I'd have thought I was listening to Charlie interview somebody out of the Bush Administration.
Everything Rice said about Iraq and Syria appeared to be either a political sham or the products of invented intelligence estimates. Either way, this is no way to run the biggest war machine on the planet.
-- Rice describes retaking Mosul in Iraq as though US air strikes are the critical factor. This enormous operation is described as depending on "American leadership."
-- No mention of Quds Force, General Suleimani, the Iranian drones, the Iraqi and Iranian air forces, the alliance with the Kurds.
-- Rice states that Iran has trained 80,000 militiamen. She also states that Iraqi Security Force number 50,000. (Both numbers are off by far.)
-- Talk of supporting "moderate Syrian rebels." No identification of who this is, of course. She focuses on a commitment to force regime change -- taking out the secular Ba'athists and Assad -- which Rice says will be timed to take place prior to taking out ISIS.
-- Talk of Iran needing as long as ten years to build an atomic bomb.
The online page for the Rose show is HERE. Rice was up as the # 1 segment. That changes.
Charlie Rose asked Rice to tell us how long it will take to defeat ISIS. The reply is that this will take "longer than one year. Long than two years. Not as long as twenty years."
OMG.... At that point I figured out that I was looking at another Perpetual War freak. Another Richard Perle. A Douglas Fieth.
Surely not a Dick Cheney, but maybe a "Susan Cheney" recast as a Democrat.
What she has to say is as different from what we know as fact as what we heard during the Bush Administration. Item by item details below the orange muffin........