Condoleezza Rice has been hired by CBS news as a contributor. Her new job is striking evidence that media elites care more about promoting their business using high profile personalities than straight forward reporting and analysis.  

As Secretary of State and propagandist for the George W. Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice told us, “We don’t want the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud.” 

Her implication was that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons when it was clear that he was not. We should recall that the inspectors in Iraq were reporting that they couldn’t find evidence of a nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, after Saddam offered Bush the opportunity to  send as many inspectors as he wanted to look for the alleged nuclear program, Bush rejected the offer, ordered our inspectors to leave Iraq and then invaded. 

Rice’s propaganda justified the invasion.   

What was the result?

• Thousands of American troops were sent on a fool’s errand.
• Many brave American troops died or incurred wounds both physical and mental.
• Iraqis by the hundreds of thousands were killed and wounded.
• America wasted trillions of dollars on a war that accomplished little, if anything. In fact, it probably made us less safe by creating more enemies.
• We destroyed a secular Muslim country and pushed it toward Iran and religious fundamentalism.
• By initiating an unnecessary war without UN sanction, the invasion showed the world that America does not support the rule of law. 

As H. Rap Brown said, “Violence is as American as apple pie.” Unfortunately, he was correct. Our ingrained culture is to use violence to bully opponents, revenge slights, and to exterminate overblown threats like Saddam. Our leaders often mouth the platitude, “War is a last resort,” while planning to attack and preventing alternatives like inspections from working.  

When crazies murder our children and other innocents, we wring our hands in disbelief wondering, how can this be?”  

The answer should be self-evident. We encourage duplicity and violence by rewarding people who have records like that of Condoleezza Rice.