The Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice is everywhere. She’s an intelligent woman, and a superb pianist. Perhaps Dubya appointed her because he wanted to show that he wasn’t a racist. The idle gossip about Bush and Condi having an affair is pure rubbish, but none of these are the point. The point is, why is she meddling in the Israel-Arab affairs? She’s the United States Secretary of State, not the UN ambassador. She’s not representing Israel or Lebanon, or at least she’s not supposed to. America supplies Israel with its arms, and a million dollars a day besides other goodies which cost the US taxpayer gobs of paper dollars. Just because we support Israel, and there are far more Jews in New York and Miami than there are in Israel, doesn’t mean that “shuttle diplomacy” is proper. What right does Rice and America have to meddle in the affairs of Lebanon, Palestine, or Israel? What license does America have to practice “shuttle diplomacy” between nations other than ours? How is America affected by Rice meddling in everyone else’s business? First of all, the Arabs don’t particularly like females. They keep their women all bundled up from head to foot in burkas, so that no one can see them. I can only imagine how they must feel about an attractive black woman representing the United States of America. Whenever the boob tube cameras shoot meetings, she is the youngest, and the only woman who is negotiating. She is in the midst of mature, experienced male negotiators, statesmen, and representatives of their nations. They don’t change their suits every ten minutes. Rice has no experience in government of any kind. Her doctorate is from a minor college, not Harvard or Yale, and she is a classic example of a black woman achieving, and I applaud her for that. This does not give her credentials for being the United States Secretary of State. That job belongs to an experienced, mature, well rounded in diplomacy, MALE. Especially when dealing with Arabs, who look askance at women, to put it mildly.
Remember how John Wayne walked? Was there ever a more self assured, proud, manly man? His every action and movement, represented utter confidence. He was that way in person too. Bill Clinton, Ronnie Reagan, and even LBJ were self assured and dominant. George Bush is pitiful. He looks so browbeaten and defeated. He is. He has dug himself a huge, deep hole, and still says he didn’t. Joe Lieberman may be defeated because he jumped into that hole. Rather than get out of the hole, Bush continues to dig, and make matters even worse. Unfortunately, we seem to be suffering from that hole which we didn’t vote to have dug. Hopefully, those who did will be defeated in November.