The Face of US Diplomacy...and new additions to the Blog

When I heard back in September that Condeleeza Rice was going to be resigning as National Security Advisor, I (along with Newsmax) assumed she'd be going to back to California to try her hand at State politics. It would seem she will be staying in Washington for a few more years as the new Secretary of State. I thought it was a good idea seeing as she's an expert on China and that's where a good deal of our attention needs to be focused (other than the Middle East of course).

Then I got a text message from a friend of mine that read, "Powell out, Rice in. Even you can't think this is a good idea!"

My answer to him was, "She's gotta be better than Madeline Albright."

If you have read Paul O'Neil's book (former Secretary of the Treasury) "The Price of Loyalty" you would know that one of the problems of the Bush administration in the first term was that they brought in to the cabinet "faces" that the American public would know and trust, and then proceed to cut them at the knees until they resigned in disgust. Colin Powell was one of those faces. He was there specifically to soften the administrations more hawkish edges consisting of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Paul "Comb-licker" Wolfowitz. He was also there to legitamize action against Iraq/Sadam Hussein. That mission has been as accomplished as it's ever going to get so there's really no need for Powell to be there as a counter-balance to the Hawks anymore.

In my opinion, it's not whether Powell is better than Dr. Rice, it's that Dr. Rice will serve in a different capacity than Powell did. She doesn't have to provide "soft diplomacy" the way Powell did. She can carry out the will of the administration to whatever end because, frankly, they won. The masks are off and now it's time to do some real damage...in a matter of speaking of course.

Only time will tell if the other diplomats and world leaders on the playground of world affairs will give her the respect she's earned.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Check out the new links section below the archives and my new book club. The "recommended books" links will take you to my amazon lists of books I've read that are worth checking out.