Well, look what the cat dragged in:
Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right move, but the United States made mistakes in the aftermath, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN on Friday.
[...]
At the same time, Rice said it is still too early to fully judge the success or failure of that war or other foreign policy issues in the administration of George W. Bush.” Sometimes things that look terrific at the time look pretty bad in retrospect, and vice versa, so ultimately this is a story that will be written in history,” said Rice, who served as secretary of state for the second of Bush’s two four-year terms as president.
Condi, there’s something you should do before you say another word on this subject:
1) Go to this website: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
2) Start reading the posts from the beginning to the end.
3) Note what happens in between.
4) Note, also, that it hasn’t been updated in three years.
Then you may report back to us and tell us what you’ve learned.
Until that time, kindly STFU. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
PW
(P.S. — You may also read her blog in book form, courtesy of Feminist Press.)




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Good evening! I get to be your Late Night hosty-hostess tonight.
Fruit cup for everyone!
hey pw
Hello! How goes it, Suz?
I miss Riverbend.
Condi learn anything? She was still fighting the Cold War.
goes well pw — and you?
PW:
Look forward!
Also: buck up.
TSF
Ironically enough, she may have helped bring back the old Soviet Union, after a fashion, by creating conditions that allowed a former KGB man to become head of that country.
Indeed. Thanks, Teddy!
Me, too. I hope she’s OK.
Cool. A Chick Thread. Thank you, PW. Brings back memories.
Whenever I find anyone who I think needs some education on how things really are in Iraq, I point them to her blog — and point out how things, far from getting better after Saddam, actually got much worse, especially for educated women such as River.
I promise to check out her blog in the morning, when I’m more serious and more sane. Still, chicks rule. I have an affinity towards the women of this world who have endured a lot! Call it an affinity.
Truly. Say what you want about Saddam Hussein, he was undoubtedly a despot but other than Turkey, it is undeniable that women had made more progress in Iraq than anywhere else in the middle east and that includes allies such as Jordan and Egypt. That probably made them “hate us for our freedoms” all the more though.
Wow. Can’t believe it’s been three whole years since the last Riverbend post.
Yup. Riverbend’s blog shows this very very well.
Before the invasion, she had a job as a computer programmer and wore jeans to work, grooving to tunes on her Sony Walkman as she rode the bus to and from her job.
The job was the first thing to go. Then, the ability to wear jeans in public. Then, the ability to go out without two male escorts in public.
Also note that in the early days, the electrical grid was in much better shape than it is now. She could post as often as she wanted. That soon changed, and not for the better.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen her blog but it’s bookmarked now and looks like there’s a lot of material in there.
But yep, life isn’t better for the people of Iraq but especially the women. Yeah Hussein sucked but the current situation sucks so much more. All because of a revenge trip. I still can’t think about it without getting really pissed off.
There is. She talks about how much different — and faster, and cheaper, and better — the recovery from the previous US invasion was, largely because for the earlier one, it was Iraqi contractors, and not US ones who happened to be big-time GOP patrons, that were in charge.
Thanks for that link.
Horrific story, beautiful writing.
It reminds me in a way, about the way sad music, the blues, is really about the way it makes a person feel better, not about indulging in a morbid pre-occupation.
That’s the thing about art, a sad story can lift the spirit.
It’s right up there with the other mysteries.
Yeah, I’m going to be way too wound up to sleep if I think much more about this tonight. Great subject that needs to be explored but I think I’ll spare myself hypertension this evening. Goodnight all. :)
Revenge, plus Ahmad Chalabi’s con artistry on behalf of the Iranians (how do you neutralize Iran’s two biggest enemies, the US and Iraq, and hurt the standing of its third biggest enemy, Israel? You sucker the US into invading Iraq and tell the neocon Likudniks in both Israel and the US that it will help Israel), plus the Ledeen Doctrine: ‘Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.’
