Posted on 10/26/2007 7:39:46 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.
Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.
Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.
A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.
"She's trying to draw on the historical record and the experiences of others to see -- see what she can glean and how that may be applicable to the current day," McCormack said.
"She is a student of history and has a keen appreciation for how we can apply the lessons of history, what we can learn from those who have gone before us," he said.
Other sources of advice have been former U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross and ex-secretaries of state James Baker, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. Rice meets frequently for lunch with Albright, whose father taught Rice at Denver University.
Rice has made clear she will devote all her energy in the Bush administration's final 14 months to get what others have failed to attain in the past -- a viable, independent Palestinian state living side by side with a secure Israel.
The top U.S. diplomat, who has been to Israel and the Palestinian Territories seven times this year and returns next week, is preparing the ground for a Palestinian statehood conference expected to be held in late November or early December, in Annapolis, Maryland.
Clinton hosted many Middle East peace summits at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, even in his final month in office in January 2001, but never managed to get an Israeli-Palestinian deal.
Carter held secret negotiations at Camp David that led to a 1978 deal between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
Rice also has been scouring historical records for pointers. During her summer break in August, she checked out volumes of historical background from the State Department's library on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, a department official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 25, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young
Well, I’m sure she also contacted Madeline Albright for input, since Albright’s father was Ms. Rice’s mentor. It’s no wonder everything is so screwed up in our State Dept.
“Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter....”
Condi: “So cowardly losers, tell me what you would do, so I can implement a policy that screams at light speed in the opposite direction.”
We do learn from our mistakes, Right?
Part, in fact, a major portion of why we are in Iraq and
Adfghanistan and other countries today is becuz of these two gutless weasels.
If nothing else, maybe it also confirmed what a hellhole foggy bottom has become and like California , unmanageable by folks who lack the fortitude to take the reins and make good on your own at whatever cost, where is John Bolton when ya need him?
Why doesn't she just resign and put us out of our misery?
Although I support my President all the way, I would suggest that Ms. Rice wouldnt sneeze unless she got her tissue from Bush.
Why, oh why would Bush ask anything of peanut brain? Carter has spent all his Alzheimer credits dumping on Bush.
She is in over her head. The only reason she got the job is because Bush always appoints his friends to office regardless of their ability.
Why give Carter the recognization.
He is a tool of the Marxist and Muslims.
Why not just go check in with Ahmadinejad
and see what he thinks.
John Bolton, please pick up the curtesy phone,
your country needs you.
Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter....
"She is a student of history and has a keen appreciation for how we can apply the lessons of history, what we can learn from those who have gone before us," he said.
Wow!! She had better start studying her history lessons again!!
Yeah - If I wanted to know how to get this peace deal settled - I'd go go the best and brightest too..Mr Peanut and Slick Willy!!
I'll sleep beter tonight knowing things are in good hands now!!
They appear to have gotten their wish.
The mind boggles.
Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.
Someone wake me up from this nightmare. Is it too late to uncast my vote for GWB? Good grief, this is beyond comedy. Beyond BAD comedy!
Heck I went from Condi 2 years ago after a brief flirtation to Kyl until he jumped on the Comprehensive Immigration Wagon, we’ll see next summer. ‘Til then ,, we got a primary season to weather..
No one has a lock at this point.. on either side, no matter what the media tries to portray as a done deal.
Rice is not as smart as she appears.
Everyone in DC is off their meds.
Good post. I agree with every word.
I’m dreaming of an Executive branch in 2008 headed by Duncan Hunter, featuring the fearlesss John Bolton in a variety of prominent roles. Leading off with exterminator in chief of the political vermin at the state department, would be a good start.
Goofy woman needs to be ****-canned, ASAP.
I cannot understand why the administration keeps recycling these nimrods. They always come back and bite them in the rear and serve absolutely no useful purpose.
Maybe she also contacted Elanor Roosevelt.
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