Our next Secretary of State is quite the amoral, inept diplomat
by Bret Stephens
The trouble with a newspaper column lies in the word limit. Last week, I wrote about some of Susan Rice‘s diplomatic misadventures in Africa during her years in the Clinton administration: Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo. But there wasn’t enough space to get to them all.
And Sierra Leone deserves a column of its own.
On June 8, 1999, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ms. Rice, then the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, delivered testimony on a range of issues, and little Sierra Leone was high on the list. An elected civilian government led by a former British barrister named Ahmad Kabbah had been under siege for years by a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front, led by a Libyan-trained guerrilla named Foday Sankoh. Events were coming to a head.
Even by the standards of Africa in the 1990s, the RUF set a high bar for brutality. Its soldiers were mostly children, abducted from their parents, fed on a diet of cocaine and speed. Its funding came from blood diamonds. It was internationally famous for chopping off the limbs of its victims. Its military campaigns bore such names as “Operation No Living Thing.”
In January 1999, six months before Ms. Rice’s Senate testimony, the RUF laid siege to the capital city of Freetown. “The RUF burned down houses with their occupants still inside, hacked off limbs, gouged out eyes with knives, raped children, and gunned down scores of people in the street,” wrote Ryan Lizza in the New Republic. “In three weeks, the RUF killed some 6,000 people, mostly civilians.”
What to do with a group like this? The Clinton administration had an idea. Initiate a peace process.
It didn’t seem to matter that Sankoh was demonstrably evil and probably psychotic. It didn’t seem to matter, either, that he had violated previous agreements to end the war. “If you treat Sankoh like a statesman, he’ll be one,” was the operative theory at the State Department, according to one congressional staffer cited by Mr. Lizza. Instead of treating Sankoh as part of the problem, if not the problem itself, State would treat him as part of the solution. An RUF representative was invited to Washington for talks. Jesse Jackson was appointed to the position of President Clinton’s special envoy.
It would be tempting to blame Rev. Jackson for the debacle that would soon follow. But as Ms. Rice was keen to insist in her Senate testimony that June, it was the Africa hands at the State Department who were doing most of the heavy lifting.
[......]
In September 1999, Ms. Rice praised the “hands-on efforts” of Rev. Jackson, U.S. Ambassador Joe Melrose “and many others” for helping bring about the Lomé agreement.For months thereafter, Ms. Rice cheered the accords at every opportunity. Rev. Jackson, she said, had “played a particularly valuable role,” as had Howard Jeter, her deputy at State. In a Feb. 16, 2000, Q&A session with African journalists, she defended Sankoh’s participation in the government, noting that “there are many instances where peace agreements around the world have contemplated rebel movements converting themselves into political parties.”
What was more, the U.S. was even prepared to lend Sankoh a helping hand, provided he behaved himself. “Among the institutions of government that we are prepared to assist,” she said, “is of coursethe Commission on Resources which Mr. Sankoh heads.”
[......].
Three months later, the RUF took 500 U.N. peacekeepers as hostages and was again threatening Freetown. Lomé had become a dead letter. The State Department sought to send Rev. Jackson again to the region, but he was so detested that his trip had to be canceled. The U.N.’s Kofi Annan begged for Britain’s help. Tony Blair obliged him.
“Over a number of weeks,” Mr. Blair recalls in his memoirs, British troops “did indeed sort out the RUF. . . . The RUF leader Foday Sankoh was arrested, and during the following months there was a buildup of the international presence, a collapse of the rebels and over time a program of comprehensive disarmament. . . . The country’s democracy was saved.”
Today Mr. Blair is a national hero in Sierra Leone. As for Ms. Rice and the administration she represented, history will deliver its own verdict.
Read the rest – The Other Susan Rice File
Tags: Bret Stephens, Sierra Leone, Susan Rice
Any one want to bet that Susan Rice still winds up as Sec. of State?
@ Speranza:
She is the perfect example of what the Obama Administration is all about. She embraces thugs, lies to the American people, and is incompetant. Why would anyone oppose her? They must be RAAAAACISTS!
@ Speranza:
We have enough Senators who haven’t got enough backbone to say no. She’ll get it. And go the way of Halfbright and the Hildebeest. And since she’s Black if we criticize her inept performance we’ll be branded RAAAAAcists. Of course when Condi Rice was depicted as Aunt Jemima by the left, that was “satire and political disagreement.
