Rice stands her ground in tough questioning
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By Bob Dean Cox News Service - Published: January 19, 2005
WASHINGTON — Condoleezza Rice defended the conduct of the war in Iraq against withering Democratic criticism during testimony Tuesday before a Senate panel reviewing her fitness to serve as the next secretary of state.
Rice, who sat for more than nine hours before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also pledged to lead an assertive diplomatic campaign aimed at shoring up global ties strained by the war. She is expected to be confirmed by the full senate as early as Thursday.
The day of testimony and commentary veered wildly, from glowing praise for the accomplishments of a daughter of the segregated south to charges that she misled the country into a costly war in Iraq in her role as national security adviser.
"With you in the lead role, Dr. Rice, we went into Iraq," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "Your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth."
Rice, who had lent her voice to administration claims that Iraq had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, sat ramrod straight throughout the critique, then fired back her retort.
"I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything," Rice said. "It is not my nature. It is not my character."
Additional criticism came from Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who said the security situation in Iraq is "spiraling downwards," further charging that the current U.S. policy there "is growing the insurgency, not diminishing it."
In his first public senate appearance since losing his bid last year to defeat President Bush, Kerry also assailed the administration's efforts to train Iraqi security forces, at one point accusing the White House of refusing offers of help from countries in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere.
Rice said the opposite is true, that it has been difficult to find countries willing to send ground troops to Iraq.
"If they want to do more, they only have to say they can do more and I can guarantee you we will want them to do more."
Rice drew further fire when she stuck by the administration's contention that there have always been enough U.S. troops in Iraq to secure the country.
"I do believe that the plan and the forces that we went in with were appropriate to the task," said Rice.
"Frankly, your answer disturbed me," Kerry responded, pointing to public and private assertions by U.S. officials, including military officers Kerry met with on a recent trip to Iraq, who have said an insufficient number of U.S. forces in Iraq has undermined security and heartened insurgents in a country where more than 1,360 U.S. soldiers have been killed and more than 10,370 others have been wounded.
Rice declined to commit to a specific timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, saying it remains contingent upon the build-up of effective Iraqi security forces.
In yet another contentious moment, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Ct., took Rice to task for not issuing a blanket condemnation of specific abusive interrogation techniques.
"Is it your view, as a human matter, that water-boarding and the use, as we saw, in prisons in Iraq, of nudity, is that torture in your personal view?" Dodd asked.
Rice condemned the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but said it was up to the Justice Department to decide what specific acts constitute torture.
"I don't want to comment on any specific interrogation techniques. I don't think that would be appropriate," she said.
"It's a disappointing answer," Dodd replied. "The face of U.S. foreign policy is in the person of the secretary of State, and it's important at moments like this to be able to express yourself aside from the legalities of things."
Despite such criticism, committee members from both parties predicted that Rice would be confirmed by the panel – set to vote on her nomination on Wednesday – and then by the full senate, expected to take up her nomination as one of its first actions after President Bush is sworn in for a second term at noon Thursday.
"You come before this committee impressively qualified, well prepared," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. "It is a nomination all of America can be proud of."
Rice, 50, was nominated by Bush in November to replace Secretary of State Colin Powell in a second term expected to be dominated by U.S. efforts to stabilize post-war Iraq, confront the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran and pursue new openings for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Rice defended her ability to manage the State Department, a sprawling, $30 billion-a-year bureaucracy with some 45,000 American and foreign diplomats and support staff in Washington and in more than 260 U.S. embassies and missions around the world.
"I understand management of big organizations," said Rice, who became, at age 38, the youngest-ever provost of Stanford University in California.
In her opening statement, Rice compared the task of combating global terrorism to that faced by world leaders in the years following World War II, when Cold War struggles defined the ambitions of great powers.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, she said, U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq have set the stage for big gains against terrorist groups, provided U.S. influence can be harnessed to help free repressive societies where terrorism is spawned.
"The time for diplomacy is now," said Rice.
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