodd and Senator
Boxer pointedly asked what Rice felt
about Abu Ghraib. It took much glaring
and indignation for Rice to finally
say that it was “a stain on our
nation”. And yet she repeatedly
said that the Geneva Convention did
not apply to Al-Qaida and thus interrogation
techniques that were needed were justified.
She appeared slightly uncomfortable
when Senator Joseph Biden mentioned
water-boarding and other torture techniques
and coaxed her into thinking how she
would feel if there was a role reversal
and American prisoners of war were
treated that way. Nerves of steel showed
for the discomfiture was fleeting.
Pakistan was mentioned in fond terms.
That the NWFP was closed to Al-Qaida
and if a few years ago no one would
have believed that Pakistan would becomes
such a close ally in the war on terror.
Rice was using Pakistan’s role
reversal as a measure of US diplomatic
success. It is easy to cover over the
fact that General Musharraf and Bush
have a symbiotic relationship. Musharraf’s
primary concern in that 3 a.m. phone
call by Colin Powell parroting the Bushism
“either you are with us or against
us” may not have been the future
of Pakistan but the protection of his
own persona.
Senator Lugar the head of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and Senator
Chafee are Republican and the former
was the only one giving Rice a break.
Senator Chafee at one point seemed perturbed
at the “contradictions”
in Rice’s statements. Senator
Dodd wanted an explanation on the hypocrisy
of American foreign policy in regard
to the appalling human rights record
of Russia and China and why a dictator
was being tolerated in Pakistan when
the grand Bush agenda was to envelop
the world in democracy and freedom.
Prevarication and basically many-words-strung-together
was the answer the lady with the ever-ready
toothy smile gave.
And then the thorny issue of regime
change in Iran came up. Certain Iranian
groups, Rice claimed, did not like the
current regime and it did not interact
well with the United States and had
human rights violations and was not
forthcoming about its nuclear weapons
program. Former presidential hopeful
John Kerry looked somberly over his
bifocals as Rice fell just short of
enunciating that America would adore
a regime change in Iran with an “I
would prefer to not discuss this in
open session as it would affect America’s
security”. “
I am disappointed at your answers,”
said John Kerry then. Senator Dodd had
just gotten done saying the exact same
thing. The Democrats tried to upstage
and embarrass and it seemed that the
audience and they themselves may well
have been, for the subject of interrogation
was the epitome of composure. She took
no notes and still managed to answer
questions in the correct sequence. Had
an array of information in her brain
as opposed to Senator Boxer’s
reams of papers. The questioners appeared
distraught and tried to nudge and dissuade
her from giving such a bright forecast
for the world and a stolid defense of
past errors.
Yet all that the world’s most
powerful woman seemed to be saying,
quite cheerily at that was “that’s
my story and I’m sticking to it”.
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician practicing
in Toledo Ohio. Her email is mhjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
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