Condi's "bring it on" moment

Prominent war criminal, fashionista, former Stanford Provost, and sometime namesake of the Altair Voyager Condoleezza Rice made one of her appearances in the Green Zone of Baghdad where she taunted Muqtada al Sadr about sending others to their death while remaining at a safe distance.

The mind reels.

There begin to be so many layers of irony, projection, and utter lack of self-awareness in the Bush Crime Machine that one would need a computer to track it all.

Of course when Bush, in his faux machismo, uttered "Bring it on," they did. And American troops died. Having a woman taunt Sadr so publicly seems designed to goad him into action, thereby inflaming an already tense and violent situation - hardly the stuff diplomacy is made of. More Iraqis and more US troops are likely to perish because of her remark.

She, of course, flies blithely back to DC, leaving the mess in Iraq behind her.

I have seen comments on this at several blogs. Dday covers it nicely at Hullabaloo.

Brandon Friedman, an Iraq War veteran, has this to say:

But it's not just about Rice's dismissive, provocative tone, either. It's also this continuing, obnoxious Bush-brand of hypocrisy that the whole world sees: If Sadr had said the same thing of Rice--that she's a Washington, D.C. bureaucrat who sends others to fight her own battles--the Bush administration would freak out. And that fact isn't lost on Iraqis.

As Rice is one who will not have to stay and fight the Mahdi Army side-by-side with our troops, I suggest that she keep her mouth shut if she's not going to say anything helpful. Because statements like these are certainly not.

In an update Friedman notes the NYT quoting Rice on Sadr thus:

“I don’t know whether to take him seriously or not,” Ms. Rice said.

If she doesn't take him seriously she is a damned fool, which is a genuine possibility based on her inept diplomacy hitherto. But since she is also a notorious liar, this could all be some elaborate game, one in which the cost is real human lives, variously ended or shattered.

Were she herself not so dangerous, I doubt that any sane person would take Rice seriously.

Of course, she belongs in prison, but it will take the world a while to catch up with her crimes.
--the BB