The Black Republican

To those critics who contend this slim black woman can't possibly wield the authority of speaking for the United States of America as her chief diplomat, especially while our reputation among world governments is in such disarray, Condi Rice has a response:

There is no doubt that Iraq is a country that has deep divisions and it is a country where Saddam Hussein exploited those divisions, for instance, with the policy of Arabization in Kirkuk.

And so they have a long and hard road ahead to effect national reconciliation.

But I've been, frankly, quite heartened by the fact that the Shia, whenever there's an attack against them by Zarqawi and his people or by the insurgents, don't take to the barricades. What they say is, this is going to be a unified Iraq, and we're not going to fall to sectarian violence.

So I think we need to give them a chance here. You know, the political process, as you well know and you all know better than I, is one of coming to terms with divisions, coming to terms with institutions that mitigate against people's sense of alienation. It takes time. It takes effort. Sometimes the compromises are a bit imperfect at first. But over time, it gets better.

You know, we've had our own history with this. I often say, and I don't mean it jokingly, that so far I have not seen the Iraqis, or for that matter, the Afghans, make a compromise as bad as the one in 1789 that declared my ancestors to be three-fifths of a man.

So we need to be patient with people as they make these moves to democracy, understand that it will be in small steps, that they will have ups and downs, that the whole process will have ups and downs.

But as long as they're on a strategic road that is getting them to a government that can actually represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people as a whole, I think they've got a chance.

I've got one other comment, on a related point. For the last few weeks, as these days approached when Ms. Rice must present herself before the Senate, we've heard so much about how our relations with our Allies are so bad right now. "The world hates us!" But to many of these same people criticizing Ms. Rice and complaining about our relations with the world, Colin Powell was their one stalwart in the Bush Administration. ("He's been a tremendous public servant..." said Chris Dodd.) So, how exactly did these horrible relations degenerate under that "tremedous public servant," Senator?