This week, the Former National Security Advisor for the second Bush Administration, Condoleezza Rice, came to the University for a Q&A on American Democracy with the University President. However, as it so happened, Rice failed to mention anything on Democracy in Iraq, a stance which she avidly supported while serving her term in the White House.

In her (former) words on the matter, Rice said in a 2003 convention of the National Association of Black Journalists that, “we and our allies must make a generational commitment to helping the people of the Middle East transform their region.” As it turns out, this didn’t apply to any of the politicians themselves, confusing the use of the word “we” with that of her constituency: people who work for a living.

Rice even wrote a Washington Post Op-Ed on the subject, arguing that, “Our task is to work with those in the Middle East who seek progress toward greater democracy, tolerance, prosperity and freedom.” As it so happens, sending Americans for said “democracy” isn’t the best way to make the world safer (especially since it didn’t work). Then again, hindsight may be 2020, but we left Afghanistan a more “democratic” place in 2021.

Strangely enough, Ms. Rice did not comment on her positions during this conversation, nor did she mention Iraq’s state of democracy. Instead, there were other, more subtle messages gleaned from her talk, such as Russia is bad, technology is beneficial to humanity, Germany’s pretty cool (if only their energy policies were as solid as their elections), and that people should volunteer more. 

The closest thing she said tangentially related to Iraq was that Iran was “known to cause trouble in the Middle East.” Admittedly, at least she stayed consistent on her anti-Iran Nuclear Deal stance. Then again, at least there was actual evidence that Iran wanted to make a nuke, rather than sending America to war over the then-unproven claims of WMDs in Iraq. 

All in all, what was the point of having her here, two days after the 21st Anniversary of 9/11, if nobody was going to even hint at her role in a war that ended thousands of American lives? The answer to that question was in front of everyone on Tuesday night…

All in all, it was an 8/10—the only casualties being my interest and the poetic soul of Muammar Gaddafi.