Rice in Chicago

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Chicago and spoke before an overflow crowd at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

Rice on Iraq, Tribune here:

"This is how democracy will conquer terrorism, but it will do so gradually.""Americans must be prepared for violence to continue in Iraq, even after a government is formed. There will be no Iraqi equivalent of V-E Day or V-J Day," Rice said. Those are the days of Victory in Europe and Victory in Japan in 1945. "Rather, peace will be secured as more and more Iraqis recognize that the democratic process is open to them and that politics, not violence, is the best way to achieve their interests and redress their grievances," she said.

Rice on Iran:

The U.N. Security Council has issued an April 28 deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment. But council members Russia and China have resisted punishing an important trading partner. "You know that there are states that have been saying if we don't get meaningful measures inside the Security Council, perhaps a coalition of the willing will think about other financial or political measures that could be taken," Rice said. Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes such as generating energy; the U.S. has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons.

(As we know all too well, Iran is awash with oil, it does not need nuclear power.)

Rice on India:

Rice touched on the administration's plan to share nuclear technology with India for its civilian program. She said she often is asked whether such a plan creates a double standard regarding U.S. nuclear policy on North Korea and Iran. "Absolutely there's a double standard," one that Iran and North Korea created by "cheating on their obligations" to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and being "closed societies where everybody worries what they're doing." By contrast, she said, "You have a democracy in India that is trying to move closer to the nonproliferation regime, and we ought to support that.

More on the story from Anne Sorock, at Human Events online blog, the Right Angle.


Also, full transcript here, with Q and A. One last quote from the full transcript:

So when we think about what the Iraqis are struggling with, we need to recognize that democracy is hard. It just happens to be the only system of government that's worth it, when you get to the end of it. By the way, dictatorship is hard too, except for the dictator. (Laughter.) And so when we think about what the alternative is to democracy in Iraq, let's remember the 300,000 people in mass graves or the killing fields of chemical weapons against the Kurds and against Shia. We need to keep perspective on what it is they're doing.

Amen to that. Thank you Condi, for giving dictators a hard time.