Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(February 2005)
An ex-Brit gives his views - (without
fear or favor) - of the American Scene
The
partial disintegration of the Bush Administration Cabinet:
 A number of the members of the Bush Cabinet
tendered their resignations at the end of the President’s
first four years in office, (which by itself is not
unusual), and I would suggest that one of the most
notable figures to resign was Secretary of State Colin
Powell, a man who practiced quiet diplomacy with dignity
and was considered by most world leaders as a man of
honour.
President Bush chose Condoleezza Rice, the current Presidential security advisor,
to supersede Colin Powell. Ms. Rice was finally confirmed after a three-day,
gruelling question session by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with 86
members voting for and 13 members voting against. Senator Boxer of California
and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware were two particularly antagonistic members
of Senate committee in the question and answer session, which finally led to
the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State.
Note:
Senator Joseph Biden is the very influential ranking member of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and is also the Democratic Party’s Chief spokesperson
on National Security and foreign policy issues.
 One
particular question and comment by Senator Biden sticks
out in my mind. Senator Biden requested that Ms. Rice
admit that the current figure of one hundred and twenty
thousand fully trained Iraqi soldiers, capable of defending
the New Iraq, (as quoted recently by Secretary of Defence
Donald Rumsfeld), was a false figure. When Ms. Rice continued
to defend the Rumsfeld assessment, Senator Biden stated
that he had recently visited Iraq and he had estimated
that the number of fully trained Iraqi soldiers capable
of putting up a limited defence of the country to be
in the region of around four thousand. Senator Biden
then went on to say that he would guarantee that his
figure was a more accurate estimation than that of Secretary
Rumsfeld, and that Secretary Rumsfeld obviously did not
know what he was talking about.
Question:
Senator Biden, how come it has taken you and the members
of the Democratic Party over three years to finally
do the job that you and your democratic colleagues
were elected to do, that is to be a good opposition party and challenge the
dictates of the President, Vice President, the Bush
Administration entourage, and the Republican Party
as a whole, when it can be proven that the actions
that they are proposing to take are not in the best
interest of the American people?
Comment:
 I cannot see Ms. Condoleezza Rice being able to function
with any degree of success if and when she comes
into diplomatic contact with high ranking powerful
people who live in very male dominated Islamic societies,
considering her full and complete support of what
turned out to be mis-informed and false reasons
given by President Bush for going to war with Iraq.
With regard to the question as to how the new Iraqi
army would perform if they were left as a go-it-alone
defence force, I would suggest that the current small
number of fully trained Iraqi soldiers will fade
into the background and disappear into oblivion,
as they will certainly not be able to establish any
degree of law and order in such a violent country
without the full support of American and British
forces for many years to come.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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