Speranza wrote:
Hopefully, she is in time for Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro’s funerals.
same liberal theme as usual….
redefine success,
reward failure…
so she screwed up in africa. those blacks arent down with the struggle anyway.
screw em.
/
(africans who come to america begin to really dislike american blacks pretty quickly)
where oh where are al sharpton and jesse?
three black teens murder a white woman.
the race baiting poverty pimps and the media will be all over this in no time i am sure.
all cause she wouldn’t give these thugs a cigarette.
i am sure the national media will be right on this as well
@ coldwarrior:
They look like they could be Obama’s sons
waldensianspirit wrote:
yeah….
compare and contrast with the treyvon martin case.
@ waldensianspirit:
I am so truly outclassed here. But it is okay.
i just know that jesse and al will be here to heal the wounds caused by this obviously racists murder.
@ coldwarrior:
Don’t hold your breath for that one CW.
They are probably busy printing race cards for Susan Rice’s hearing and can’t be bothered.
/busy busy important important
unclassifiable wrote:
Wonder how are unemployment is so high with typesetters, printers and race card builders working so much overtime? ///sarc
Wonder how
areour unemployment is so high with typesetters, printers and race card builders working so much overtime? ///sarccmon jesse! do it in memory of trey!
@ coldwarrior:
Trey who?
That so last year’s shakedown.
/Forward!
maybe 0 can have the widower and his daughter over to the white house.
unclassifiable wrote:
Don’t forget the chick card. You know the War on Women and all.
Speranza wrote:
Of course she will. If you vote against her you are racist.
Storagemanager wrote:
jeeze…that attack is right on time.
coldwarrior wrote:
At this point I must relate a incident that I personally witnessed back in 2005, while in the employe of The Toro Company, at it’s Agricultural Irrigation facility in El Cajon California.
One morning as I got to work, I entered the company break room for my morning coffee. there were a number of employees in the break room also getting their morning coffee, among them was a former “Child Warrior” and member of the infamous Zulu Tribe. At 6’7″ you could say that this man was more than a tad bit intimidating when irritated or angry. One of the other individuals present was the facilities janitor, who as it happened to be, was a “African-American”.
What follows is a rough generalization, with a few direct quotes of the exchange that took place. The African-American was complaining about how the “White” man was oppressing him and that he wasn’t getting his due respect or compensation.
He then turn to the Zulu warrior and made a comment to the general effect that his “African” brother should understand his anger and disgust with the oppressive way he was being treated.
The Zulu warrior told him to quit his whining, he was getting paid a fair wage for the serves he performed, better in fact then he deserved since he was a lazy punk.
The janitor then made a remark to the affect, why would a fellow African brother take the white mans side in this.
This was more than the Zulu warrior was willing or able to take. He walked over to the janitor, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him with one hand a full foot off the ground and held him very close to his face and screamed at him.
Quit calling me your African Brother, we are NOT brother, You are not a fucking African, you were not born in Africa, your mother and father were not born in Africa, your grandparents were not born in African, nobody in your family has even been to African in over 300 years, You are not a fucking African, you are a worthless good for nothing lazy bastard and if you call me your African Brother again I will kill you for insulting me like that.
No, African’s who move to America generally do not hold their African-American cousins in very high esteem. Like the Zulu warrior in this tale I have related, they find the majority of African-Americans to be lazy worthless whining people, people they have little to no use for what so ever.
This is big:
Now, I expect the Illinois legislature to mandate that you have a class that costs $3000 to get a permit, and that you can only carry on alternate Tuesdays, but it is something that the Federal Appeals Court decided this way.
@ doriangrey:
Hah! The Zulu is raaaacist.
@ doriangrey:
i watched a couple nigerian friends of mine do a very similar thing.
@ Iron Fist:
Cool, rumor has it we are poised to do away with handgun registration here in MI.
Little victories to keep our spirits alive until the finale crunch…
@ Iron Fist:
now that the path is clear for the rights of the citizens to bear arms is clear in IL, it is now time for the voters in that state to carry the fight to the finish.
its a state’s issue at this point now.
doriangrey wrote:
i have heard some ‘words’ form my nigerian friends on that topic….WOW!!!!
like the sharks and the hair rays….
coldwarrior wrote:
Apparently life in Africa is, shall we say, a lot harder than it is here. I think we all know that not all Blacks in America are lazy whiners, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of lazy good for nothing whiners, whining and complaining to the wrong people to give the majority a bad name or reputation.
