Today, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down for an exclusive interview with Lawrence. The two had a must-see conversation about the lessons learned from the Iraq war and much more.
Lawrence and former Secretary Rice also discussed the death of Osama bin Laden.
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Rice is a liar pure and simple. If the morons attacking O'donnell would bother to check out the facts of history they would realize what an arrogant liar she really is. He was not biased. The facts are in the public forum and the bush cheney rice cabal are finally having to deal with the truth which is they left Bin Laden in Bora Bora and went after Hussein. The republicans lied us into war, lied about weapons of mass destruction, betrayed a CIA agent, tortured prisoners, AND they did not get anything for the torture which is the current lie they are telling. They violated the Constitution every chance they got. Rice does not deserve respect for her behavior.
If I were a member of Bushco, I would try to get this woman as much airtime as possible. I think she is the most skilled liar among them.
Not your greatest interview, Lawrence. How about
he gassed the kurds, killed his own people, with our support, our weapons. we sold/gave him poison gas and wmd tech. you and rachel both seem to miss that, and if you don't know, you should. he was a great ally through the 80's until he stepped out of line.
I have been following this from day one... and I've found nothing to dispute in anything Kathleen has written. I wish she had an opportunity to debate those in the Bush administration who took their eyes off Osama... I remember looking at the list of supposed suspects involved in the 911 attack... and noting THEN that virtually ALL of them were listed as citizens of Saudi Arabia... not Iraq... it is my opinion that they saw what they wanted to see and bent and broke every rule to make the "facts" conform to their "opinions"... history will call them misguided idealogues at best, unendicted war criminals at worst.
Millions of Americans were questioning the validity of the intelligence before the invasion based on what former IAEA weapons inspector Scott Ritter, El Baradei, Hans Blix, other former CIA analyst and other experts were saying. When Senator Dick Durbin (on the intelligence committee) as well as 21 other Senators voted against the 2002 war resolution in Oct of 2002 should have been a very loud clue.
Now if Lawrence wants to kid himself and hide from the reality that hundreds of thousands of Americans (millions nationwide, 30 million world wide) were out protesting, petitioning our Reps, in the halls of congress etc...some of us getting arrested because we did not want to witness the deaths of innocentn people based on false intelligence he can keep repeating the hooey that might make him feel better or let war criminals like Rice off the hook "what we knew then" vs 'what we know now" We knew plenty before the invasion. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz etc were lying through their pearly white teeth and hundreds of thousands of innocent people are dead...DEAD
Now hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people are dead, injured and 4500 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Americans are injured. The only differences between Osama's crimes against humanity and Bush administrations crimes against humanity are that the Rice, Bush etc are responsible for the deaths of far more innocent people than Osama and they have yet to be held accountable. Trials would suffice
kaib, trust me, I'm sure Lawrence would have gotten around to those facts if Condi didn't keep cutting him off and scolding him and threatening to end the interview. Everyone with the least bit of intelligence knows that when Saddam gassed the Kurds years and I mean YEARS before we attacked, invaded and occupied Iraq -- the U.S. turned a blind eye and continued to support him. I think he should have asked her how many innocent Iraqi civilians were killed during this war. Were the numbers as high as 500,000 civilians? How many were maimed? How many don't have medical facilities to take care of their medical needs or even to treat post traumatic stress? I wish he would have asked her how many millions of Iraqi civilians fled Iraq into neighboring Jordan and Syria where THEY had to shelter, feed and clothe them. I wish he would have asked her how many Iraqi refugees the U.S. has accepted into our country. This war had far more consequences than the death of Saddam Hussein. It has affected millions of innocent Iraqi civilians. I don't think Condi Rice, the neocons or the members of the Bush administration have any idea about the humanitarian disaster and suffering they are reasonable for. I doubt that any of them lose any sleep over it either.
blind eye to the millions of iraqi's Saddam killed, or gassed, along with Iranian's, killed thousands of kuwaiti's. How many woman were raped, torured? how many palestinian familes were sent checks from saddam for their sons/daughters doing suicide bombings in israel? doubt any Liberal talking point cares to remember that
Lawrence.... I salute your poise and dignity while Secretary Rice exhibited her "thrust and parry" style of debate. I grant that she is one smart woman, but the fact remains that George W. Bush had 8 years to catch Osama with tools like torture and did not. Barack Obama had 2 years and 4 months to catch Osama and did.