G’night! Sleep tight.
g’nite margaret
I’ve gotten the impression that the unstated goal of U.S. foreign policy is to gradually transform every nation (including our own) to third-world status, allowing some to reap enormous profits in the process.
When everybody except the mega-capitalists is living in poverty we’ll have a completely level playing field. Such altruism brings a tear to my eye.
“Baghdad Burning” was amazing and gutsy.
Condi showing up now to rewrite history is pretty brassy too. I wonder what’s up …
The world’s best army bogged down for ten years by 2 third world nations and the army swore they could fight and win a 2 front war against Russia and China?
Its to early to judge failure fine Condi give me your plan on how we can win? Give the Pentagon your plan don’t be shy girl!
Yep. Me too. Odd for that snake to come out of hibernation.
The revisionists are coming out their hidey-holes, claiming that the US (or “we”) liberated a country and sent a vicious dictator packing. No care for the women and children who got driven out into the desert, five million people who had to go — somewhere, a million dead, the midnight house raids, the kidnapping, imprisonment, random killing, torture, rapes, disruption — “it is still too early to fully judge.”
Splitting infinitives is the least of your problems, Ms. Rice. The idea that future will somehow absolve crimes of the past is not a valid theory of justice. It doesn’t work that way. You do the crime, you do the time. And your time, Ms. Rice, is here and now. We find you guilty as charged.
“ultimately this is a story that will be written in history,”
We can’t wait for history, killer, so we’re writing it now.
Demi don’t let Bush and Obama sour you on all men I hope if I go to Cali for introductions to cool ladies:)
Grrrrrr. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Microsoft? Just got back on after one of those stealth shut down/restarts for updates.
Hey ratfood – your comment makes me think of one attributed to Lenin – “A capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with.”
Makin’ a profit is all that matters./s
The Bushies were revising history from the moment he set foot in office. Never tell the truth when a lie will do.
Know Buddhau you around I might need a dream interpreted as a favor and your the best myth guy I know since SpiderPaws left?
Bush and Obama have soured me on politics. There’s a long list of guys who have soured me otherwise. You, on the otherhand, that’s a different story.
x2
Rat Condi can’t sell this shit unless we get Ossama’s head on a pike. Odds on remote controlled planes getting a cave dweller?
The trick is to have LOW EXPECTATIONS.
Ah yes! I remember reading River back when. Excellent writer and had a few viewpoints I was surprised to read of. Kind of reminded me of the comickal book Love & Rockets in that I read that back during the wars in Central America and through that book, saw that the people there (Even though the L&R characters are Mexicans) did more than just fight, starve and curse the gringo. The book transformed them from the two-dimensional figures I saw from reading the news into fuller human beings. River did much the same for Iraqis.
Hope she’s doing well these days.
Speaking of guys who haven’t soured us on politics *heh*…How’s it going in the world of Jerry Brown campaigning?
Cool! its all I ask now I hope I get to Cali:) Still eCHAN choices for me would be interesting you and me are on the same wave length most of the time eCHan I think gets me but doesn’t understand me.
From the start of the industrial revolution the mega capitalists had everyone in this country by the short-hairs. The Great Depression diminished their influence slightly, then everything was poured into the war effort. There was a brief shining moment after the war when jobs were plentiful and unions had brought a little power to workers that it appeared we had achieved some kind of balance. Probably an illusion even then but now it is again impossible to ignore the fact that the oligarchs control everything.
I hope she’s doing well, too. I hope she didn’t end up becoming a hooker in Syria, as was the fate of so many Iraqi exiles. Or dead at the hands of the Mahdi Army or a similar faction.
Fear the worst. Those neocons never seem to do anything that’s not wrapped in dubious intentions.
Ouch. You just articulated what I was trying not to let form in my brain.
No, please, no.
