Rice in diplomatic rush ahead of Mideast talks

[rodeodance]

Source: afp

Rice in diplomatic rush ahead of Mideast talks

by Ron Bousso 38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday as part of last-ditch efforts to bridge differences with the Palestinians ahead of key Middle East peace talks.


As President George W. Bush said he was "personally committed" to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his top diplomat held one-on-one talks with Livni over lunch at her private residence in the US capital, a senior Israeli source told AFP.

They were seeking to hammer out differences over a document to go before the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which seeks to kickstart the Middle East peace process virtually frozen for seven years.

Rice was later to host talks about the document over dinner with Livni and the chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmad Qorei, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071125/pl_afp/mideastdiplomacy_071125212033;_ylt=AiI.Bt_pYUlTBnIE.dW9AKas0NUE

[ixion]

1. Rice is worthless, and has zero credibility

just sayin'...

[okoboji]

4. remember way back.......

when they were saying that Rice could run for President? Guess that didn't work out so well.


Has any of his cabinet members served any real purpose?

[gateley]

7. Even when he had Powell who COULD have contributed greatly, he (Powell)

was restrained and coerced.

[stevedeshazer]

2. This whole thing is preposterous

George W. Bush, in seven years as President, has never set foot in Israel, Palestinian territory, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, nor any country in the region save Iraq, where he showed up a couple of times to deliver rubber turkey in the Green Zone.

Condi Rice can probably rush to Dubai to buy some new shoes, but to think that the least effective Secretary of State in my lifetime can pull an eleventh-hour miracle and bring peace to the Middle East while supporting the American Empire vision of PNAC is a joke.

[rockybelt]

3. Bush

does not want peace in the middle east. That would screw up his whole agenda. That is why he never set foot in any of those territories. he is giving lip service only to try to save his "legacy".
Rice is as worthless as tits on a boar hog for sure. Maybe her girlfriend disagrees, I don't know.

[dogfacedboy]

13. Bush won't go near the Middle East because

the likelihood of him taking 3 or 4 to the head is extremely great.

[C_U_L8R]

5. lecondel !!!!!

mere thought is preposterously hilarious.

lecondel !!!

lecondel !!!

[louis-t]

6. First, people you are diplomatizin' have to respect you.

Negotiations are fruitless without this. No one in the world gives any credibility to anyone in this administration.

[gateley]

8. She's merely a messenger - and the message she relays is never welcome by

the recipient. Plus, I'm sure they don't believe what the administration is telling them, any more than we do.

[laststeamtrain]

9. "Can Rice save her legacy with 'Hail Mary' pass on Mideast?"--Strobel/McClatchy

<snip>

If the Arab world remains distrustful of Rice and the administration, she's also less than universally popular in the State Department, where many foreign and civil service officers say she's failed to provide support for the deployment of hundreds of diplomats to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The frustrations blew up at a meeting last month. Instead of facing her critics, Rice sent the director general of the Foreign Service, Harry Thomas, to field complaints about ordering diplomats to Iraq. (Volunteers later were found before the Pentagon stepped in to fill the slots.)

A recent poll by the American Foreign Service Association found that only 12 percent of its members think Rice and her team are "fighting for them."

"There's significant frustration within the Foreign Service," association President John Naland said. The feeling is "our leadership in general doesn't appear to be looking out for us," he said.

<more>

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/22030.html
*

Her own people thinks she's lame.

[Javaman]

10. "personally committed"...

how about just committed

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. It's final exam time but Condi's still weeks behind on homework

It's too late for her to play catch-up- that's what ya get when ya play hooky all semester!

[gratuitous]

12. That was the exact analogy I thought of

You're not ready for the differential calc final when you haven't cracked the book until the night before the exam. But Dr. Rice will solve the Middle East in a half day summit, by gum. I don't think many people are taken in by this pose, but it's astonishing how many of these talking chuckleheads on the teevee seem to think that it just might happen, because Dr. Rice herself said that failure is not an option. Oooh, chills! Like something out of a movie, or something.

[yellowcanine]

14. Rice does not know wtf she is doing. The first rule for having a successful summit is to have the

major stuff worked out ahead of time. It these were open ended talks with no time limit it would be a different story - but to set up multilateral talks like this with nothing worked out ahead of time is a formula for failure.

[Javaman]

15. This is nothing more than holiday wrapping paper on a pile of shit*. nt

[HuffleClaw]

16. calling what rice does 'diplomacy' is like calling rape foreplay

considering the level of complicity between the bush administration and israeli aggression its a wonder anyone has the stomach to sit at a table with them