Left I on the News

I wrote below about the "investment" part of Condoleezza Rice's latest comment, but here I want to focus on the rest of the sentence:

"This is a country that is worth the investment, because once it emerges as a country that is a stabilizing factor you will have a very different kind of Middle East."

Cindy Sheehan camped in a ditch in Crawford, Texas for weeks trying to get George Bush to tell her face-to-face what was the "noble cause" for which her son Casey died. Cowardly George couldn't handle it, of course. And I doubt Rice could either. But the comment above puts the question to rest once and for all - the U.S. invaded Iraq to "have a very different kind of Middle East." Not to eliminate the alleged (and non-existent) threat to the U.S. (or even "U.S. interests") of alleged (and non-existent) Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Not to remove an "evil dictator" who was oppressing his people. But to "have a very different kind of Middle East."

You may say, oh, we know this, that's the well-known PNAC (Project for a New American Century) line. Many others have said this. But this wasn't Condoleezza Rice speaking for PNAC. It wasn't an assistant, or an adviser. It was the U.S. Secretary of State, a position generally thought of as the second most important position in the U.S. government, speaking on the record in her official capacity. And now we know the "noble cause" for which Casey Sheehan, 2959 other American soldiers, hundreds of other American contractors, hundreds of nationals of other countries, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were "invested." It was to "have a very different kind of Middle East."