They don’t care about selling their lies to everybody, just those willing to play along (like Big Media) and the most gullible segment of the population (aka Republican voters) that are easily baffled by bullshit.
i think so too
the global oligarchs hold all the cards
And just because I can, and because we need to lighten the mood a little (yes I’m going OT in my own thread): http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
Well, that and she’s on the opposite part of the nation. I’d love to meet up for coffee when you get here. But, you know, my dear perfectly loving husband is the highest bar.
PS, the latest poll, today, shows Jerry is up by one more point over Whitman. That’s only one poll though. They all seem to be a little different.
Here, read this instead. Sorry for bumming you out.
the media is in on it…they are the snake oil SALESTEAM
Econ no I do that at bars getting drunk helps I want a sober women who can match me and Demi well I trust her to know my type we have argued and made up respecting each other saying sorry for hurts for her not to know my type .
Crap I just pressured Demi with high expectations look Demi I maybe Mexican but I hate Hispanic music I grew up listening to OZZY and Skinard.
I won’t hold it against you if any girl you show me doesn’t work out but I do expect you to show me so I don’t waste my time on every girl.
There always has to be a bogeyman to help frighten the herd into submission. If Osama did not exist it would be necessary to invent him… which is exactly what the Reagan Administration did.
and Kinda Sleezey still makes me hurl chunks,just sayin
I doubt there is enough money in SS to bail them out of the next crisis.
Sadly nice to see you:)
Doncha wish they actually had a liberal bias?
Pats and scritches to horsie, Baz and the gang. :)
Hey, all, I have to go hit the hay. Be excellent to one another and don’t touch the birthday cake I have sitting cooling on the counter! I haven’t even frosted it yet!
YEAH !!! How on earth did Rice con her way back onto the media’s plate?? SHE’S A WAR CRIMINAL !!! GET THIS BITCH OUTTA HERE !!!
same here pal
Niters.
thank yee
Ratigan nails it,sez the UNSPEAKABLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjkQULrGeqI
Rat its a Ponzai scheme tumbling were I smarter I could tell tell which Ponzai scheme would break the banks.
g’nite pw
she met with Obie today in the oval orrifice
cause she was so gooooooooooood at national security
x2
they are too big to Break,so the insiders just keep stealin
Country wide crud…settled with the SEC todays Friday news dump
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Oh boy. I guess I’ve got my marching orders. I’ll be thinking about it. Put my thinking(comesundone) hat on.
But, for now, I think I’d better hit the hay.
Nite all.
Glad to see you as always like Demi we fight but its about ideas and we respect each other after words. You make me think granted sometimes much later.
Demi does the same thing but we verge on the personal we know each other too well.
X2 translate please?
nite Demmers
Oh…haha, lol – yes, I needed that!
The drawings are surpringly effective, given how crude they seem – but she gets her point across. Except, of course, I thought she was a boy until she mentioned having to put on a dress for grandpa’s birthday party.
Still…fun-nee.
Always nice to hear someone speak the truth and simultaneously disheartening knowing it will never gain any traction.
Thanks – that’s where I was for the long silence….
Niters demi.
g’nite demi
I’m glad to see Sadly — and you, of course.
Nite Demi no pressure but I might be moving to a strange place and honestly who knows me better there than you?
I am not expecting miracles but even if all fails a point to the right direction where Lefties hang out my age.
Rice is also the most UN-accomplished Secretary of State EVER! Srsly, did she accomplish anything during her tenure there!?!!? Not to mention completely missing the signs of 9-11 as National Security Adviser and hugely overestimating the Soviet economy under the elder Bush (She thought it was briskly expanding when it was in fact contracting).
LOL. God of Cake. I can soooo relate.
Seein’ you later, girlfriend. Sweet Doggy Dreams. I take cues from my Brindle. The big intake breath, and the huge sigh out. Helps me fall asleep. Know what I mean?
Rat if nothing else the Spanish have taught us when there is no hope survive then kill the fucks when they are weak.
I got a birthday present today – a temp assignment for a month or so, at slightly better pay than the last one, no phones to deal with, and close to my house. As someone who hates getting all tense from traffic even before I get to the job I don’t want to spend the day doing, what more could I ask?