@ doriangrey:
As long as he does not say anything bad about California, he will be OK!
///
Ducks!
How Obama repays
@ 23 doriangrey: That is probably true worldwide. I have met Jamaicans and Nigerians who look down on African Americans in a similar fashion. Somalians maybe the exception who grab onto gang acitivites with ease.
@ doriangrey:
Lest we forget, DG, that Obama’s brother lives in a mud hut, makes the equivalent of something like $12 a year and when he was in dire need of financial assistance he went not to the President but to Dinesh D’Souza.
@ 33 Storagemanager: I thought about this the other day. Why the hell is Obama not getting this guy an immigration visa to the US today? In this case I am all for the illegal immigration of a Pakistani. The guy is not big enough for the big game players? f**k them all then. lol.
coldwarrior wrote:
ROTFLMAO… Muslim Arabs come up with the funnest conspiracy theories. The Israeli’s have been launching surveillance satellites since 1988, satellites are far better at performing surveillance than any animal could ever hope to be. Unlike an animal, you can actual decide where and when you want a satellite to take photographic images or gather other electronic information.
@ darkwords:
Obaam probably considers the guy a traitor to the Ummah…
@ darkwords:
Somalis are Muzzie so they don’t really think like other Africans or West Indian Blacks.
@ darkwords:
Why bother with a Visa? If history is any indicator, it appears his relatives have no trouble coming here illegally and then living off the taxpayers.
Rodan wrote:
No need to duck my friend… {{hugs Rodan}} <—- slips stiletto quickly between Rodans ribs… We're all good dude…
@ 31 doriangrey: In the africans I meet from Africa there is still a family tradition and an education tradition and a spiritual tradition that they all respect in some manner. Slavery stripped that out of the Africans in the US and then LBJ and Drugs sealed the deal on that culture in the US. The best way for a black American to get out of that jam would be to fully embrace capitialism. Individual self reliance against all odds. Very possible to do in the US. The welfare system and social justices systems though are heavy weights around the neck of any African American trying to swim.
@ Daffy Duck:
I thought I saw something on that yesterday -- that the database was antiquated, not useful, and redundant to the federal database? Of course, Wanton the One Ton Blogger got his panties in a twist without checking the facts.
coldwarrior wrote:
I’m not sure I agree with you there. After Brown vs. Board of Education, they didn’t say that school desegregation was now up to the States. Heller and McDonald combined are about the same as Brown. Gun control is a Civil Rights violation. Period. It needs to be treated as such.
@ doriangrey:
Sometime in the future, I hope Hemp could be a successful investment!
Rodan wrote:
Who would have ever thought California would be to conservative to legalize it? If and when California ever legalizes marijuana I am soooo going into the “Hemp” farming business…
@ darkwords:
Blacks have been brainwashed into thinking the Democrats are their friends. Many Republicans after Jack Kemp have given up even speaking to Blacks. I have an idea on how the GOP can make inroads in the Black Community. Make them resentful of White Democrats. Show how White Democrats live in good neighborhoods and go to good schools. Then say, they keep you down, why support them? This would make alot of Blacks think. But the GOP is to unimaginative to pull this off.
If the Zulu had been able to overcome superstition and engage in gun running the Brits would have not rolled over them. The Zulu weren’t adapting fast enough. Native cultures need to find a way to culturally embrace an iPhone and an iPad these days. Transform the arts and crafts.
@ doriangrey:
Hopefully, we will have Government that utilizes hemp one day!
@ 47 Rodan: I think that is true. The first person to speak out on it will be branded a racist. So it should be someone like Herman Cain or Allen West.
@ 46 doriangrey: It’s legal here now. There is a bar in Tacoma where I could go smoke it legally tonight.
Iron Fist wrote:
somewhere things have to become a state’s issue or we will NEVER EVER get DC off our backs.
darkwords wrote:
I support legalization. If the Republicans were smart, they would get behind this and outflank the Democrats. It was the Democratic Party that banned weed in the 1930′s. This could be a good way to make inroads with younger voters. But the Santorum faction has too much power and the Establishment are afraid of them.
