BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

I don’t believe anyone is going to buy into Condi’s assurances that the Bush administration isn’t going to put a strangehold on future presidents by tying the U.S. to Iraq for as long as possible.

According to an NPR report

Rice said the Bush administration is not seeking to set up permanent bases or commit the U.S. to defend Iraq in the future, but members of Congress said there have been different signals coming out of the administration. By the end of the day, Rice was also grilled on whether she lied in the run-up to the war.

In both a Senate and a House hearing, Rice was asked to go on record to explain what sort of commitments the Bush administration is planning to make to the Iraqis. Administration officials are set to negotiate an agreement to give legal cover to U.S. troops based there and to guide the relationship.

“This is not about permanent bases, this is not about undertaking security assurances to the defense of Iraq,” Rice said. “But it is about a long-term relationship with Iraq that would help Iraq be a stable and good neighbor in the region.”

When it comes to Iraq, shouldn’t we take anything that comes from the Bush administration with a grain of salt?  The Center for Public Integrity has cited Secretary Rice with 56 lies that led up to the present war.  Of course, Rice denied the charges by saying that she never knowingly lied.  Well, if there is one thing we all should know by now, it is that memory loss or lack of understanding is the disease of politicians.  How many times have we heard any one of them say, “I don’t recall”?

The past lies aside, it does present us with a pattern of behavior that is suspect under the best of conditions.  With the administration operating under the Cheney rule of law, we must not be lulled by pledges of honesty or hollow reassurances.  Like John McCain on the waterboarding issue, the Republicans seem to have a tendency to talk one talk and walk another walk. 

Let’s not settle for the Bush administration making agreements on troops tenure in Iraq this late in his game.  This is an issue that should be brought before Congress.  We can’t trust Secretary Rice or the Bush administration on this one.