Suze, you do anything special for our birthday?
Nite, Suz. BTW, folks…have we sung Happy Birthday to our BDay Girl yet tonight?
Nice to see you too you have been carrying this and the last thread you got eCHAN to open up heck I normally can’t get that intelligent girl too do that. Though I try:)
Weeeeelllll, she did come up with the phrase, “Who could have anticipated…” And she also found a pair of sassy dominatrix boots.
hippo birdies two ewes tejan. of course i do…. the party starts in less than an hour!
You too? All best wishes to you.
they were aghast!,mucho pearl clutching!
Actually, I suspect she met with him because Robert Gates will be calling it quits after the midterms. It is now written in stone that the Secretary of Defence must be a Republican, regardless of what party the President belongs to. You can see this one coming from miles away.
eCahn is an economist. We were taught to be analytical. It takes a while to shed the chains.
Happy Birthday, birthday girls!
Suz Cha! ask now and it will be yours if I have any Pull up there:)
Thanks, demi.
Suze – drat — not sure I’ll be awake for the party…didn’t sleep well last night (not sure yet I’d snag the temp job…little things like that are killin’ my sleep lately) and I’m starting the fast fade.
AFter all, I’m almost officially old…just one more year til I can collect half as much SocSec as I’d need to live. Starting to see a little gray on top of the head, too. Yeesh. Birthdays just aren’t what they used to be.
good eve econ!
The truth is SO radical it mustn’t be spoken at gatherings of civilized sheeple.
Time for me to mosey. Splendid evening to all.
YES YES YES
Going for a smoke be back later:)
Gotta get myself some pearls, just so I can clutch for emphasis once in a while.
Aw dude!!! That phrase has become such a cliche!!! It so perfectly expresses Rice’s wide-eyed wonder at how things could have gone so very wrong.
best dreams,and pecks to FFF…fine feathered friend
Just another worthless, contemptible, self-justifying Bushco sociopath. Go to hell, Condi.
Happy B Day Girl ask for something and hopefully the good vibes of the Lake might deliver:)
smelling salts stat…………………..oy
Niters, rat, and pecks to Bob.
definately!!!
well………yes
g’nite rat
Teehee. Misunderestimated is my personal favorite if we’re talkin’ crappy language that spilled from the lips of that administration.
Although known unknowns and unknown unknowns was pretty spectacular.
Thanks…guess we need somebody to conjure up cake (maybe a little more sophisticated version than Hyperbole and a Half’s)
glass of bubbly for the birthers….oops birthDayers
http://media.nj.com/hg_impact_entertaining/photo/sdc11017jpg-49cebb6e45b32286_medium.jpg
chocolate ALWAYS works for me…..always anyways….G
if only there was chocolate champagne….
Hiya All!
Just watched Bill Maher …well!
Oooh, maybe this one instead. (I actually had this once, made by an actual Hungarian woman. MMMMMMmmmmmm)
link doesn’t work :(
hahahahahahahahaha
but there are chocotinis
Mmmm, yummy. Glad you corrected yourself, there, honey.
I didn’t bother with cake this year – but I did treat myself to Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream. Which is by far the best damn supermarket ice cream in the world.
here ya go
http://images2.vialuxe.com/Jewelry/ZoomImages/MIKIMOTO_grandeur_1.JPG
Hmmmm. It’s pretty long, maybe I cut off part of it. Trying again.
I remember listening to an interview, not 2 weeks after the election, where war criminal Rice predicted that with very few exceptions Obama would adopt and continue most of the Bush/Cheney policies on Iraq. I never thought a neo-con war criminal could tell the truth about anything. A week later I heard Chomsky predict the same thing. Man, was I wrong.
chocoTINI
http://www.thoughtfullysimple.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/choc-kiss-martini.jpg
that worked…. my stepdad, a hungarian born and austrian trained baker, makes the best dobros…. yummy yummy!
omg!!!! heaven
im coming for a visit………..okay??????????
mom and steve retired and are now in az.. we will have to head there
i’m way overdue for a visit
Mmmmm, you lucky girl, you!