We are blowing a winning issue away.
@ coldwarrior:
Well there’s those enumerated powers that of course the feds don’t seem to give a crap about.
darkwords wrote:
Or recruit someone with street credibility in the Black Community. Don’t make it appear Pro-republican at first. Make Blacks strat hating White Democrats.
darkwords wrote:
ROTFLMAO…There is a joke in there between Rodan and I that maybe you are not aware of…
It has to do with Fifth Column Treasonous Media personalities, politicians, Stout Hemp Rope and the Streetlamps that line Pennsylvania Ave, also, some assembly may be required, batteries not included, warranty not covered in the United States of America, and your mileage may vary… 
@ coldwarrior:
I don’t disagree, but saying that critical civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution are really up to the States violates the Fourteenth Amendment. States have no legitimate authority except where duly noted in the Constitution (i.e. you can get a warrent to search houses, papers, etc.) to restrict civil rights. Now, if States all understood this and acted accordingly, there would be no Federal perview here, but I’d say it is easily recognizable that Illinois is one of the worst offenders when it comes to Second Amendment rights. Leaving them to police themselves would be like leaving Arkansas to police its school deseggregation while Orvil Faubus was governor.
Carolina Girl wrote:
gotta start taking them back somewhere
Rodan wrote:
me too.
let the state decide.
@ Iron Fist:
Maybe I should move there and teach classes.
In a related note, I got a call from one of our local TV stations this morning. They’re coming to inteview me about concealed carry training.
Looks like I’ll be on TV.
darkwords wrote:
But wouldn’t you be violating a federal law?
Obama’s Sunni army mad at him
Iron Fist wrote:
sure. i agree. the feds just told the state that they cant restrict this right. now it is up to IL (IL voters) do make the next move.
@ Storagemanager:
What’s the point of a “march on Washington” in protest of a state law?
Other than publicity for Jackson, that is.
@ lobo91:
try not to strangle the meat stick with nice hair who is interviewing you when the inevitable stupid question arises
father_of_10 wrote:
Well, you know what the liberal progressives always say, right? It isn’t really a crime-crime unless you get caught-caught…
lobo91 wrote:
It sounds like he thinks they can force the FEDS to act.
Storagemanager wrote:
jesse! we need you here!
come redeem us from this racist hate crime!
coldwarrior wrote:
Storagemanager wrote:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAH… The Obamanation Administration could learn a thing or two from this article I wrote for my blog… Well, that is they could “IF” they were actually capable of learning. But they can’t, so they won’t…
Why the Obama Administration keeps misreading the Arab spring.
doriangrey wrote:
So you might be smoking dope, but it’s not dope dope.
@ Carolina Girl:
Yes, I think Mi is one of only a few states that still have handgun purchase permits / registration requirements. The advocates of repeal here say that the federal NICS makes the MI requirement redundant, and that redundancy then makes the MI system an additional cost burden to the state.
@ Daffy Duck:
California does as well. I had to take a test in order to purchase and register a handgun and it’s good for 5 years and you have to renew it. I can only take possession of one handgun every 30 days.
At least I thought that was a California law. Could be federal for all I know.
Now it makes sense
The Afghan government is pursuing an ambitious new peace initiative in which Pakistan would replace the United States in arranging direct talks between the warring sides and the Taliban would be granted government posts that effectively could cede to them political control of their southern and eastern strongholds.
If implemented, the plan would diminish the role of the United States in the peace process, but would still leave Washington with input on a number of critical issues, including the terms for initiating negotiations. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Great Britain also would be involved.
The plan envisions ending the war by 2015 through a ceasefire and negotiations in the second half of next year, most likely in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan would help select the leaders of the Taliban and other rebel groups who would take part in the negotiations with the Afghan government. The effort, the plan says, should be conducted “through one consistent and coherent channel,” a measure that would secure a role for Afghan President Hamid Karzai after the end of his term following April 2014 elections…
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/12/11/report-new-afghan-peace-plan-would-increase-pakistans-role/
Daffy Duck wrote:
Silly Michigan people, don’t they understand that their is no burden to great for the State to bare when that burden is designed to protect the Stated from is slaves, errr citizens?
Carolina Girl wrote:
That’s a California law.
coldwarrior wrote:
I’ll sic Leia on her.
