Susan Rice caught my interest during the primary because she was one of the first foreign policy types to sign onto the Obama campaign, but also because she opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. The last time Spencer Ackerman spoke to Dr. Rice for TAP, he got this fantastic quote:
"After eight years of George Bush, when the next president puts his or her hand on the Bible to be sworn in, the U.S. is going to get one brief second look [from the world] about whether the U.S. truly learned to change from its past mistakes, recent and historic, and whether we're again the kind of America people look to lead in a constructive fashion, or whether we're hopeless. In my opinion, they'll look at McCain and decide we're trapped in our old mistakes."
I think this is exactly right. This new administration will show whether or not the neoconservative impulse, with all its corrosive moral contradictions, can truly be eliminated as a governing doctrine of foreign policy in time to make a difference. Today, Ackerman gives us a bigger picture of Rice in the Washington Independent, including her concern over Darfur, which Ackerman points out might stem from this revealing anecdote:
According to human-rights expert Samantha Power’s study of the U.S. reaction to genocide, “A Problem From Hell,” Rice didn’t distinguish herself in the Clinton administration’s lax response to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. As an Africa expert on the NSC, she shocked an interagency conference call by interjecting domestic politics into the discussion of the administration’s policy options.“If we use the word ‘genocide,’” Rice allegedly asked her colleagues, “and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?” Rice later told Power — who herself became a trusted foreign-policy adviser to Obama before leaving the campaign during the Democratic primaries — that while she didn’t remember saying that, “If I said it, it was completely inappropriate.”
[...]
About Rwanda, Rice later told Power, “I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required,” which might explain Rice’s passion about Darfur.
Obviously not Dr. Rice's proudest moment, but I think it speaks well of her that she is able to learn from her mistakes, and it certainly draws a contrast with current leadership, which remained stubbornly wedded to certain policies even after their failure was clear.
--A. Serwer