Lawrence...You are a real gentleman and Secretary Rice is one smart woman. But George W. Bush had 8 years, $1.25 Trillion worth of warfare, and the tool of torture to catch Osama and did not. Barack Obama had 2 years and 4 months to catch Osama, connected the dots and did.
No amount of spinning, minimizing, altering, manipulation, or bamfoozeling will change that reality.
Just like the FACT that Obama in 2 years has amassed more debt then Obama in 8 years
Just like the Fact that oil was only $58.00 when Obama got into office and HAS DOUBLED in the last 2 years
Just like the FACT that gas was only $1.84 and HAS more then DOUBLED when Obama got into office and is now over $4.00
Just like the FACT that Obama wasted in a FAILED 1 TRILLION job stimulis promising that unemployment would not go above 8% and today it is 9% even the REAL NUMBER is closer to 16-17%??
What a pathetic woman she is. Firstly, she has a degree from Stanford, and presumably a democrat along with her father. She was hired by dumbo Bush with whom she was friendly and was sucked into republican mode. So, she supported the poppit because he protected her, no matter what. Republicans despise blacks, don't you know? She presumes to treat Lawrence O'Donnell like crap, to get even because she was treated like crap by the disingenuous Cheney, buddies Rumsfeld and Rove. They despised her. Never mind! She is a disaster, an Uncle Tom, and a liar to the American people. And now....she presumes to assault Lawrence? She was assaulted and never uttered a word, weakling. My suggestion? Shut up and do something meaningful for your race and our country. You shoulda, coulda done much better by us, Condo! For starters, the fact we can't contact you personally (like Cheney, like Rumsfeld, like Rove, like McConnell, like Boehner, like Bachmann, etc. etc. etc.) speaks volumes about your accessibility, your credibility and your integrity. Hit the road!
Lawrence..your a racist manipulative opinionated shock jock.
MNW-
Some people still say that Richard Nixon was a great president, and that the Vietnam War was necessary to protect our national security, but history has shown otherwise. I don't know if you were around then, but if not, you should know that our country's POW's suffered from unimaginable torture in that devastating war. The lesson here is that it's impossible to condemn the torture of others if your own military does it too...anyway, I have no doubt that George Bush will be shown by historians to have unnecessarily, and unwittingly, brought us to war in Iraq, and that the blowhards who defend him will be forced to the fringe. If only Dubya had learned from his father, who had the wisdom to stop after successfully liberating Kuwait.
It's how we dealt with him that I objected to, and we obviously didn't deal with him "just like Khadafi." I wish we had!!!
As for looking back, no-I was against this war all along, and there was nothing easy about that. I'm with you that it was a tragic mistake.
On a positive note, the economy is already improving, jobs are up, and the Ryan Plan is dead. A remarkable turnaround, I'd say, with more good news to come, as our soldiers return home.
They already have jobs.
MyNameWas banned, rereg of steve-3035426.
tyler:
Whew! What just happened here? Not sure, but I don't feel bad about it, and I get the feeling I shouldn't. I'm admittedly a newbie. Thanks to the powers that be that/who broke the spell-I like it!
While it was probably wrong to begin the fight in Iraq, history will more than likely view it as the dawn of a new thirst for freedom that inspired the peoples of Iraq and other countries to reject the notion of dictator's and scolding terrorist's who believe they are the only ones who know which direction will "LEAN" us "Forward" towards the truth's they have decided to aggressively bestow upon their un-enrolled students. Cable news, whether it is the cartoonish conservative bias of soon to be tossed out Glenn Beck, or the already fired childish rants of Keith Olbermann, has failed to grab hold of the journalistic baton passed to them from an earlier generation of broadcasters who understood the very basic but so very essential reporting concept, "WE REPORT, AND THEN WE LET YOU DECIDE!". You will notice I took note of both liberal and conservative offenders. Lawrence O'Donnell joins the ranks of news vaudevillians who have no chance of surviving in broadcasting without the meager ratings boost of hyperactive theatricality. The biased liberal and conservative cable networks have done us great harm by teaching people how to become entrenched in one point of view. I believe politicians are more quarrelsome than they were before exposure to the mean spirited money motivated kinda sorta cable news broadcasts. Condi was not totally right, but Lawrence, as always, is more intrigued by his own dramatic acting longing's, than in speaking with his guest and allowing his audience to come to their own conclusion. Years from now, and inspired new generation of journalist's will look back on this era of news as an all time low, and they will laugh and/or cry at the lack of balance and perspective, not to mention the basic lack of civility that breaks our hearts today. It is fair to ask Condi hard questions, but it is not fair to attempt (ineffectively) to take away her chance to respond. And as the interview was over, and Condi was no longer there to respond, we witnessed the pathetic display of Mama Rachel putting iodine on little Larry's bruised ego. The two of these "journalists" snickering like two students in the back of the class making snide comments about the teacher who's back is turned. Heartbreaking!.
