You can't exterminate a rat with insults or by daring it to come out of its hole to bite off your nose.

Public speech by officials requires as much strategic planning as military actions do.

I think Rice, like Bush, mistakes insults and provocation for power.
The mistake backfires time and time again, but they never learn.

Unfortuantely, a large segment of Americans make the same mistake, and rather expects our leadership to be bullies instead of peace makers.
It alarmed me to hear Obama make some 'tough stance' statemetns to prove his worthiness as president.

Like Bush, Rice says things to make a stituation worse, takes no reponibility, and moves on to the next disaster. I'm sure we'll be hearing something about demcracy and victory soon.

Six years of uncommon obstinacy has been particularly corrosive to the administration's stated goals the Middle East. In short, Bush's vanity has set Iraq on fire, sentenced the Arab-Israeli peace process to death by neglect, indirectly sparked a nascent civil war in Palestine, and ushered in the destruction of Lebanon.

The administration has played off these crises as the “birth pangs of a new Middle East”, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stone-heartedly said during the Lebanon war, or more recently, as Bush has said of the near-genocidal violence in Iraq, “just a comma” in history.

The “creative chaos” theory that some believe underpins neo-conservative-inspired administration thinking in this regard was explained by Bush during the Lebanon war. “This moment of conflict in the Middle East is painful and tragic,” he said. “Yet it is also a moment of opportunity for broader change in the region. Transforming countries that have suffered decades of tyranny and violence is difficult, and it will take time to achieve.”

Ron Beasely's comment… “This administration is criminally stupid and incompetent.” …summarizes a fact all-too well known by most Americans, yet it can't be repeated often enough while they are still in office.

That said, Rice seems not to think they have quite enough American and Iraqi blood on their hands yet.