Rice acknowledges bad Iraq decisions

Condoleezza Rice

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice has said that the Bush administration made some bad decisions in Iraq and was unprepared for stabilising the country in a rare acknowledgment of mistakes.

Her remarks came during her confirmation hearing at the US Senate Foreign Relations committee where she was approved by a 16-to-2 vote to be the first black woman as the top US diplomat despite Democrats' criticism over the Iraq war.

The lone dissenters were two Democrats, the former Presidential candidate John Kerry and Barbara Boxer of California, who once again accused the former national security adviser of misleading the country on the war in Iraq.

Rice, President Bush's national security adviser for the last four years, is expected to be approved by the full Republican-led Senate the day Bush is to be inaugurated for a second term.

Democrats on the committee complained that the Bush administration was unwilling to learn from mistakes to change policies in Iraq, be candid about the cost of continued deployment and develop an effective exit strategy.

"We have made a lot of decisions in this period of time. Some of them have been good, some of them have not been good, some of them have been bad decisions, I am sure," Rice told the committee.

She did not specify what were the bad decisions but said in at least one case, "We didn't have the right skills, the right capacity, to deal with a reconstruction effort of this kind."

The 50-year-old former Stanford University provost also acknowledged the State Department's intelligence arm dissented before the war over some information about Iraq's weapons capability and needed to be listened to more. The administration cited such weapons in its buildup to the US-led war; none have been found.

OUTPOSTS OF TYRANNY

As the torch passed yesterday at the pinnacle of US diplomacy, Condoleezza Rice identified a new category of miscreant states -- half a dozen "outposts of tyranny" that may replace President Bush's 'axis of evil' in the international political lexicon.

The six countries where Ms Rice said the US had a duty to help foster freedom are Cuba, Zimbabwe, Burma and Belarus, as well as Iran and North Korea, the two surviving founder members of the original 'axis of evil.'

Quite what practical action the US intends against the sextet is unclear. But the gesture signals Ms Rice commitment to the over-arching foreign policy goal proclaimed by Mr Bush, of extending liberty and democracy around the world.

ICE MAIDEN

Cool and unyielding, she served notice that she was first and foremost the President's servant, intent on minimising the differences with the White House that often emerged when Gen Powell was almost the sole moderate in Mr Bush's national security team.

"I want to be clearly understood - we are one administration, with the President in the lead," she told Democrats on the committee, many of them visibly irritated by her reluctance to admit that mistakes had been made in the handling of Iraq.

Accused by Ms Boxer of "rigidness" Ms Rice insisted that she had always told the President her honest opinions: "Sometimes he agrees and sometimes he doesn't."

Nonetheless she is widely regarded as one of the less impressive recent national security advisers, often elbowed aside by the tandem of Dick Cheney, the vice-President, and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Her 'ice maiden' demeanour during her long questioning on Capitol Hill this week was in vivid contrast with Gen. Powell's leave-taking, after four years as one of America's most popular Secretaries of State - even though he, too, was mostly at the losing end of disagreements with the Cheney/Rumsfeld tandem.

Speaking "at the end of almost 40 years of government service," Gen Powell's voice was cracking as he promised State Department employees that "I will never leave you, I will always be part of this wonderful family."

He praised his successor as "a dear friend" who would bring "gifted leadership" to US diplomacy.

But many experts believe she will run a more tightly centralised operation, less open to dissent, than Gen. Powell.

Despite her overwhelming approval, Committee Republicans as well as Democrats showed unease yesterday.

Joe Biden, the senior Democrat, said he was voting for her confirmation "with some frustration and reserve," accusing Ms Rice of stonewalling and "sticking to the party line." Admitting mistakes, he chided, "should not be considered a sign of weakness."

On the Republican side, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a noted party moderate, urged Ms Rice to explore reconciliation with Iran, in the administration's sights for its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. But she gave that notion short shrift.

The New York Times in an editorial worried over Rice's unwillingness to change strategy meant she would simply try to "sell flawed American foreign policy to reluctant governments abroad."

- REUTERS and INDEPENDENT