Jack, you started out great:
but you never said why.
Then, you proceed to say how history will judge the war:
but you give no evidence. Wasn't it Dick Cheney who said that we would be welcomed as liberators-I don't think that happened. As for other countries, the Arab Spring, if that is what you are referring to, is not about us, not at all. They are doing their own thing-let 'em have their time.
Then, somehow, just as it was getting interesting, you morph into a rant about cable news, and we get an emotional appeal about how unfair and uncivilized we are. If you put it in historical context, there's nothing new here. In fact, I'd say we are being quite civil compared to times past (Vietnam War, Civil Rights riots, McCarthy era...it gets worse the further back you go.). Let's face it, we're having a national discussion of past Republican policies, as we are implementing new Democratic ones-it's all good!
Jack-If you want, we report-let u decide, then watch PBS News Hour, or standard network World News, or the BBC-I do. I did notice, however, that you didn't mention CNN, maybe because they are more of what you would like to see generally.
One final thought that I might add: Just because there is a right and a left, it doesn't mean that the truth is right down the middle. We all have passion for our causes. Recommend that we sort it all out together, but based on the facts of the issue we deliberating.
I am not impressed with the rude way this man handles his guest. He is so sure he is right and most of what he has said is incorrect information. None the less, he should allow another opinion to be voiced, not just his.
It would be nice to have your opinion on whether the Iraq War was justified or not, and worth the cost, rather than just a blurb on how the interview was conducted, especially considering that she did most of the talking. Maybe you could please explain the following:
Otherwise, I could say back that she was evasive so he was frustrated with her-but that gets us nowhere in discussing the issues.
Discussing the issues is what CR is programmed to avoid, and does so with aplomb.
Condi is soo smart so right on every piont and obviously it has made all those liberals mad!!!! Basically anything that is on msLCD is a complete lie. Condi for president she would have my vote You have to admit he got his ass handed to him he is a fool and they need to get some other lier that can do a better job trying to cut her off. She will never look stupid she way to right and she know the facts unless you know what you are talking about don't interview the smartest RepubliCAN in the world
She has mastered the art of spin-and she's had a lot of practice at it, for obvious reasons.
She just plain out lied as directed/instructed.
Can't blame her for that, eh?
I can.
Hello! my people this is the most unlearned statement to a question first,then giving an answer with no subtance to it. Condoleezza Rice explanation to go into Iraq. We did not have to go there,do not care what she say,(REASON). This man old ben had hit us with two missiles,just like a f14 releasing one of its missile on suddam palace,them plains that went into those building,hit us so quick it was to late to reack.It came up on us like a theif in the night and the alarm system was not working, because we do have one.But anyway clinton had left us backdoor help concerning Iraq, and Iran,they do not like each otherbut they had to get along with each other because the eagle had her wings on both of them,thanks to ragan giving IRAQ weapons.We have the UN,SADI's,Britten,egypt,ISRAEL,could have kept iraq in check until we got ben,they even said we had him and let him go.she gave this old sorry history annihilating statement,because of a build up lie.IF you do not make the right peperations for something you been having your mine set on to do,and trun from what you need to be doing,and go after that you have not prepared for,do not look for victory.Yes we kill saddam,So what!We have been rip from the gut and now we have a financial problem spreading like cancer,and then we spend money to fight this war,rebuild the country.that not victory like she think.Iraq was no victory,it was a dumb history making dissension with greed of oil control and a bad Financial move that rip us from the core.So realy she should close her mouth and go back into hidding.
Good analysis Curtis.