Condi Rice, From Black Boots to Ambushed on Iraq, Allure Fades

By Janine Zacharia

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, riding high after his re-election two years ago, tapped his confidante and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to chart an ambitious, second-term foreign policy as secretary of state.

In February 2005, Rice, already the star of the Bush cabinet, described for reporters on her maiden cross-Atlantic trip as secretary ``the tremendous opportunities ahead of us,'' including spreading ``freedom and liberty to places they've never been.''

Two years later, few of those goals have been realized. Iraq, and possibly Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, are sliding into civil war, Iran is pursuing its nuclear ambitions unchecked, Russia is ignoring demands for political and economic openness, and China is building ties with U.S. adversaries.

Rice's public approval rating is slipping, and she is getting more of the flak for the prosecution of the Iraq war than ever before.

``Condi is seen as being the loyal implementer of the president's policy priorities, and as a result she's getting the same kind of treatment as her boss,'' said Lee Feinstein, a former State Department policy planner now at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Last month, that new criticism was evident as Rice was pummeled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while trying to sell Bush's troop-increase plan for Iraq. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, even questioned whether Rice, 52, was capable of a wise decision in Iraq because she is childless and won't suffer a personal loss.

Iraq Hearings