Rice: Playground Diplomacy on al-Sadr

During a time when calm and diplomacy may have never been more important in the war torn country of Iraq, when the window of political opportunity provided by the surge is closing, Secretary of State Condi Rice made some rather remarkable comments about Muqtada al-Sadr. In fact, she came close to calling him a coward.

“I know he’s sitting in Iran,” Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr’s latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. “I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him,” Rice said. “I guess that’s the message; his followers can go too [sic] their deaths and he’s in Iran.”

I’ll need to check my references here, but did Secretary Rice just call al-Sadr a chickenhawk?

Over at Middle Earth Journal, Ron Beasely has a few questions, to put it mildly.

Now the American and British air strikes may have driven the Mehdi army underground but only to fight another day. The always stupid and incompetent Rice has just poured gasoline on embers which will flare up even sooner resulting in the deaths of both Iraqis and Americans. This administration is criminally stupid and incompetent.

Many pundits are already comparing this to the now infamous “Bring it on!” comment by George W. Bush to the world’s terrorists. Some supporters of current policy will likely point out that an aggressive approach to those hostile to our interests is required in an increasingly dangerous and violent world. Only history will be able to judge which mixture of diplomacy and taunting works best.