What the heck is in a chocotini? I’m allergic to juniper (gin — from ginevre which = gin) so avoid martinis. Looks good, tho…well, it is chocolate. *g*
Are those black pearls? Very unusual in clutching circles.
vodka,and godiva chocolate liqueur……
Self edited
black and white,and some…………….sparkle farkle
Heh. Maybe this is a clue: “GOP is already picking the drapes,” Oct. 13, 2010
Meanwhile, “Statue of Liberty Channels Lightening!” … isn’t this great for us?
Nighters all …
i have no idea.. i rarely drink and have never tasted either a martini or a chocotini… sure sounds good tho
eek Az…lets see how the election goes………………..G
Err, that was supposed to be “ginevre = juniper”
Vodka and Godiva liqueur? Sounds passable, as my dad might have said…tho
‘ not about a chocotini (he drank the original kind).
Y’know, I think I’ve had too much Dobos torte; feeling full and sleeeepy…
Keep that party from getting too far out of hand, and I’ll catch you all later. Good night, everybody!
you must…..so very delish
g’nite tejan.. hippo birdies hon
Back atcha! ; )
(dare I say that? Meant in the best good humor)
Til next year, Suze.
Didn’t know Things was sensitive to such things.
absolutely!
gnite
A dream interpreted? Sure, I’ll give it a shot.
Or maybe I should say, explored. It’s not like there’s a Waking to Dreaming dictionary somewhere.
Fair warning: I’m not a counselor. But I attended a seminar at Esalen back in ’04 (the centenary celebration of Campbell’s birth) that featured a couple hours on a method called dream-tending, taught by the president of the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Whatshisname Eisenstadt.
Come to think of it, I stayed at a Holiday Inn in Monterey at the time, so we’re good to go. I’m ready with the sacramental herb when you are.
I had my first ever vodka martini with a giant olive, just last summer (oh that evil younger brother). Watching the sun set on the Bay of Fundy with this was my idea of heaven.
g’nite mzchief
sweet dreams!
Why isn’t Condi behind bars, along with her enablers?
try an assortment in very good vodka…yum
http://www.savorsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/WarmOlives1.jpg
Late to the thread, but I wanted to add my feelings…..I’ve checked Riverbend over the years to see if she might have found a way to communicate since her family left Irak. Always sad to see her last post. I’ve prayed (and I’m not much for praying) that she and they fared well. Bless us all in this troubled time.
My fav — olives!
well its one,guess ill go semi hybernate…nite all
amen….nite
Just thought of what I can ask in return. Earlier, I was trying to find out if Maddow has ever mentioned the National Endowment for Democracy in all this high dudgeon over foreign influence on elections. Um, isn’t that our MO? It’s OK if you’re America? I’ll bet the rest of the world is enjoying this, esp. in the nations we’ve jacked. It’s as if we’ve never done the same.
Do you happen to know if any of our liberal media darlings have mentioned that NED is nigh on mandated to interfere in foreign elections? Can’t recall the name, but I think there’s another one, an Institute of something or other.
Oh and who’s this SpiderPaws? And, am I talking to myself over here?
Because one of her enablers currently occupies the White House?
Riverbend shows the Iraqi tragedy that can never become a triumph.
Condi lies because she has an oil tanker named after her, she is a shill for all things oil addiction, she is a warmonger, and a lifetime member of The Chamber of Corruption.
But there is chocolate wine!!!!
I’m a little late to this party as I worked late last night and had to be at work early today. I read Baghdad Burning almost from the beginning. Once in a while River would reply to emails-at least mine-she might have replied to others more often. I think about her often and wonder what became of her. The last time i contacted the editors of her book they had not heard from her either. I still send her an email from time to time. They are never returned but there is never a response either.