@ lobo91:
Here in Kansas we have open carry…and you can leave with hand gun the same day.
father_of_10 wrote:
Yup, pretty much, and besides, the “Hemp” I intend to farm, aint the smoking kind…
lobo91 wrote:
good call.
culpable deniability.
Boy for all the talk about how if people were allowed to join unions they’d be standing in line, they’re sure tipping their hand with these right to work laws.
Someone was telling me how the people at WalMart would be so much better with a union, I asked him how so -- since they would be forking over $44 a month in dues and for the first six months an extra $30 for their “initiation” and the union would do nothing for them in return except collect their “labor tax” and buy themselves some influence. My son is a member of the UFCW and they do nothing for the workers.
Storagemanager wrote:
Colorado doesn’t currently participate in the NICS system. We have our own.
No gun registration here, either. Once you’re cleared by the system, you can buy the entire store and take it home with you if you want to.
@ lobo91:
Yeah, that’s what I thought -- but my oh my the line is getting blurry.
coldwarrior wrote:
The only “Gun Control” that the United States Constitution recognizes, is being able to hit what you aim at.
@ coldwarrior:
She’s pretty ferocious.
Especially if there’s food involved. Someone could lose a finger.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Half the guns--and most of the magazines--I own are illegal in California.
Good reason not to live there.
lobo91 wrote:
safety first!
lobo91 wrote:
<— Looks suspiciously innocent…
I left California in 06…first thing I did was buy and AR 15 and as many 30 round mags as I could find.
Carolina Girl wrote:
They are a managers union. Management loves dealing with them cause they will turn on their union members in a heart beat. Guess which union I belong to? No choice in the matter here. If your workplace is unionized you are automatically enrolled.
the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame is inducting that great r/r queen Donna Summer this year…bunch of phony crapola
@ doriangrey:
Stout Hemp Rope!
@ doriangrey:
Peanut butter, not chocolate.
Chocolate is toxic to dogs.
@ lobo91:
ning.
Be ready for a gotcha question!
Iron Fist wrote:
She is a female Obama.
Chocolate gives dogs worms.
Speranza wrote:
Actually, it causes liver failure.
lobo91 wrote:
Opps, my bad…
Rodan wrote:
Damned right…
@ doriangrey:
Chocolate and onions are two things you never want to give a dog.
@ Carolina Girl:
@ doriangrey:
The best thing that could come of the change here -- if it goes through -- is that there would then be no paperwork for person-to-person transfers, same as long guns currently are.
I’ve *wanted* a handgun, but am never going to go thru the process of asking the police to give me permission to get one…
lobo91 wrote:
Why onions?
lobo91 wrote:
Yeah, when they passed their semi-auto ban, I’m sure a lot of boxes of “car parts” got shipped outta state….
Daffy Duck wrote:
Sadly I do not own any firearms, they all sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in a freak boating accident off the coast of Arizona…
doriangrey wrote:
Same reason
doriangrey wrote:
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…hate when that happens.
lobo91 wrote:
Wow, guess I better quit giving my dog those onions out of the Whoppers when I eat them…
Carolina Girl wrote:
Unions do not give a damn about their workers. They are little “mafias” unto themselves. Trumka is like a mob boss.
@ doriangrey:
Also raisins or grapes.
@ doriangrey:
Yes, sadly firearms and boats to not mix. But, I hope you didn’t spill your drink when the boat rolled.
Daffy Duck wrote:
Funny, now that you mention it, I didn’t…
@ doriangrey:
I think I am beginning to see how your personal Maslow tree is organized:D
unclassifiable wrote:
TV folks are here.
lobo91 wrote:
break a leg!
Well, that went pretty well, I’d say. The reporter is a CCW holder, so there weren’t any ambush attempts.
lobo91 wrote:
Did Leia behave?
yenta-fada wrote:
Mostly. She barked at the camera at first.
Good dog. Something new.
the WH has run amok giving away brand new F-16s to Israels dire enemy…
BO is a disgusting piece of shit
New Thread.
lobo91 wrote:
Chocolate and onions are dangerous to cats and dogs.
For humans, they’re beneficial.
doriangrey wrote:
The only problem is finding enough lampposts.
No wonder why they won’t legalize industrial hemp, even though it contains too little psychoactive component to do anything if humans smoke or ingest it.